Day 65 - All Around us is Calm

Yesterday afternoon and evening we enjoyed a peaceful barbeque with friends at a nearby campsite.

We were joined by their son and daughter in law, and their two grandsons. It was a fun family gathering.

Of course wine was offered, but no one much cared who was drinking or not - it wasn't the point of the afternoon.

I reflected on how drama free my life has become. Particularly because one topic of conversation was the previous drama -filled camping trip our friends had endured.

This annual camping trip for our friends used to involve three or four couples on a peaceful retreat for a week or so on one of the Gulf Islands.

In recent years they have been joined by family members and grandchildren, so the event has grown into a family affair.

This year was no exception. One young mother joined them, with her two year old daughter and new boyfriend.

A few days into the camping trip, it became obvious that all was not well in this new relationship, and the quiet campsite was filled with sounds of screaming and arguing.

All came to a head one night, the arguments got increasingly violent, and the new boyfriend was ejected from the campsite.

All this of course was fueled by alcohol.

This morning I read Sober Mummy's great post about the lies that alcohol tells you (read it here), and this ruined camping trip highlights one of them......

alcohol is a great stress reliever

I used that one all the time. "I had a stressful day, so I stopped and got wine"

I did truly believe that wine would wash my stress away......

And yet, here I am, over two months without wine, all other aspects of my life has stayed the same, yet my life is so much less stressful....

Could it be that alcohol CAUSES the stress and drama?

Lets go back to our arguing couple in the campsite......

• They didn't scream at each other all day long - only in the evening after a quantity of alcohol had been consumed.
• Despite the supposed calming and stress-relieving qualities of alcohol, no one rushed over to give them a large bottle of wine to immediately consume, and therefore calm down the situation....

We're all intelligent people here. Alcohol can't have it both ways............

I'm with Sober Mummy on this one.

Have a great Monday.

xx.