Last night was my penultimate night in Hawaii. Our main objective in being here was seeing family, but among the top hopes in the second tier objectives was the volcano. On our first night here it went ape with twin geysers of lava. However, the event was short lived, happening after we went to sleep and ending by the time we were up and about. We hoped it would have another event during the course of our stay, and sure enough, there was bubbling lava with small spurts occurring on Sunday evening. My daughter and I monitored it and I had every intention of hopping in the car to drive out there should it lose its mind again. I even stayed up late then set a couple of alarms to check during the night. The livestream showed a few minor aereal events, but nothing we hadn’t seen before. Certainly nothing the warranted getting out of bed at 3am! As I look at the livestream at 6:41 local time, there is still a steady flow of lava into the caldera floor. Perhaps we will drive out later on and see, but at this point, it’s probably best to just watch the stream on the stream, so to speak.

In recovery we sometimes have high hopes for something that doesn’t come to fruition. We want one thing, but we have to settle for another. Sure, it’s disappointing, but it’s also the way things go. It is a good thing to have hope and goals, but by and large, a life in recovery is smoother when things don’t reach a fever pitch. We celebrate the positives and deal with the negatives. Sure, it looks like I won’t see the 1200 foot twin geysers that happened as I slept two weeks ago. But in the interim my soccer team has climbed into first place, my NFL team has maintained a solid lead in the playoff race, my college football team has won again, my Dodgers won a second World Series in a row, and my favorite NASCAR driver won the Championship just yesterday. It’s been a pretty good weekend. So even if the lava doesn’t, I will do my best to…

—Rise Up!!