This is how prayer works.

In the program, we are advised to pray to our higher power (which can be whatever you want: he, she, nature, or a group of drunks--G.O.D. Get it? I'll just refer to it as HP). It takes some of us years to a) accept we are alcoholics, b) accept there is an HP, and c) actually pray to him/her/it. In the past, my prayers have been short and of the desperate variety. They went something like this: "Help. Amen." I was too afraid to ask for anything, fearing I'd look selfish or ask for the wrong thing ("Dear HP, Please hook me up with a new Lexus. Amen and thanks.")

Anyway, the last couple of days after reading Lit, I've been trying something new: instead of asking for anything, I list the things I am thankful for: the health of my children, parents, friends, and bf; Mario's sense of humor; my pets; the fact I have a nice place to live and enough money to eat, turn on the lights, buy new clothes, and go to the movies. I even thanked God for my appetite, that I never starved to death from anorexia like that poor, beautiful 20-something model I recently read about. More than once as I was piously thinking of things to be thankful for, my mind wandered and began constructing the day's outfit or pondering what I'd seen on TV the night before: Why did Dexter do that? It doesn't come naturally to me. Yet. It's only been three days.

After a couple of weeks of emotional dumpster diving, I started to feel better.  And then--with eight years of writing and six months of active submissions under my belt--I get my first acceptance. Coincidence?