I was standing there smoking a cigarette (I do that occasionally when I really want a drink) and thinking about how arrogant I am, looked up at the tree and thought, it would take me an entire lifetime to try and count the needles on it and I wouldn't be able to come up with an accurate count. But God knows exactly how many needles it has right now, along with every other tree on the planet. Puts me in my proper perspective
Very beautiful thought process. When the sun shines and glissens on the leafs in trees in the wind, it always reminds me of a Higher Power shining through.
-- Edited by toni baloney on Friday 3rd of July 2009 08:14:39 PM
Reminds me of how the mind automatically recognizes patterns so that we don't have to examine every leaf on every tree. And when that part of the brain is lost, insanity this way comes.
Great post Glenn...and from another perspective that tree will absorb your cigarette smoke and give you back pure air to breathe. Run outside and give it a hug and maybe every other one withing a mile of your house. Trees you gotta love em.
LOL.... I too thought something "different" from your topic.... like you made your tree your Higher Power..... and of course, that would be quite acceptable, so long as no one came and chopped it down. :o)
__________________
~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
I too thought from your topic title something way off. When I say, "I bonded with such and such", usually it's a wry comment about me running into something real hard. And I have run into a tree real hard (low branch, full sprint, in the dark, drunk.) Lucky thing I only hit my head or I may not be here to tell the tale. ;)
Come to think of it, I too have Bonded with a Tree, when I was a little girl, riding my stubborn pony through the woods. He wanted to go back to the barn to eat in his stall, and took off in a full gallop, and ran purposely under a tree with a low branch!! I leaned over to miss hitting the branch with my face, and fell off sideways, my foot stuck in the stirrup, to be dragged all the way back to the barn!!!!! I probably looked like a trick-rider in the circus!!! LOL Funny memories....... And I still loved that pony even after stunts like that.... ahhh, the unconditional love of a child. :o)
__________________
~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
I too thought from your topic title something way off. When I say, "I bonded with such and such", usually it's a wry comment about me running into something real hard. And I have run into a tree real hard (low branch, full sprint, in the dark, drunk.) Lucky thing I only hit my head or I may not be here to tell the tale. ;)
This is a great thread. To be spiritually awake enough to come to that realization about the needles and their number IS EXACTLY what this whole deal is about. About 2 years ago I had the fortune to see an AA Circuit speaker named Earl H. Something he talked about blew the top of my head off and showed me that there were worlds within worlds that working this program would unlock. I loved it so much that I got his CD and typed out the following word for word. Enjoy!
"...and that fans out into our loved one, our communities, and it fans out all over the Earth. This is the greatest spiritual movement on the planet. Tell me about somethin thats got this beat on a spiritual level. You aint gonna find it! Where the greatest problems in our community become our greatest assets. Thats what happens here. When I was 5 years sober and I was just going to meetings, people would be like, where ya goin and Id just keep my head down and say, Goin to meeting. Alcoholic, could die any moment!
...if we can accept the grace and majesty of whats actually happening to us. If we can accept that we are no longer enslaved by alcohol and drugs as the result of a few simple tools that we pick up an utilize, the power that can come from that is a remarkable thing. If your new and your head is sayin, I dont know man! I dont know, Id say CORRECT! You dont know. Just like I didnt know. Just like everybody else here, when we got here, did not know. But if you just step up to this, right, and have a willingness and open mindedness, and just bring a little bit of honesty with that, you bring that into this, you will find a remarkable path. No dogma! Find you own God, but find him, or her, or it, or whatever you need. Whatever you need. Find this consciousness beyond your own. Allow it to come into your life and just do this thing one step at a time. Come with us, just come with us. We love you! We love you! I mean, theres no question about it. I cannot love and be loved, I cant do it. Im scarred too deep. Im broken, and I love you. I love you for doin what you gotta do to earn a seat at this deal. I know what that means. We all know what that means, so if your new, PLEASE STAY WITH US. Find the magic in this!
Im married, to a girl I actually know! That has not always been the case, Ive been married four times. First two I looked at I was at the altar thinking this is just paperwork. You know, it didnt mean anything, cause I couldnt connect, couldnt do it. But now weve got a house, we bought a house! Buyin a house is a very very dangerous thing for somebody like me. You have a house, they know where you are! Its disturbing to me. Its unsettling on a very base level. We bought a house and Im lookin at the house. It was HER IDEA! We got a house now. We got a front lawn and a back yard. Theres plants and stuff and Im lookin up and down the street. Its like a nice neighborhood with all these manicured yards. Im thinkin I gotta keep this stuff alive because thats how they find you. Nice lawn, nice lawn, nice lawn, dead lawn. THERE THEY ARE! THERES THE ADDICTS!!! Gotta keep it goin, right? So, I get the hose and Im waterin the plants, throwin the water around on the plants. All of the sudden Im lookin through the sycamore trees that line my street, right? Im lookin at the plants and the waters kinda sittin on the plants doin that little sparkley, prismatic thing that the water and sunlight does and Im thinkin, thats kinda cool. Then it occurs to me, you know, I believe the plant life here, this stuff is alive. And not only is it alive, but I believe it is breathing in the carbon dioxide and breathing out the oxygen. I, on the other hand, am breathing out the carbon dioxide and breathing in the oxygen. We got a little thing goin here! Im kinda catchin a little buzz on this now. Its like alright, heres a little more for you my brotha, heres a little more for you my sista! I mean, guy drives by and all he sees is man on lawn waterin plants. That aint whats happening. Theres an alcoholic and drug addict out catchin a buzz with a few of his friends!!! Im gettin into this. All of the sudden, I dont HAVE to water my lawn, I GET to! Do you hear what Im saying to you? You come in here man, you get to marvel in the ordinary. You know how amazing that is? I was out there and was so dead inside I had to have a bullet go by my head to think I had an interesting evening. I could feel that because it was EXTREME. The rest of the time I was just dead. In here you can marvel in the ordinary. You never have to water your lawn, you get to. You dont have to sit in traffic on the freeway, you get to sit an be still, get a little 10th Step workin. Reflect upon your day. See if your house is in order. See how you can best be of service to your community during the course of that one day. If I get to bed tonight clean and sober, I win. I get to live to fight another day. I get to embrace life on lifes terms. Im tellin you guys, if youre new this goes way past not drinkin or using. We catch a buzz in here. The buzz is amazing and remarkable and beyond anything that youve known out there. Heres the big difference in it. Out there the first buzz you got was the best you ever had and you chase the tail of that dragon all the way to the gates of insanity and death. On the way there the buzz gets less and less and the price you pay gets higher and higher and higher. Its the flip side in here man! You PAY up front, you pay big! Get a little bitty baby buzz. You get that 30 day chip man! They say theres no big deals in AA, I say thats the biggest deal in recovery. That any of us get that 30 day chip, that is an amazing accomplishment. Little bitty baby buzz and the incentive to keep goin one more day. And as you move along the buzz gets bigger and bigger and bigger and the price you gotta pay for it gets less and less because as you do it you get less resistant to life on lifes terms. You catch the buzz, you catch the groove and you move through sobriety with a grace and a dignity that up until now has been impossible for people like me and you. What that says to me is that my bigger buzz is YET to come. All I gotta do is chop the wood and carry the water of AA and the next buzz is a little bigger. My ability to love you will increase. My ability to know honor and dignity as a man will increase. My ability to surrender to the God I have come to love will increase. The passion of my life will increase, and when I die a light is just going to go POOF!, cause Im gettin there dude. Im gettin to the point where Ive gotta wear sunglasses all the time because if I dont youre aware of the fact light beams are shootin out of my skull.
Thats what I want man, Im in it for the big buzz, Im in it for the ride and if youre new, come with us. Catch the buzz, get the fire of this thing in your belly and walk the Earth a free human being and manifest that any way you want KNOWING THIS, I love you! I so love you!! Its so hard to break away and step up to this and I love and respect you for it.
Peace!"
-- Edited by cajunhorn on Tuesday 14th of July 2009 08:40:30 AM
-- Edited by cajunhorn on Tuesday 14th of July 2009 08:41:43 AM
