Thanks, John for your share. You're right sir, life does involve challenges; but we -with the help of our higher power and groups like "MIP"- can face those challenges sober today, and that's a miracle. So keep sharing my friend, because all of us need people like you.
~God Bless~
-- Edited by Mr_David on Sunday 26th of February 2012 06:40:15 PM
I was thinking this morning, (yeah, I do that from time to time)...
Life, it takes it's own twist and turns. As we move through it, many people will enter and many will go, situations will arise, love will inspire, and break hearts, accomplishments will be achieved, some will not, days will go by way to fast, and others go by way to slow, finances will be okay, other times they will be low, children will be the sparkle in our life, then one day, they will find a husband or a wife, and step away, mothers and fathers will pass, careers will be obtained, and pink slips will continue to be handed out to meet the needs of the economy....
In short, shit will happen. But the most profound message I can share with another alcoholic is that there is nothing that has to change outside ourselves, externally in order for us to get well within. Job or no Job, wife or no wife we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon people ahead of our dependence upon God... Burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone"...(Quotes from AA's Big Book)
Life will unfold, with it's highs and its lows. But we don't have to take a drink, no matter what, provided we let the Higher Power of our own understanding reveal the truth, that a drink isn't an answer to a problem, and the problem will not respond to a drink. It will still be there when we come up for air.
Get through todays hardship without a drink, and tomorrows will be easier to face, and the next days will be easier, until one day... life will unfold with whatever it holds... and a drink will not cross your mind... you will have absolute freedom from the disease of ISM "I" "Self" "Me".
That is powerful John. I really liked that. In terms of life on life's terms - I could not even see what life really was through a drunken haze. I couldn't experience true joy when times were good because I didn't know how to be grateful in a humble way. When things were bad, I never learned from those situations because I was always numbing myself to the pain and I never grew stronger and gained skills to cope.
Hence, through both the good and the bad, life is better sober. In fact, what I had before was barely a life at all compared to this.
Peace, and thanks for your wisdom and all you do,
Mark
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Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
Thank you for explaining that John, there have been a lot of people sharing that phrase at my meetings, but I felt silly asking what it meant. (it's tough being new - I wish there was a beginner's manual that explained a bunch of stuff)
Great share, John. I remember a woman I met at one of my very early meetings. She looked me in the eye and told me I never have to drink again. I couldn't even wrap my mind around that thought then. Now, I know it to be true, if I stay spiritually fit and connected with the fellowship. I keep coming back...it works. :)
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I think there's an invisible principle of living...if we believe we're guided through every step of our lives, we are. Its a lovely sight, watching it work.
Thank you John! Great post. It truly is an inside job. The total opposite of what my mind was telling me when I first enters the halls of AA. The ISM'S- kept me looking on the outside to feel whole on the inside. It was a pursuit with no lasting effects. I had a spiritual hole, that only a Higher Power (God) could fill.
I'm grateful to have a Higher Power in my life today, as well as all you wonder people in the Fellowship of AA.
That is what I will aspire to. I have to keep close to my HP and to my sober support when things are good and bad.