These are just some of the ways Alcoholics Anonymous has changed my life........
I am starting to love me again!!
I love that I don't want to cry all the time
I love that I don't worry as much.
I love that I am not as lonely anymore.
I love that I am not as fearful as I was.
I love that I don't feel sick all of the time.
I love having more confidence in myself than I have had in years.
I love that I am smiling and laughing more.
I love that I am not mad all the time.
I love meetings and being around people because I isolated so long.
I love getting some of the "faith in a Higher Power" back, which I had lost (did I hear an "Amen, Sister!" somewhere And just kidding...HP can mean anything to anybody and speaking of that, I love accepting everybody no matter what beliefs they have. I never was able to do this until I started AA.
I love making coffee and taking treats for meetings and feeling like I am helping other alcoholics.
I love seeing people change the longer they are sober. I sure did and I am standing more erect and hold my head up higher.
I don't feel so "different" from others as I have for years, because I have found the way I think isn't all that different from so many other alcoholics. I don't feel like something is "wrong" with me as much as I used to.
I love people now! It was so very hard for me to love or even like anyone else when I hated myself so much.
I love people caring about me. I love the warmth and compassion. I love the concern other people have for me, as I have for them.
I love having more control in my life. I was at the point, before AA, where I felt totally out of control.
I love wanting to live again.
I love being clearer headed and making decisions which are not made with cloudy, drunken thinking.
I love AA's program about how to improve my life by working the steps and bettering my life even more!
And I am grateful for Alcoholics Anonymous for saving not only my life but lives of so many others so that we can all help one another and other suffering alcoholics live longer.
I know I was not able to get sober without AA!
-- Edited by betterthanyesterday52 on Sunday 9th of February 2014 10:06:17 AM
-- Edited by betterthanyesterday52 on Sunday 9th of February 2014 10:20:20 AM
Great post BTY, ... ... ... now I need to go off and make a 'gratitude' list, LOL ... my wife said I should stop complaining about what I miss with our old house and start looking for things I 'like' about our new house .... hummmm ... she does make a good point ...
Thanks for making me give this some serious thought ... love ya
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Good Sunday Morning, Pappy.....
I think everytime I moved from one place to another...there were so many memories attached that I always missed something or some things about my previous homes. And if you saw some of the dumps I lived in, you'd be surprised. When I lived in Dallas, my very first apartment was a roach-infested efficiency. I thought I was going to have to rent out an additional space just to have breathing room, it was so tiny. There were fire ant hills surrounding it and I had to run to my apartment alot of times from my car, as I would get bitten by them. Most of the times, the sorry excuse for an air conditioner didn't work and I would be sweating buckets. The fan I bought just circulated the hot air in the place. It wasn't at all safe, either. Lots of drug dealers and/or users, so constant yelling and fighting were the "norm" and a couple of times someone tried to break in. I slept alot of times with one eye open and had for "protection"--a table knife and a can of hair spray which I "slept" with. Guess I thought I could offer them a home cooked meal to use the knife with and fix my hair or theirs before they killed me. But you know....I missed the place because it was my first place which I paid for all by myself. (Wish I could say that now, but good things will happen, as they say in AA)
Love that post, BTY! You just told my own story! I recall when I finally started appreciating and loving all of those same aspects of recovery myself. It was a huge breakthrough and a milestone of spiritual growth -- especially when I became capable of selfless love. I hope you have all these things written down somewhere and you're keeping them to refer back to often. There will be times when your own written words will help you. Wherever there is gratitude, there is spiritual growth. That's what I'm seeing in you -- spiritual growth. Keep it up! Blessings always, Mike D.
