One of the most comforting phrases are the words “safe harbor”. To me it sounded just like that; comfortable, snug, safe.
When I came into this program, a long time ago, I felt very unsafe. I felt like I was all alone and about to fall off the world. A crazy way of living was all I knew. Although the people sitting around the tables gave me a sense of hope for a security I lacked, it was going to take a long time in the rooms to get what was going on around me inside of me. I had this hole inside of me, which old timers called the “God hole”, and it desperately needed filling.
The spiritual program offered me sounded fine, but getting the hang of it was a little out of my reach. In fact, I found, more than a little out of reach. I struggled, stumbled, bumbled my way through the steps. Bungled is a better word. Prayer and meditation were most difficult, but I was encouraged to keep trying it. Little by little I made some progress, but that inner security eluded me.
One day someone introduced me to a way of meditation. I can’t remember just who, but I do remember the words they used to describe it; “safe harbor”. Safe harbor is really a way of thinking. It entails taking some thought from the AA literature or a daily reading, or some spiritual source and sitting down and thinking about it. It isn’t supposed to be a chore or a struggle to learn something. It just means following that thought to wherever it leads us. The process is like getting into a boat and just letting the boat go wherever it will downstream until we arrive at a point of rest and silence. Kind of like a leaf, floating on a little stream, until it comes to rest on a bank at the end of the stream or along the way. The end, the resting plac! e is called safe harbor. We reach a place where we stop thinking. There there is nothing. Just silence, where we sit listening. When thought begins again, we stop and get up and go about our business. It’s “over”.
The reason I was prompted to think about this, was not to give directions or change anyone else’s methof or way of meditation. It just hit me, and using this method right now, by writing has brought me to this place…safety.
Ned