When a friend of mine asked about a meditation on persistence, in the back of my mind I was reminded of Kipling’s poem “If”. “If you can keep your head when all about you/Are losing theirs…” Great opening line. Of course the rest of the second line is a judgement call; “…and blaiming it on you;”.
It’s funny how often these lines come into my head on so many occassions. For instance, sometimes at meetings. Particularly on those occassions, when meetings lose focus and wander off into other venues other than alcohol and recovery, the solution and how it works. At those times, I have to be careful and not get pulled down into the mass appeal and go to where everyone else is sliding. I particularly have to be careful not to put myself through anger, and impatience, and end up in a burst of self righteousness. I can become intoxicated by my own thoughts. I know, because I’ve gone down that alley more than once.
No, I have to go back to the instructions given to me by my sponsor, and follow his example and that of others, who went before me. I’ve seen and heard him speak out and attempt to draw the meeting back to where it belongs. Back to the 5th tradition. “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,/But make allowance for their doubting too;”. My sponsor could and did.
Having the courage of your convictions. To be able to speak up on a straight line. My sponsor did, when he spoke into a reception of dead silence. He could speak with authority from his own experience and that of the program. “Or, being hated…/And you don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;”. He was always plain spoken and just himself. But, he had a strength and was unshakeable. He seemed undisturbed by what others thought of him.
He wasn’t there to win. He simply was there to hopefully help the sick and suffering alcoholic and in the process, himself. He, too, was there to hear the solution.
Anyway, I was thinking about this poem and my sponsor and his example. I know that part of my task is to share what was so freely given to me by so many others. I also know that at times this is made difficult. I know that if I pray and ask for the power to carry this part of God’s will for me, as I understand it, I can lean back on the examples I have been given. But, I also know I have to be patient and tolerant. I have to know how and where to do that. I can find that by not going it alone, but to speak to others and listen to their counsel.
That’s it. What came to mind this morning.