Isn’t incredible the kind of resources this program offers us? I mean we get the steps to help us to find the solution. We have this wonderful literature, which gives us the directions on how all this works and to which we can refer back to at anytime we get stuck. We get all these amazing results. We have meetings almost when we want them. Most of us have found a higher power to enable us to finally get rid of the curse of alcohol and live a fairly normal life. And finally, we have each other.
This last item, each other, is one the important things we have in our bag of tools. Being able to call or to go to someone other than myself and to ask for help in sorting things out. Whether it’s my temper or just a problem of relating to someone in my family or whatever. Since, most of our problems are just that, relationships, another person, who is not emotionally involved is what I need. Someone, who is like a referee in a game, who can stand aside and look at what’s going on objectively. And since we’re all alcoholics, he or she can identify with our problems, because almost all of us go through the same or similar things. They can give us feedback on what they did and how they did it. That’s a big bonus. Where else can you find such a thing?
Of course, the only problem I would have with such a system is would I be willing to talk to start with, and would I be willing to listen if I did share? The third problem would be would I be willing to follow suggestions made to me, if I was willing to do the first two propositions.
So, with all these things to help me through the difficulties in my life, I find that the only problem I might have is myself. And it all comes down to that. Am I willing to work these steps, which can make my life better? Am I willing to read the directions given to me? Am I willing to go to meetings on a regular basis, which can regulate my life in a more positive way than ever before? And, am I willing to use the resource of the people around me?
I’ll speak from my own experience. I think the reason I have been able to come the distance I have come is directly related to those I have been able to speak to through the years and those who have been able to speak to me through the years. One thing that others have always told me, no matter what my problems and what I was going through, that if I would work the program and practice the spiritual principles inherent in this program, that my problems all would be solved. And guess what? They were right.
But part of the process is to talk to others and empty out all of the junk stuck inside of me. No matter what people told me, I could not take it in if I was stuffed full of myself and my problems. I had to find a way to get this stuff out so I could make room to take things positive into me.
Always I have been spurred on to take advantage of what has been presented to me by this one thought; I don’t ever want to drink again. That and the memory of what happened to make me make such a decision is why. I don’t do this for any altruistic reason. Although, I may become altruistic as a result.
Thinking on a sunny Fall day.