Just got through talking to a friend of mine and a couple of thoughts came to mind. With the recent tragedy at VATech University, it’s easy to get swept up in all the fuss and furor and the mourning for all the loss of lives. How easy it is to get pulled down into all of this stuff.
We’ve all been through a lot of turmoil during the years. The longer we live, the more we will be exposed to more. These things can provide a distraction from our real purpose and draw us down into places we probably need not to go to. This is especially true in an era of 24 hr. news services. I can well remember what my sponsor said to me about the news. He told me the news was for normal people and I wasn’t one of those. How right he was.
At times like these I have to remind myself of my primary purpose. That’s not to isolate myself from the world around me, but to bring myself back to a firm foundation on which to place my feet at times like these. My first obligation is to not take that first drink and to help another to maintain or find their way to sobriety.
I was thinking how, when things seem so chaotic and maybe even hopeless, that there is help. I was thinking I’m going to pick up my BB and read the Doctor’s Opinion. That always brings me right back to the basics. It reminds me of how it was when I first came here and just what’s wrong with me. It also outlines the beginnings of this program and the promise of hope it holds out to all of us.
How can I forget the doctor’s story about the two men, who were so hopeless, and yet found a way out of their despair and the clutches of alcohol? I love reading those two passages. And then his conclusions about what he found in the beginnings of AA.
Need hope? There it is. We not only get a full explanation of the disease that underlies our drinking, but we are pointed to a way out. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. There is sanity in the face of insanity. I can stay sober in the face of anything. It reminds us that we can change and change is possible for all of us. I didn’t have to remain the same and that prayer is so important. All we have to do is to follow a few simple rules.
Anyway, that’s what I was thinking.
Ahhh…imagining that irresistible “new car” smell?