It’s hard to ignore the theme of this month of November. Thanksgiving Day will soon be upon us. AA supports this subject of thankisgiving in this month. It’s difficult to ignore the word gratitude on any day for me, but I’m especially reminded of it at this time.
I know that when we seem to fall on hard times in this program that others will try to remind us of all that we should be grateful for. I’ve often heard some recommending to put down in writing a list of things we should be thankiful for. Particularly the gifts which have been given to us as a result of our getting sober. Getting sober should be at the top of that list.
I know for myself it’s nothing material that comes to mind, when I think of gratitude. The first thing I think of is that I’m free of the obsession and craving, which plagued me for so many years. That alone is worth an outpouring from me on any given day. What a relief that was when I found out that I could get out from under that burden I carried everyday for twenty years or more. To come to this program and find that there was a solution. A simple solution which I only had to practice one day at a time.
The other thing was that I was given my life back. I always think that the only reason I’m alive is that I came here and was given the gift of life. Like I was reminded today of the words, we were reborn. I should have been dead at the age of 42 as a consequence of my alcoholism. Yet I have all these years behind me and think how fortunate I am to have them. Each day I awake I see it as a free gift I have been given by virtue of this program and a gift from my Higher Power.
Then there is the fact that AA reintroduced me to a God I thought I had lost in all those years in the barrooms and the streets. I was restored to hope and a faith which has carried me through these years in the program. I was totally in despair when I came here. That has all been turned around in being restored to sanity and through the promises.
Through the steps I have found something which I had lost. Me. I don’t say that in an egotistical way. But it is a maddening proposition when you have no idea who you are or where you had been. AA gave me a way of finding myself, maybe for the first time.
Anyway, there is so much to be grateful for that I can only begin to think of what all that is.
Thank you AA and thank you God and thank all of you people who have played such a role in my sobriety.
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