What is this thing that is not a theory and has to be lived? You know, the spiritual life. I guess I’ve been doing it, because I haven’t drank or felt like a drink or wanted a drink in all these years. Yet the very fact of it alludes me.
I was talking on the phone with my old sponsor’s wife yesterday. She has over half a century of sobriety. A very down to earth woman, she never mentioned it, nor did I. We talked about people we had known from way back when. We talked of people we know who are still sober. She’s scheduled for surgery tomorrow and said it was in God’s hands. That was the only mention of anything related to the spiritual life. But, we did talk about AA and the changes it seems to have gone through. Maybe we were doing just that…talking about the spiritual life.
She did mention, however, the number of people who were probably praying for her. After all, she is well over 80 and has all kinds of physical problems. But, she said in summation of the thought of prayers, “it’s in God’s hands”.
In this life, where abstinence from a drink is our guiding force and our guiding light, there is a mandate for us. It’s the words that tell us that it depends on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. I’ve often thought of those words. I mean, what is our spiritual condition? What’s mine? The longer I stay sober, the less I know about that.
In the beginning of wending my way down this path set out for us, I focused my attention on staying by myself and praying and meditating. I read a lot of spiritual books, also. But life kept getting in my way. After all, I had a family and I had to work. Eventually, I couldn’t keep my attention on what I thought a spiritual life was supposed to be. But there was one thing that was a constant and still is; that was going to the meetings.
This morning I was talking to another member and we briefly discussed this and, as we did, one thing became clear, the meetings and their importance in the spiritual life. At meetings we’re reminded. When a new man or woman comes in or someone is coming back, we’re reminded of how important this way of life is to our sobriety. We’re often reminded of how to be grateful. We’re reminded of how important it is to practice the steps, all of them, in our daily life. We’re reminded of how important prayer and meditation is to our lives and our sobriety. We’re reminded to practice these principles in all of our affairs. We’re reminded of how important sponsors and others are to our sobriety.
In the end, meetings alone won’t keep us sober, but the practice of what we’re reminded to do does. To me, I guess, this is the spiritual life.
Anyway, I was thinking about this this morning.