A friend of mine reminded me of something Sandy B. once said. He referred to the experience in the program that it was like going up in a hot air balloon. The higher you go the better the view. When you go only so high and remain in place the view gets stale. Want a better view? Get above the treetops. Go higher.
She was telling me about a man she ran across at a meeting, who had reached a point, where he was wondering is this all there is. His life was getting stale and he felt what was being said to him was not helping. His view had gotten stale, I guess.
How do we go higher and get a better view? By continuously practicing the Steps of this program and applying the principles to our daily lives. One old timer once wrote an article in the Grapevine about working through the Steps the first time and stopping and wondering what’s next. His answer: work them again and again and again. Always there’s something more we need to do. I know him and know that he has done this for about 50 years or more. He still does it. And his life is hardly stale. He, I would guess, has a great view.
My sponsor told me, when I had said much the same thing as the man above, “Is this all there is?”, that I wasn’t doing anything to continue on with my sobriety. He told me that I had sat down on the Steps and wasn’t moving. He told me to get busy. I did and things changed. They continue to change each day I’m in here sober.
This is not “heavy lifting”. It’s not all that great a task for me. Each day brings something to mind or in my life, which I can always find an applicable Step(s). From One through Twelve there’s always something. And always the principles, flowing from these.
When I was reading her email, I knew that stopping and beginning that slide back, falling down in between the Steps, can be fatal to an alcoholic like myself. However, fortunately for me, I have come to love this program and all it has done for me. I am grateful that I am where I am. I’m sober and it’s just great.
I was thinking about permanent pressed pants. I wash them and dry them, and they come out like new. I don’t know how they do that. I just accept that’s the way they are. It’s like the Steps. I don’t analyze them or the program. I just do it and it works. I accept it. It wasn’t always that way. There was a time, when I kept trying to figure things out. All it did was getting me to run around in circles in my head. The whys and wherefores are for someone else. Not me.
If I find myself getting lazy in the program, all I have to do is remember why I came here. My bottom. That’s to convince me. I need to stay sober. I want to stay sober. And staying sober is not all that hard. Just have to work this program and get a better view.