Where would I be, if I didn’t have this program? New Year’s Eve and we were talking about gratitude and my favorite, the Second Step.
I got a lot of kidding from the members of the group, because I frequently bring up this Step. I didn’t mind the kidding so much, but I wanted the people to know just how serious a Step this is to me. Having come into this program, driven by pain and insanity, it was this Step, which opened the door to sanity and freedom from the slavery of alcohol. A higher power, who would change everything in my life.
That fourth chapter in the BB. Thank God my sponsor kept insisting that I read this. Finally I did. The choice between living a spiritual life or dying an alcoholic death. The announcement that my dilemma was lack of power and I needed a power greater than myself to empower me to live a sober life. Either God is or He isn’t. God is everything or He’s nothing. Reading those pages almost knocked me over. Yet they heartened me.
How fortunate I have been. My higher power; the combination of the people and the God of my understanding. I ran into someone after the meeting, who was having a hard time. As we talked another friend walked up to us and I pushed her toward the other person and said something about her higher power being right here to help her. I meant it sincerely.
How grateful we all have to be for just being able to sit in these rooms and participate in life itself. That’s what sobriety is. It’s life. Either live a spiritual life, or die an alcoholic death. And together we each have a part in being the higher power to one another, by the grace of God.
Tomorrow is the beginning of my anniversary. My gratitude is almost shouting within me. What a great thing it is to be an alcoholic. Only by being an alcoholic could I have the passport to open the door to one of the most wonderful ways of life I can imagine. Yes I’m grateful for the opportunity, which has been given to me. And I heard that from the people, over and over again today.