Experience has shown me that there is a solution for everything. Not always the solution I would have wanted, but nevertheless a solution. And whatever the solution, it always has led me deeper into the life of sobriety I enjoy today. Because it was not always what I wanted, which I now know was not good for me, but it was exactly what I needed.
I was thinking about this today, when the subject was once again acceptance.
Surrender and acceptance. I always couple those two words together. My need to do what I learned in this program; surrender. I know that there were many things I needed to accept. I didn’t always like what I had to accept, but the discipline of surrender got me to do that. Always later on I learned that what I didn’t like I grew to like.
The subject reminded me of what Bill W. wrote in a letter to a friend. He said that his depression was triggered by his faulty dependency on people and circumstances. When his expectations of people weren’t met, when they let him down, and circumstances failed him, he would become depressed. Lack of surrender and acceptance. Bill would then pray to have God relieve him of his faulty dependencies.
I thought about our emotional dependencies on people especially. We can end up feeling so sorry for ourselves or in deep resentment that there is a danger of relapse back into our active alcoholism. Self pity and anger.
The solution of course is surrendering to our higher power and praying for the relief that Bill sought. A lesson I don’t want to forget. Doesn’t matter how I feel about it. It’s about staying sober. In the end, it always works out to my advantage.
I needed that reminder today. There’s always something, which will grab my attention and bring me back to the fact that there is a solution. And it’s always spiritual.