One of the things that comes to mind often is the word “We”. Us.
My sponsor told me one night, when he went to visit a man, who had not gone to a meeting in 8 years, but was still sober, that he never wanted to take a chance on doing the same thing. He said to me that he was sure that he could not stay sober by himself. He said that he needed everyone in the group to make sure that he would stay sober a day at a time. I know he convinced me.
He really didn’t have to tell me that. I already knew that I never wanted to even try to do what that man was doing. I loved going to meetings and listening to those, who were there, tell what it was that they needed and practiced in order to stay sober. They reminded me of the value of these 12 Steps and how they worked in their lives to help them stay sober. I know that I always have to be reminded of that. (Short term memory.)
Not only that, but I need to remember to stay in contact with my fellow sober alcoholics. To talk and share with them. To listen to their experiences, which I find useful in my life. But even, when they don’t directly apply to me at the time, I find hope and support in my striving to do the same thing. Stay sober a day at a time.
But it’s much more than that. Not only do I find understanding, but I find myself understanding what it is they communicate to a chronic alcoholic like myself. A spiritual connection that I need. Often messages, I believe, from my Higher Power.
That’s more clear at meetings sometimes. I have gone to those meetings with the weight of the world on my shoulders. Weighed down by life, because of my thinking and my character defects. And then, as the meeting goes on, I find that weight lifting and myself relaxing both inside and outside of me. It never ceases to amaze me. I’ve heard so many tell me the same experiences happening to them.
That Unity which the Traditions tell me exists in the Program. United in purpose, beginning with that 1st Step, where it says “We”. The anonymity which guides us to humility, not out of fear of discovery, but in being nothing special and willing to do what it is that’s necessary to keep this Program, on not only the message, but so it will continue it’s life and it’s purpose. All I have to do to share in this with others is to put my personal agendas aside for the good of the whole. Our primary purpose. Singleness of purpose. Alcoholism and the solution for me and others like me.
Anyway, I was thinking about this today. Meditating on the help I, we, get from our Higher Power, to continue to stay sober and help another alcoholic…if I can. But it’s up to me and others like me to apply these principles I have learned in here to my own life, so that I can share them with others and them me.