Today was a day where much gratitude was being expressed for what many called the miracle of being sober. I could only agree with this.
To me, as I have said many times before, gratitude isn’t always a feeling. It’s something I know I need to express by some action. Doing the right thing for the right reason.
I learned through my sponsor and those men and women, who helped me to change and finally begin to live life, how to express my gratitude. One way I know to do that is to help another alcoholic, who is seeking sobriety. Giving it away freely to someone else, what was so freely given to me. No one asked me to thank them for all they did for me. They were doing it out of gratitude for what they had been given.
And that’s another thing I learned from them. The action I take, doing the right thing, can be accompanied by humility. Doing something for someone and doing it quietly. Sometimes without them knowing what I’m doing. Doing something that needs to be done and then walking away.
Not looking for thanks.
I know one thing that started all of this for me and is truly the source of my gratitude. That was the Second Step of this program. What began the spiritual way of life for me and is the basis of my sobriety. Coming to believe in a Higher Power. A Power greater than myself. I can’t help but go back to that Step over and over.
Anyway, today’s meeting held a lot of meaning for me. And not just me. I heard a lot of good things today to remind me to never forget gratitude. It’s often been said that a grateful heart will not drink again. So one of my jobs in sobriety is to practice gratitude on a daily basis. And that’s one of the reasons I go to meetings regularly, because I do it out of gratitude. In one way or another I believe I’m there to help another alcoholic like myself. It’s about the miracle, my sobriety.