What interested me this morning was meditation. Of course, first prayer. But one of the things in these moments wasn’t just the Eleventh Step, but the Twelfth.
Something I can’t quite put my finger on seemed to come true later on in the meeting. And that was a new man sitting and being presented with the First Step. And it made me go back and look at the prayer and meditation, which followed. Something about that seemed to have come true. Compassion.
Often, when I think about the Twelfth Step I get this thought about what I have learned in here. First hope, then faith, and then love. Somehow, even though that wasn’t all that clear today, it seemed to be something which was present, nevertheless. Carrying the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. Being willing to freely give to this alcoholic, what was freely given to us. Again, compassion, or love. The same.
And, of course, I later couldn’t forget that I too was given something. I was given whatever it is that someone like me receives, as a result of carrying the message to another alcoholic. The gift of peace and serenity, a new happiness and a new freedom. It seems to occur to someone like me for doing what I should always be willing to do.
Anyway, a lot of those talking to the young man, told him how important it would become to him to remember to stay sober a day at a time. What I always need to remember. One of the gifts I have always found as a result of going to meetings with people just like myself. I am so grateful, which I hope someday this new young man will begin to receive the same gift. The love of others are willing to give to others like themselves. Like the Ninth Step states, the spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.