One of the blessings in this program are people, who will call and talk to me. Even when I may call them, they will often do the same thing. Share their stories going on in their lives. For me it is the source of love and compassion. A spiritual gift I have been given.
I say this because what they often tell me are things I went through in the past and got help with from my old sponsor and a lot of those old timers. They taught me things I so badly needed, which were not always acceptable to me. That’s because it took a long time to learn how to be honest and willing to change. I can pretty much guess what they are going through, and if they want help, I can try to help, if I can.
Once again, I am always reminded of the Serenity Prayer. Those things I cannot change. Like I was back then, I would often not accept the help my sponsor and others were offering me. So once again, in my own life, I learned that time took time. And eventually I was reminded of what my old sponsor told me back when he was beginning to sponsor me. “You don’t know that you don’t know. You only think you do.” A gradual wake up call for me.
I’m not saying that others are as guilty of this kind of thinking that I was carrying around inside of me. Thinking I knew, all the while I did not. Once again time took time for me.
And then I remembered what it was that helped me to change. And that was what started in the Second Step for me: a spiritual way of life I so desperately needed. The beginning of one of the most important relationships, which I started to learn in here, the one with my Higher Power. With the help of my sponsor and a lot of others, I began to learn how to grow along spiritual lines. Again, not a sudden and quick growth for me.
I began to learn what I so desperately needed, that I had to learn that it was necessary for me to learn to live sober one day at a time. And then to not only attend meetings, as much as possible, but each and everyday, if I could. To learn to listen to the old timers and become open to what they were saying. Again, not an overnight event for me. And then to pray and ask for the help I needed.
Anyway I began to learn the meaning of “time takes time”. Every thing took time. And I had to start to become open to my sponsor and those old timers and listen and to learn what I so desperately needed from them. And what was all of that? The very same thing that they all had to learn and begin to practice. I began to learn that I was never alone…and, oh, like myself, we all had to learn how to grow along spiritual lines, and to be grateful for all we had been given.