Back a while ago a non alcoholic member of the Board in NY, in the pages of AA Comes of Age, spoke about his admiration of the members of AA, who were sober and trying to live a spiritual life in a material world.
Sounds like a double bind. Here we all are, trying to do just that. Yet it must work for most of us. Like the BB said, it works if we work it.
I don’t know how many sober businessmen I’ve heard, who appear at out noon meetings and state that they’re there to break up the day and get their minds and hearts back into the way of life that we try to lead. That’s it for me.
When I came in, I remember being told that I was to leave what was going on in my life “out there” outside the rooms, and to take what went on in the rooms back “out there”. And that’s what I’ve tried to do since then. Not always easy, but do-able. As long as I try to practice these principles in all of my affairs.
Ever since I found out in the 4th chapter of the BB that, if I wanted to stay sober, I was going to have to live a spiritual life, I have tried to commit myself to this way of life. By practicing the 12 Steps in my life, which is what gave me the solution to not only my not being able to stop drinking, but to just about everything else I’ve had to face.
The problems that have come up in my life spring from the fact that I’m still human. An alcoholic. On the other hand, I’ve learned that I am capable of living a spiritual life. That knowledge came as the result of witnessing the lives of my sponsor and the old timers, who preceded me in the program. That and studying the BB and other literature. Coming to believe in a higher power and attaining to a faith in a God of my understanding. And, despite my failings, still trying to live this program on a daily basis.
The result is that somehow I’ve reached a balance of sorts in my life. I find, despite some stumbling, that I have a reasonable comfortable sober life. The truth is that I really don’t worry about the difference in being human and being spiritual. The material world and the spiritual life seem to be integrated within me. As one old timer used to put it, “I’m a reasonably happy man.”
Most of what goes on with me today, both human and spiritual, is the result of my association with others just like me. That and my association with the God of my understanding. I owe everything I have today to both these sources of strength and grace. And I’m forever grateful.