A friend of mine, I have known for many years, called today and told me that “there are no more big deals”. Moreover that he was going home wearing a “new pair of glasses”. This after undergoing a tough experience.
Again it was one of those situations where he was sharing with me. One of those “a problem shared is a problem cut in half”. Once we get used to the idea of such sharing, we find just how true that is. Another friend of mine and I were talking about this earlier today. It’s just part of taking action in this program, which helps us to stay sober one more day.
And, of course, that’s just what the meeting was about today. Staying sober and living a spiritual life. The solution to what was wrong with me. Being an alcoholic and finding this program and discovering hope and the solution itself to my drinking. Something I had tried for years to solve and never could. It took surrender and a spiritual awakening to free me from alcohol. And it worked.
After our talk it was amazing to hear what he said. He had suffered a big disappointment today, yet was willing to put it aside with those words “there are no big deals anymore”. When I think about it, after having gotten sober at last, he is right. And his comment that he was going home with a new pair of glasses, a new way to view things, was heartening.
We’re not drinking anymore, and drinking alcohol was the problem. Not being able to stop and going down into the pits of despair, buried in insanity. What is anything else next to that? Having had a restoration to sanity, which relieved the drinking situation, I received those 12 Promises and was placed in a position of neutrality, as a result. All of this due to the fact of putting these 12 Steps into my life and committing myself to live a spiritual life. Relying on my Higher Power. Turning my will and my life over to the care of the God of my understanding. And everything changed.
No, he was right. No more big deals. And it’s up to me, just like he did, to stay open minded and open hearted, willing to do what it takes to maintain this spiritual life. To attend meetings regularly and to learn to listen, but also to be willing to share my problems with others. That saying, that in spiritual matters it’s dangerous to go it alone. And what are spiritual matters? Just what he shared with me today. We might say everything. Our problems. And my problems have always had a spiritual solution.
Again those words in the BB come back. The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it. And it’s just a day at a time that we do.