Isn’t it amazing. All the things we can be going through and yet we are still sober. I just had an “old” friend of mine, who had been in the hospital for some kind of ailment and had just been released and needed to rest up. One of the things about that ailment and the period of recovery and rest was a feeling of being down in the dumps.
I called her and we talked for quite a while. I knew exactly how she felt and decided that what we needed was humor. And we laughed at things which had gone on in the past in this program. Our sponsors and their friends, our friends. Things we went through in our journey to get sober and stay sober. Things said to us by our sponsors and old timers in here.
My decision was to cheer her up and to be of good cheer myself. I know I learned that from my old sponsor. Not so much what he said to me, but his actions. I had to learn how to put my negative emotions aside and replace them with a positive attitude. I had seen him do this. Also saw it in others. And, of course, putting this spiritual program into action. Part of that is what I was told to do, when I found myself in negativity. I was to stop my day and start it over. To go from the negative to the positive. Just what we were doing at the moment.
Another part of this is humility. I was reminded of that as we spoke. How I had to learn from my sponsor and old timers about ego deflation in depth. My sponsor and his wife demonstrated humility in their actions and their directions to me. Again, part of what we were doing at the moment.
Anyway I was very happy that we had this opportunity and hope that there will more of this in the near future. It was a reminder once again of why we are here. Why I am here. To stay sober a day at a time. To practice hope, and faith, and love, as a result of what has been done for us by our Higher Power, the program, and all those who have been so helpful. And I hope that what we were doing was practicing gratitude. Taking the right action and giving of ourselves to one another by what was so freely given to us.