Daily Reprieve

I suffered a bit of a crash after the elation pf picking up my 9 month tag with my home group.  I usually do – any success seems to send me into a tailspin, and depending on the level of achievement, may activate a time of dark, oppressive depression.  I don’t understand this, but since I am going to die in a few decades, I don’t really care to spend much energy on introspection if I can find ways of outlasting it.  Which I think I have done. 

I go to an AA meeting at lunchtime today to pick up my AA 9 month chip.  My sponsee is struggling, riding sobriety like a rodeo horse, getting thrown a couple of times here, but not giving up.  I have come to the conclusion that success or failure is something that is out of our control.  The only question that I am hit with, the only one important to me as a mortal is, “Are you giving up yet?”  That one question and my answer to it seems to decide the strength of my living.  I give the gift of persistence into the web of the universe.  When I take on a particular focus, life asks me a second question, very similar to the first.  “Are you really sure that you want to do that?”  This allows me to throw a determined focus into the web.  My activities are filtered to those things that I really, really desire.  The cute cuddly little dreams that dance in my mind, that threaten to trouble me like tribbles (Star Trek fans will understand my reference) are ground up into hamburger meat to feed my more robust goals.  And ultimately my impact is felt throughout the universe.  I am no victim.  I have a choice.

As for success and failure, they are really the same thing, flip sides of the same card.  Success gives me some breathing space, a chance to stretch out to the warmth of the sun and become a useful part of my environment.  I am meant to be here at this time and place.  Failure forces my roots to grow deeper, to see and accept change.  It is like the death card in the tarot, it is not intrinsictly a bad one to flip up.  Unless you fear change.  Such inflexibility to life’s terms creates a living rigor mortis.

Also, realizing that success is a gift, an anointing from the energy or spirit of the universe keeps me from arrogance.  The resulting humility allows me to say, we are all in this together.  I remember a military officer who seemed to have it all.  He achieved many of the things I desire to.  He owned a black jeep, a motorcycle, and his basement is filled with an armory.  He also has a son and daughter like I do, and has been able to train them in martial arts, marksmanship, scuba diving, and hang gliding.  He ruthlessly disciplines them and pushes them to excel in academics.  As a Colonel, he has plenty of money.  He is also a lawyer.  Something to fall back on.  He is careful about what he eats, and his body is very muscular, he is very strong.  He is a black belt in many forms of martial arts, including one that deals with sword play and weapons usage.  He is unstoppable.  And so is his arrogance.  He judges others harshly, quickly.  He is secretly despised by his peers, by the great masses that struggle through life around him.  He is a social obstacle.  Only those who entertain that their association with him will somehow rub off on them accept his friendship.  I was one of those.  What I thought was camaraderie and mutual respect from him was actually a kind of pity for me.  He saw my service and devotion to this country as a method of keeping me fed.  I was a stray cat in his collection of human pets.  He took that which was sacred to me, and pissed on it.  He is so very sick, and has almost no hope of finding a cure.  His pride is both a fortress wall and a self-made prison.  He would laugh at any message of warning.  He once told me, “Always be able to walk away.”  I think this is a line from the movie Heat.  In my mind, I modified his advice:  “Always be able to walk away, but remember you can never walk away from yourself.”  He is what I would gladly have become if life continually dealt me the success I craved.  I never would have found this way of life that I am so very grateful for.   I was not his victim, I had a choice.

From the Big Book, page 417:  “And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.  When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation – some fact of my life – unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at his moment…unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy.  I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and my attitudes.”

So here I am.  Answering life.  No I am not ready to tuck my tail and run.  I want to live until I die, to truly live.  I am not giving up today.   I am not life’s victim.  I have a choice.

Yesterday, I secured 9 months sobriety.  I picked up my CA tag tonight.  I am absolutely amazed.  I am at a loss for words tonight, maybe because I have plunged into the excesses of gluttony at IHOP with that wonderful Colorado Omelet.  Maybe it is because I know I have to get back up in a few hours for work.  Regardless of the steady drumbeat of life’s marching orders, I feel a sense of reverence and awe, a moment of quiet intensity that moves beyond reflection.  I have truly experienced something greater than myself, that is working for me.  Prior to this day, I have experienced many greater powers that have worked against me, stood in line to rape me, exploiting my devotion.  Now I am aware of a Higher Power that seems to give a damn about what I give a damn about.  Thank-you Jon.  Good Night.

Wow, talk about morbid reflection!  I came home and devoted some time to sleep.  How many times do I have to learn this lesson?  Fatigue equals crappy attitude.  Extreme fatigue equals a free ticket to the straight jacket of projected fear and opportunistic depression.  Acceptance is the answer to all my problems.  I have to learn to let go.  Step Six; Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.  Step Seven; Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.  The magic of these two steps is the awareness of self-destructive behavior that has become as natural as breathing or blinking.  Then, a desired trait is introduced in the intuitive life of meditation.  It is just like the drinking or using.  When the focus was to abstain, I could not.  But when the focus became a lifestyle of sobriety, I no longer had to fight the obsessively destructive behavior.  Confidence infused with serene acceptance is what I desire.  The ability to let go of the day, and trust that I am in the right place at the right time. 

Quiet.  I am tired, but I look back over the day.  I am absolutely amazed at some legal and financial releases that my sponsee received, as though in response to his demonstrated willingness to work this program.  Yet I need some kind of release in my own heart.  What is it that is lodged there.  I shared in a new-comers meeting.  I think my interpretation of the program is becoming clear to me.  But there is something else that needs to happen.  I feel it.  But there is no time for meditation.  I must get some sleep before going into work in a few hours.  I really don’t want to lose my Father, but I do not want to cling to him if it is his time.  I don’t want to lose him.  But I will.  Good Night.

It was a 12 & 12 meeting tonight.  We just happened to be reading on step 6, right were my sponsee has just gotten to.  Steps 6 and 7 make me queasy.  It seems that this is the most likely place for religion to hijack spirituality.  The behaviour control philosophies of centralized religion can eat away at the foundation of powerlessness that set us free from our alcoholism / addiction.  The sin and disease concepts are very different.  Yet similar enough to be like a date rape drug in an otherwise nurturing drink of fellowship.  How do I reconcile this?  Prayer and time and rest needed.  Good night.

My sponsee has finished his 5th step, and that is a significant milestone for both of us.  I know that it might not be wise, but I really want to just lay back.  I also hope that I will be able to do him justice as we progress.  I have paraphrased my own stepwork up to the 4th.  That paraphrasing really helps.  But I would also like to completely read the Big Book at least once.  And I am pushing through the stories right now.  There is a lot of work to be done yet.  I hate the feeling of not meeting goals.  But that kind of internal struggle has gotten me in trouble before.  So I have to know when to let it go.

Just a note, I have added another question and answer to the FAQ’s. 

It was a somber meeting tonight.  A lot of people knew an individual who is currently in ICU because of this disease.  It is one of those meetings where we reflect on the persistent peril of relapse.  What can we do to strengthen our recovery?  There are basic tools, but really, there just isn’t any guarantees.  The program must be taken seriously, but is fearful diligence … I don’t know.  I guess this dose of reality is necessary.  I am more afraid of goals that never get accomplished, dreams that get filed under the fantasy section of life, and a nomadic purposelessness that seems to blow in from time to time.  I would rather life end then for it to remain impotent.  God, here I go.  morbid reflection.  I guess it is time for bed. 

The term “5000lb phone” is recovery slang for the difficulty that alcoholics and addicts have in reaching out, particularly when the mental obsession to drink or use takes hold.  That is why we collect numbers and practice calling others in the program prior to that critical point.  The more normal it feels to call each other, the more likely this can be apart of relapse prevention.  I created a document of individuals I wanted to make a habit of contacting in addition to my sponsor.  So I guess you understand why I would have to password protect it.  Maybe I should just make it private.

Anyway, I am exhausted.  And I really don’t have much else to say tonight.  Good night.

I spent a lot of time with my Father today.  We ate at Pickadilli’s (good cafeteria style food!) and went to the magic shop downtown.  Then he told me that the building that he once worked at is across the street from a place where I go to AA meetings regularly.  We walked down to 5 points and looked around at his old stomping grounds.  We really wore the tread out on those hills.  He is an amazing man, just over 80 and still taking on the hills.  I would like to thank my Higher Power for another day of sobriety, a day I can remember and experience completely.  And the opportunity of having my Dad with me today.  I love and admire him as a great father and as a  faithful friend.  By the way, he is a wizard with circular discipline.  I hope some of it rubs off on me.

I own a consensual slave, and it has been my concern that the requirements of my recovery would eat at my ability to rule over her.  I am attempting to reconcile recovery with my creative sexuality.  It has been quite a challenge.  But I am determined to have the best of both worlds.  I will fight to keep both my slave and my sobriety.  I know recovery must come first, but what good is sobriety without a slave to kiss my feet.