Daily Reprieve

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program.  Willingness, honesty and open-mindedness are the essentials of recovery.  But these are indispensable.   (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 568)

Am I honest enough to accept myself as I am and let this be the “me” that I let others see? Do I have the willingness to go to any length, to do whatever is necessary to stay sober?  Do I have the open mindedness to hear what I have to hear, to think what I have to think, and to feel what I have to feel?

If my answer to these questions is “Yes,” I know enough about the spirituality of the program to stay sober. As I continue to work the Twelve Steps, I move on to the heart of true sobriety: serenity with myself, with others, and with God as I understand Him.

END OF QUOTE

———————————

An interesting implication of today’s Daily Reflection is that there are things I have to hear, thoughts I have to think, and feelings I have to feel in order to obtain sobriety.  I cannot block them out with old ways that have reinforced my alcoholism.   This requires that I develop open-mindedness.  Another implication is that my honest self-appraisal must move from internal acceptance to public exposure, which can be a very scary prospect.

The final implication for me is one I have often heard, and that is that our willingness must be translated to actions motivated by a desperation to stay sober above all other concerns.  Sobriety is not just a good idea for me, it is life and death.  It is the most essential idea in this spiritual heart transplant.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

The principles we have set down are guides to progress.   (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 6)

Just as a sculptor will use different tools to achieve desired effects in creating a work of art, in Alcoholics Anonymous the Twelve Steps are used to bring about results in my own life. I do not overwhelm myself with life’s problems, and how much more work needs to be done. I let myself be comforted in knowing that my life is now in the hands of my Higher Power, a master craftsman who is shaping each part of my life into a unique work of art. By working my program I can be satisfied, knowing that “in doing the best that we can for today, we are doing all that God asks of us.”

END OF QUOTE

—————————————————

Where there is anxiety in my gut, please replace it with trust in my connection to you, my Higher Power.   Validate my simple faith to those who examine my life.  Let them see that I am more effective connected than isolated.  Carve out my true self.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

The unity, the effectiveness, and even the survival of A.A. will always depend upon our continued willingness to give up some of our personal ambitions and desires for the common safety and welfare. Just as sacrifice means survival for the individual alcoholic, so does sacrifice mean unity and survival for the group and for A.A.’s entire Fellowship.   (As Bill Sees It, page 220)

I have learned that I must sacrifice some of my personality traits for the good of A.A. and, as a result, I have been rewarded with many gifts. False pride can be inflated through prestige but, by living Tradition Six, I receive the gift of humility instead. Cooperation without affiliation is often deceiving. If I remain unrelated to outside interests, I am free to keep A.A. autonomous. Then the Fellowship will be here, healthy and strong for generations to come.

END OF QUOTE

———————————————-

… = Sacrifice (Service) = Unity (Humility) = Survival (Recovery) = Sacrifice (Service) = Unity(Humility) = Survival (Recovery) = Sacrifice (Service) = Unity(Humility) = Survival (Recovery) …

They are all linked in a continuous swirling dynamic.  I entered the fellowship looking for Survival through Recovery, one day at time.  I was taught that to keep what I gain, I must give it away.  The Sacrifice of Service will be an inconvenience to my isolating self ego, but it will not violate my personal survival.  As I learn to connect within the rooms, I see that the magic comes to the individual (me) through the group (everyone else).  I am a more powerful and sane individual as part of this group than I am through isolated self reliance.  Humility protects that reality.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

Having learned to live so happily, we’d show everyone else how. . . . Yes, we of A.A. did dream those dreams. How natural that was, since most alcoholics are bankrupt idealists. . . . So why shouldn’t we share our way of life with everyone?   (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 156)

The great discovery of sobriety led me to feel the need to spread the “good news” to the world around me. The grandiose thoughts of my drinking days returned. Later, I learned that concentrating on my own recovery was a full-time process. As I became a sober citizen in this world, I observed a rippling effect which, without any conscious effort on my part, reached any “related facility or outside enterprise,” without diverting me from my primary purpose of staying sober and helping other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

END OF QUOTE

————————————————–

I suppose my past religious experiences have inoculated me against evangelistic zeal.  I do not trust it.  What I do embrace is helping others so that I can live.  This self-preserving altruism makes sense to me.  If I desire to keep this way of life, and I do, then I must find a way to share it.  I believe this is a good sort of selfishness.

The selfishness I must be rid of is the one that isolates me.  One path to isolation is spiritual pride.

The heart of AA that reaches out a hand to the suffering alcoholic is a natural group phenomena.  My individual contribution is my willingness to go to any lengths to stay sober, to stay alive. God and the group provide the miraculous results.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

A year and six months later these three had succeeded with seven more.   (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 159)

If it had not been for the fierce determination of our founders, A.A. would have quickly faded like so many other so-called good causes. I look at the hundreds of meetings weekly in the city where I live and I know A.A. is available twenty-four hours a day. If I had had to hang on with nothing but hope and a desire not to drink, experiencing rejection wherever I went, I would have sought the easier, softer way and returned to my previous way of life.

END OF QUOTE

———————————————————-

I created this flowchart for the founding of AA.  I will end this article with sources that I used to establish it.  I love the flow of history because, if you stand back, you can see that there is a bigger picture populated with individuals struggling to survive.  There is something out there that gives a damn about us.

1.  It is my understanding, told to me in a meeting in Augusta, Georgia, that Rowland H. was a man of means who was looking for the best therapy he could find to counter his alcoholism and was originally looking for Sigmund Freud.  Because Mr. Freud was unavailable, he went to his associate Carl Jung.  Imagine what would have happened to us if Rowland had laid on the couch of Sigmund Freud.  According to subsequent historical research, this event occurred in 1926 rather than 1930.

2.  Ebby Thatcher, Bill Wilson’s friend, was rescued from the asylum and Roland relayed the need for the Vital Spiritual Experience and introduced him to the Oxford movement.

3.  Ebby resided at the Calvary Rescue Mission and had heard the concept of choosing a God of your own understanding from Rev. Sam Shoemaker who maintained the mission.  Ebby would relay this to his agnostic friend Bill Wilson later on when he was reaching out to his still suffering friend.

4.  Bill W checked into the  Charles B. Towns Hospital a fourth time to dry out.  Dr. Silkworth presented the disease model of alcoholism to Bill and suggested sharing his actual experiences with alcoholics rather than preaching to them.  He then had an appearance of light and interaction with what he believed to be God.

5.  While in Akron, Ohio on business that had proven unsuccessful (Imagine if Bill W.’s business venture had been successful), in a desperate attempt to remain sober, sought out another alcoholic to help.  A local church put him in contact with Dr. Bob.  This meeting proved the ability of one alcoholic sharing his experience, strength, and hope with another one served to help both alcoholics.  AA’s anniversary is based on Dr. Bob’s sobriety date; June 10th, 1935.

The founders were desperate drunks.  They were not saints.  They connected with one another and with the Invisible Painter of the Big Picture.  I am grateful for the following concepts and those chosen to inject them into the collective consciousness that has now become Alcoholics Anonymous:

Carl Jung ~ The Need for a Vital Spiritual Experience beyond Religion.

Dr. Frank Buchman ~ Founder of the Oxford Group ~ The Seeds for the 12 Step Program, Sponsorship, and Spirituality over Religion – Pragmatic Morality.  Provided negative example for the need of the spiritual principle of Anonymity.

Samuel Shoemaker & Ebby Thatcher ~ The concept of a God of my own understanding which is the birth of GOMU.

Dr. William Silkworth ~ The Disease Concept of Alcoholism and the need for a Psychic Change, a Spiritual Awakening, echoing Dr. Jung.

Bill W. and Dr. Bob ~ the power of one alcoholic to another, the birth of the Fellowship.

The Invisible Painter of the Big Picture ~ doing for us -united- what we could not do for ourselves -isolated-.

SOURCES;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholics_Anonymous

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowland_Hazard_III

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oxford_Group

There are hyperlinks and primary source footnotes if you are interested in further research.  I love wikipedia.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

We obey A.A.’s Steps and Traditions because we really want them for ourselves. It is no longer a question of good or evil; we conform because we genuinely want to conform. . Such is the evidence of God’s grace and love among us.   (A.A. Comes of Age, page 106)

It is fun to watch myself grow in A.A. I fought conformity to A.A. principles from the moment I entered, but I learned from the pain of my belligerence that, in choosing to live the A.A. way of life, I opened myself to God’s grace and love. Then I began to know the full meaning of being a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

END OF QUOTE

———————————–

I hold the idea of conformity in suspicion.  The word reminds me of the assimilation process of the Borg from the Star Trek series.  So I am struggling this morning with today’s contribution from the Daily Reflections.

I do not want to seem immature or unenlightened, so I was looking for a way to agree and conform to the concept of obedience and conformation.  Maybe the reality is that I am not advanced enough in the A.A. Way to embrace this concept.  I will remain open-minded and see what happens. . .

I had a similar problem with words such as “surrender” and “powerlessness” and I was able to work through it.

Am I free to choose to reject food, water, air-breathing, and personal hygiene?  Yes I am.  Why should I sleep just because that is the habit of my species?  Maybe that is just an archaic practice left over from our earlier evolutionary development.  There is so much free land in the ocean which is free of government control and concepts of material ownership.  All I have to do is quit breathing air and I can have it all.

I read an article in the Scientific American by Martin A. Nowak, who is a professor of Mathematics and Biology in Harvard’s program of evolutionary dynamics.  It discusses the evolution of cooperation and asserts that competition is not the only force that shaped life on Earth.  He discussed five mechanisms for cooperation which I paraphrase simply as reciprocal back scratching, stable communities, family, competing teams, and the power of reputation and the desire to associate with the exalted ones known for their generosity.  He asserts this latter mechanism is enhanced in humans because of our ability to develop language and it makes us super-cooperators.

I think that there is one mechanism that I must also consider.  I call it the oblivion factor.  I am aware of myself, my thoughts, my emotions, and my history.  They are important to me.  I am important to me.  If I believe that it all ends in a few decades, then conforming does nothing to avert my greatest tragedy which is the end of the universe for me.  I become nothing with no self-awareness.  I may escape this harsh reality somewhat by having children who will carry with them my memory and genetics, but even that will fade.  It will all be stripped away with time.  I am relegated to a world where death dominates my thinking and fear consumes my heart.  In that Universe I do not care about the long term effects of my human stewardship of the planet earth.  My Earth will explode in a few decades.

The cooperation of A.A. helps me to acknowledge that oblivion is not inevitable for me.  I do not have to embrace a tragic end.  There is something out there beyond the constraints of my physical body that cares about me.  The assimilation of the Borg is a meditation on the death to the individual self-awareness.  The tyranny of my alcoholism is just such a death.  When it comes to alcohol, “resistance is futile,” because I am isolated in a world of competition.

Wow, that was exhausting.  I suspect that I am over-complicating things again.  Simplicity is usually the hallmark of a real connection with my Higher Power.  Complex meanderings of my mind generally indicate that I am unplugging and trying to develop isolated self-reliance.  Relieve me of the burden of isolated self.  Such is my process of growth in unity and function.  I chose to conform to a design for living that works.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

For most normal folks, drinking means conviviality, companionship and colorful imagination. It means release from care, boredom and worry. It is joyous intimacy with friends and a feeling that life is good.   (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 151)

The longer I chased these elusive feelings with alcohol, the more out of reach they were. However, by applying this passage to my sobriety, I found that it described the magnificent new life made available to me by the A.A. program. “It” truly does “get better” one day at a time. The warmth, the love and the joy so simply expressed in these words grow in breadth and depth each time I read it. Sobriety is a gift that grows with time.

END OF QUOTE

—————————————————–

The lightening bolt effect of drinking used to rocket me to the forced dimension of happiness.  In the beginning the alcohol acted as an oracle, revealing to me the things I would like to have from life.  It silenced my anxieties, enabled me to interact with others confidently, and made me boldly adventurous.  It was a very temporary vision and a carrot on the stick pursuit. When I tried to turn the oracle into a ruler and protector,  a tyrant rose in its place.

The oak tree effect of recovery was a lifestyle change that has begun to turn the vision of old into substance with the experience of serenity, confidence in my interaction with others, and adventures in living.  It takes longer, but it has deep roots.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

If we ask, God will certainly forgive our derelictions. But in no case does He render us white as snow and keep us that way without our cooperation.   (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 65)

When I prayed, I used to omit a lot of things for which I needed to be forgiven. I thought that if I didn’t mention these things to God, He would never know about them. I did not know that if I had just forgiven myself for some of my past deeds, God would forgive me also. I was always taught to prepare for the journey through life, never realizing until I came to A.A. – when I honestly became willing to be taught forgiveness and forgiving – that life itself is the journey. The journey of life is a very happy one, as long as I am willing to accept change and responsibility.

END OF QUOTE

———————————————–

Before I entered the 12 Step recovery process, I lived a life of appeasement to God and others.  The prospect of fulfilling the ever changing and increasing expectations that had me surrounded was an act of perpetual futility.  I had to learn to find loopholes and rebuttals to delay the inevitable condemnation should my true self be exposed.  I learned to grovel before God begging for forgiveness.  I resented the humiliation of the process and yet feared being caught with anything not pardoned.

Gomu (God of my understanding) introduced me to my true self and, embracing that reality, set me on a process of becoming useful.  God’s forgiveness is designed to help remove obstacles to my maximum usefulness and the highest manifestation of myself.   I submit and surrender to God’s will so that my finite existence can be infused with Infinite empowerment and direction.  The ultimate goal is a growing  intimacy between myself and my Higher Power.

I have something desirable to bring to the table when appearing before the Infinite One, and that is the manifestation of myself in every opportunity of usefulness I can find.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

We are only operating a spiritual kindergarten in which people are enabled to get over drinking and find the grace to go on living to better effect.  (As Bill Sees It, page 95)

When I came to A.A., I was run down by the bottle and wanted to lose the obsession to drink, but I didn’t really know how to do that. I decided to stick around long enough to find out from the ones who went before me. All of a sudden I was thinking about God! I was told to get a Higher Power and I had no idea what one looked like. I found out there are many Higher Powers. I was told to find God, as I understand Him, that there was no doctrine of the Godhead in A.A. I found what worked for me and then asked that Power to restore me to sanity. The obsession to drink was removed and – one day at a time – my life went on, and I learned how to live sober.

END OF QUOTE

———————————————-

This made me think of the author, Robert Fulghum, and his book entitled, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”  Here are his words;

These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten):

1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don’t hit people.
4. Put thngs back where you found them.
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6. Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
7. Say you’re SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life – learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Stryrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first workd you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

In AA, my spirituality was stripped down to survival gear.  Then I discovered that to be the most powerful spirituality I have known.  Here is something else from that author I really love;

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.”

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

But does trust require that we be blind to other people’s motives or, indeed, to our own? Not at all; this would be folly. Most certainly, we should assess the capacity for harm as well as the capability for good in every person that we would trust. Such a private inventory can reveal the degree of confidence we should extend in any given situation.  (As Bill Sees It, page 144)

I am not a victim of others, but rather a victim of my expectations, choices and dishonesty. When I expect others to be what I want them to be and not who they are, when they fail to meet my expectations, I am hurt. When my choices are based on self-centeredness, I find I am lonely and distrustful. I gain confidence in myself, however, when I practice honesty in all my affairs. When I search my motives and am honest and trusting, I am aware of the capacity for harm in situations and can avoid those that are harmful.

END OF QUOTE

————————————————————-

The idea of today’s reflections work well for me when I can pause the flow of life.  Considering the motives of others, or even my own, is the work of private meditation or intimate deliberation with a few trusted mirrors.  I have a habit of responding in extremes when I am involved in spontaneous interaction.  I am either too open or too fearful.  The ability to free others from my unrealistic expectations is a process, and not an automatic response.

In general, if I find that I must retreat from others and live in the protective shadows of my fantasy world, then I am having problems with the principle of honesty applied to my interactive reality.  When I no longer fear the sunlight of social contact, my honesty is moving from internal struggle to natural reflex.

I suppose this is another ongoing process.