Daily Reprieve

From Yesterday’s Daily Reflections;

All A.A. progress can be reckoned in terms of just two words: humility and responsibility. Our whole spiritual development can be accurately measured by our degree of adherence to these magnificent standards.  (As Bill Sees It, page 271)

To acknowledge and respect the views, accomplishments and prerogatives of others and to accept being wrong shows me the way of humility. To practice the principles of A.A. in all my affairs guides me to be responsible. Honoring these precepts gives credence to Tradition Four-and to all other Traditions of the Fellowship. Alcoholics Anonymous has evolved a philosophy of life full of valid motivations, rich in highly relevant principles and ethical values, a view of life which can be extended beyond the confines of the alcoholic population. To honor these precepts I need only to pray, and care for my fellow man as if each one were my brother.

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The two magnificent standards are humility and responsibility and are the measurable fruit of my spiritual development.

A.A. has evolved a philosophy of life.  What is it I wonder?

This philosophy has valid motivations.  What are they?

It has highly relevant principles and ethical values.  What specifically do we mean when we say practice these principles in all our affairs?  What are they?

A.A. has a view or vision of life that extends beyond the alcoholic population.    What is it?

It seems that the answer to these questions cannot be the result of an academic quest.  They are discovered through prayer and care for my fellow man.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

Some may think that we have carried the principle of group autonomy to extremes. For example, in its original “long form,” Tradition Four declares: “Any two or three gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that as a group they have no other affiliation.”* . . . But this ultra- liberty is not so risky as it looks.  (AA Comes of Age, page 104 – 05)

As an active alcoholic, I abused every liberty that life afforded. How could A.A. expect me to respect the “ultra-liberty” bestowed by Tradition Four? Learning respect has become a lifetime job.

A.A. has made me fully accept the necessity of discipline and that, if I do not assert it from within, then I will pay for it. This applies to groups too. Tradition Four points me in a spiritual direction, in spite of my alcoholic inclinations.

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I have been on storm vigil today, here in Alabama.  It seems nothing changes in the South without violence, not even the weather.

Abusing liberty is an alcoholic tendency?  I suppose so.  Freedom is a group thing that implies a personal necessity for individual discipline.  As an alcoholic, I saw freedom as an individual thing that implied group belligerence and social warfare.  Are the spiritual traits that I need to develop to support this group autonomy  humility and trust?  I think so.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us.  (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 164)

Sobriety is a journey of joyful discovery. Each day brings new experience, awareness, greater hope, deeper faith, broader tolerance. I must maintain these attributes or I will have nothing to pass on.

Great events for this recovering alcoholic are the normal everyday joys found in being able to live another day in God’s grace.

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I used to think that the phrase “obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got” to be an admonishment to go out and get it so that I will be fit to transmit.  That is what my perfectionism hears.  That is not the Great Fact that this observation leads to.  By myself, isolated, I am powerless.  I simply cannot become more.  I need to connect with a Higher Power.  When I do connect with this loving Source, more is disclosed even though I know only a little by myself.  The order of my house is to seek intimate connection with Gomu.  Joyful discoveries of sobriety are the many “I love yous” whispered and shouted along the way.  We are not alone.  This is the Great Fact for me.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

I don’t think happiness or unhappiness is the point. How do we meet the problems we face? How do we best learn from them and transmit what we have learned to others, if they would receive the knowledge?  (As Bill Sees It, page 306)

In my search “to be happy,” I changed jobs, married and divorced, took geographical cures, and ran myself into debt-financially, emotionally and spiritually. In A.A., I’m learning to grow up. Instead of demanding that people, places and things make me happy, I can ask God for self-acceptance. When a problem overwhelms me, A.A.’s Twelve Steps will help me grow through the pain. The knowledge I gain can be a gift to others who suffer with the same problem. As Bill said, “When pain comes, we are expected to learn from it willingly, and help others to learn. When happiness comes, we accept it as a gift, and thank God for it.” ( As Bill Sees It, p. 306)

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The process of problem solving is to confront them, learn from them, and then find a willing place to transmit what we learn.  The expectations of happiness obscure this simple and powerful process.  Happiness comes in its own form not sculpted by our hands and is fed by our connections in life.  Our side of the street is working the process, and God’s side of the street is crafting connections that constitute happiness.  In the military there was a philosophy that came from the focus required at the firing range and may be applicable here.  Stay in your lane.  Hit you target, not your neighbor’s.  My lane is designated by the 12 step process of life.  I will stay in my lane.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

In the late stages of our drinking, the will to resist has fled. Yet when we admit complete defeat and when we become entirely ready to try A.A. principles, our obsession leaves us and we enter a new dimension- freedom under God as we understand Him.  (As Bill Sees It, page 283)

I am fortunate to be among the ones who have had this awesome transformation in my life. When I entered the doors of A.A., alone and desperate, I had been beaten into willingness to believe anything I heard. One of the things I heard was, “This could be your last hangover, or you can keep going round and round.” The man who said this obviously was a whole lot better off than I. I liked the idea of admitting defeat and I have been free ever since! My heart heard what my mind never could: “Being powerless over alcohol is no big deal.” I’m free and I’m grateful!

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Admitting complete defeat.  It is hard for me to stay there long enough to be more than a visitor to this other dimension.  It is my hope to learn from others rather than insisting on dwelling in a slothful skepticism.  I will keep working.

From Yesterday’s Daily Reflections;

Alcoholism was a lonely business, even though we were surrounded by people who loved us. . . . We were trying to find emotional security either by dominating or by being dependent upon others. . . . We still vainly tried to be secure by some unhealthy sort of domination or dependence.  (As Bill Sees It, page 252)

When I did my personal inventory I found that I had unhealthy relationships with most people in my life-my friends and family, for example. I always felt isolated and lonely. I drank to dull emotional pain.

It was through staying sober, having a good sponsor and working the Twelve Steps that I was able to build up my low self-esteem. First the Twelve Steps taught me to become my own best friend, and then, when I was able to love myself, I could reach out and love others.

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Relapse in recovery is another blow to self-esteem.  When you know what needs to be done and yet succumb to the insanity of the disease once more, that just feels doubly insane.  I can remember the first time I had to pick up a silver chip and felt the fearful disdain of my comrades in the struggle.  Whether real or imagined, I felt like a radioactive leper.  Because of the words of a few and the notorious sensitivities of the alcoholic that I am, I thought that the grace that was present for the newcomer was not there for those of us who have had trouble accruing consistent abstinence.

This is the encouragement that I cling to in my stop and go progress in recovery.  My goal is spiritual sobriety.  Although chemical abstinence is easier to measure, it is not the primary goal.  Sobriety is a surrender to the realities of the unseen world.  It is access to the power of that which is hidden to our organic eyes.  It is the assurance that there is something out there that really loves and cares for me.  When I can hold onto that truth, I began to see and experience the love of others in recovery.  In this way, I learn to love myself in spite of my clumsy march toward sobriety.  Chemical abstinence is a byproduct of spiritual health and growth.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

It would be a product of false pride to claim that A.A. is a cure-all, even for alcoholism.  (As Bill Sees It, page 285)

In my early years of sobriety I was full of pride, thinking that A.A. was the only source of treatment for a good and happy life. It certainly was the basic ingredient for my sobriety and even today, with over twelve years in the program, I am very involved in meetings, sponsorship and service. During the first four years of my recovery, I found it necessary to seek professional help, since my emotional health was extremely poor. There are those folks too, who have found sobriety and happiness in other organizations. A.A. taught me that I had a choice: to go to any lengths to enhance my sobriety. A.A. may not be a cure-all for everything, but it is the center of my sober living.

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At a multi-service military training post, I remember passing by the Marine barracks.  The had a pull-up bar out front with a sign over head that read “Pain is Temporary, Pride is Forever.”  I really liked the energy behind the words, but it ran contrary to some of my early study of the scriptures, which I valued as a source of authority at the time.  “God resists the proud, but shows favor to the humble.”  I asked myself then, does God resist these Marines who live so very willing to sacrifice themselves in the defense of others?  of our country?

My resolution was that pride is a word among many in the English language that can be spoken and mean very different things.  I think the Pride of the Marines is a confidence, an absolute trust in their training process and the power of their surrender to it.  The Pride that is mutually exclusive to humility and warrants God’s resistance is the wall one builds around oneself to hide weakness and focus attention on what we perceive to be our strength.  There is an inherit self delusion that is required in defending such a wall to maintain this fortress that filters out accountability.  Such a fortress quickly becomes a self-made prison.  The loving Gomu (God of my understanding) wants me to come out into the open and manifest my highest self.  That cannot be achieved when I protect a lower version of me.

I do have confidence in the 12 step process in my own life and will continue supporting it in my own spiritual journey.  If I need other processes to grow, I will not build a pride-prison that will make AA the only way and cut me off from those important developments in my life.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

Moments of perception can build into a lifetime of spiritual serenity, as I have excellent reason to know. Roots of reality, supplanting the neurotic underbrush, will hold fast despite the high winds of the forces which would destroy us, or which we would use to destroy ourselves.  (As Bill Sees It, page 173)

I came to A.A. green – a seedling quivering with exposed taproots. It was for survival but it was a beginning. I stretched, developed, twisted, but with the help of others, my spirit eventually burst up from the roots. I was free. I acted, withered, went inside, prayed, acted again, understood anew, as one moment of perception struck. Up from my roots, spirit-arms lengthened into strong, green shoots: high-springing servants stepping skyward.

Here on earth God unconditionally continues the legacy of higher love. My A.A. life put me “on a different footing . . . [my] roots grasped a new soil”  (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 12)

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This plant growing analogy is much too pretty, graceful, or patient to be applicable to my first days in the rooms.  Roots of reality found depth in the broken soil of grief and great spiritual loss.  If I resist the very real temptation to rip up what has taken root, to allow the young plant to strengthen, I will begin to experience the tasty fruit of the program.  It is the fact that the plant feeds my internal hunger that motivates me to water and tend it.  As an unseen by-product of this silent growth, the soil of my sanity is held in place.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

“I don’t think we can do anything very well in this world unless we practice it. And I don’t believe we do A.A. too well unless we practice it. . . . We should practice . . . acquiring the spirit of service. We should attempt to acquire some faith, which isn’t easily done, especially for the person who has always been very materialistic, following the standards of society today. But I think faith can be acquired; it can be acquired slowly; it has to be cultivated. That was not easy for me, and I assume that it is difficult for everyone else. . . .”  (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, pages 307-08)

Fear is often the force that prevents me from acquiring and cultivating the power of faith. Fear blocks my appreciation of beauty, tolerance, forgiveness, service, and serenity.

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I rarely find inward growth to be as steady as the well tended garden.  For me, it is like the advancing ocean tide. Wave pushes in and then recede, but overall the tide advances forward.  It is hard to detect the mighty changes taking place while wrestling with the rise of and fall of my emotional intensity.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

. . . we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives.  (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 86)

When said sincerely, this prayer teaches me to be truly unselfish and humble, for even in doing good deeds I often used to seek approval and glory for myself. By examining my motives in all that I do, I can be of service to God and others, helping them do what they want to do. When I put God in charge of my thinking, much needless worry is eliminated and I believe He guides me throughout the day. When I eliminate thoughts of self-pity, dishonesty and self-centeredness as soon as they enter my mind, I find peace with God, my neighbor and myself.

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Self-pity, dishonesty, and isolated self-seeking motives are particular manifestations of my disease.  They help to cut me off from vital connections.  When I am cut-off, the disease moves in for the kill.  I do disagree with the contributor in that I do not believe being of service to others is helping them do what they want to do.  Serving others is doing whatever it takes to help them manifest their highest self.  We do not honor the self-pity, dishonesty and isolated self-seeking motives in their lives any more than we do in our own.  It takes the guidance of Gomu (God of my understanding) and the council of the Sober Ones to develop an understanding of how I am to serve.  For me, to serve is to recognize the dormant powers created in me, and then I contribute that energy to the common good, the human collective.  The AA program provides me the best opportunity for such pursuits.