February 2 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 | Today's AA daily reflection: "rescued by surrendering" was very difficult for me, to be rescued from myself. All my life taught to be strong and independent in thinking and action. Standing on my own two feet with a "stiff upper lip" and "a brave face" I would face anything and everything. The idea of being vulnerable and unable to sort myself out meant I isolated and drank because I could not stop. Saved by a simple understanding, "I cannot do this on my own" opened the door to me asking for help from anyone, anywhere and at any time…
Insanity is often described as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That was me for a long time, doing my utmost to be in control and resolve any issue or problem I faced in life. And all the problems piled up, and my will to live and left me. Emotionally broken and unable to cope with life at all I had reached "the jumping off point" where many people simply fade away or worse not only ending their own existence, harming many others in the process. From step one, powerless and unmanageable to step two, driven mad on my own, I'm thankful I could ask for help and see strength in vulnerability…
The idea of being restored to sanity by a higher power was something I wondered about for a long time. All I needed to do in the end was accept that I have no clue how to do many things, and especially I did not know how to deal with addiction in me. The whole idea of admission and acceptance is key one day at a time, and I am grateful that step two is now a daily reminder, asking for help at any time is the greatest strength we have…
Not knowing the answers is good news for me today. Accepting that I don't know, and it's perfectly okay to be a learner in life whatever our age, removes the pressure and insanity of trying to be right, "be in the know" that anything. And all I need do is ask the help, research and find out. Ignorance is not bliss. But not knowing and saying so is perfectly acceptable and finding out is the solution…
Step 2 Reading Video Link:
"Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity"
DonInLondon 2005-2011
Arthur Gordon "Some people confuse acceptance with apathy, but there's all the difference in the world. Apathy fails to distinguish between what can and what cannot be helped; acceptance makes that distinction. Apathy paralyzes the will-to-action; acceptance frees it by relieving it of impossible burdens."
Courage to be ourselves ~ "That quality of mind which enables one to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness, aware of our fear, resolve of heart; valour; boldness; resolution; fortitude." Progress not Perfection..
Fear of anything we may imagine is often greater than fear in reality, leaning on fellowship, we develop courage as we learn and share our truth ~ Maya Angelou "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again." -/- Fear is part of living..
Courage to change sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, with help from our friends ~ John Wooden "Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts." Live in destiny, destiny and choice is here right now!
Mark Twain "It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare."
Faith in action we change our attitudes and behaviour ~ C. S. Lewis "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
AA Daily: RESCUED BY SURRENDERING ~ FEBRUARY 2, Characteristic of the so-called typical alcoholic is a narcissistic egocentric core, dominated by feelings of omnipotence, intent on maintaining at all costs its inner integrity…. Inwardly the alcoholic brooks no control from man or God. He, the alcoholic, is and must be the master of his destiny. He will fight to the end to preserve that position. A.A. COMES OF AGE, p.311
The great mystery is: “Why do some of us die alcoholic deaths, fighting to preserve the ‘independence’ of our ego, while others seem to sober up effortlessly in A.A.?” Help from a Higher Power, the gift of sobriety, came to me when an otherwise unexplained desire to stop drinking coincided with my willingness to accept the suggestions of the men and women of A.A. I had to surrender, for only by reaching out to God and my fellows could I be rescued.
-/-
Insanity is often described as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That was me for a long time, doing my utmost to be in control and resolve any issue or problem I faced in life. And all the problems piled up, and my will to live and left me. Emotionally broken and unable to cope with life at all I had reached "the jumping off point" where many people simply fade away or worse not only ending their own existence, harming many others in the process. From step one, powerless and unmanageable to step two, driven mad on my own, I'm thankful I could ask for help and see strength in vulnerability…
The idea of being restored to sanity by a higher power was something I wondered about for a long time. All I needed to do in the end was accept that I have no clue how to do many things, and especially I did not know how to deal with addiction in me. The whole idea of admission and acceptance is key one day at a time, and I am grateful that step two is now a daily reminder, asking for help at any time is the greatest strength we have…
Not knowing the answers is good news for me today. Accepting that I don't know, and it's perfectly okay to be a learner in life whatever our age, removes the pressure and insanity of trying to be right, "be in the know" that anything. And all I need do is ask the help, research and find out. Ignorance is not bliss. But not knowing and saying so is perfectly acceptable and finding out is the solution…
Step 2 Reading Video Link:
"Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity"
DonInLondon 2005-2011
Arthur Gordon "Some people confuse acceptance with apathy, but there's all the difference in the world. Apathy fails to distinguish between what can and what cannot be helped; acceptance makes that distinction. Apathy paralyzes the will-to-action; acceptance frees it by relieving it of impossible burdens."
Courage to be ourselves ~ "That quality of mind which enables one to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness, aware of our fear, resolve of heart; valour; boldness; resolution; fortitude." Progress not Perfection..
Fear of anything we may imagine is often greater than fear in reality, leaning on fellowship, we develop courage as we learn and share our truth ~ Maya Angelou "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again." -/- Fear is part of living..
Courage to change sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, with help from our friends ~ John Wooden "Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts." Live in destiny, destiny and choice is here right now!
Mark Twain "It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare."
Faith in action we change our attitudes and behaviour ~ C. S. Lewis "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
AA Daily: RESCUED BY SURRENDERING ~ FEBRUARY 2, Characteristic of the so-called typical alcoholic is a narcissistic egocentric core, dominated by feelings of omnipotence, intent on maintaining at all costs its inner integrity…. Inwardly the alcoholic brooks no control from man or God. He, the alcoholic, is and must be the master of his destiny. He will fight to the end to preserve that position. A.A. COMES OF AGE, p.311
The great mystery is: “Why do some of us die alcoholic deaths, fighting to preserve the ‘independence’ of our ego, while others seem to sober up effortlessly in A.A.?” Help from a Higher Power, the gift of sobriety, came to me when an otherwise unexplained desire to stop drinking coincided with my willingness to accept the suggestions of the men and women of A.A. I had to surrender, for only by reaching out to God and my fellows could I be rescued.
-/-
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