March 6 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 3 "Let Go" | 2012 | Today's AA daily reflection: "the idea of faith." I do have faith today, in not knowing the questions and therefore not knowing the answers. If I knew the questions, life would be predictable and the answers would flow… I have faith in letting go and asking for help at any time in any place from any source…
This does not mean I always know the questions or find out what the questions are. It simply means I am open, honest and willing to change my views and beliefs, and my outlook as life is changing and I am changing. Herbert Spencer is often quoted that we live in ignorance if we have contempt prior to investigation…
In early days, learning what it meant to be in recovery one day at a time, I was very confused. My thinking made me very suspicious of everything and anyone who suggested there was just one way to keep in recovery. What worked for me was letting go and not looking for an answer from one person. Sticking to the winner's, it was a gut reaction that most people were sharing the truth of their recovery, and some people were clinging on for dear life and they were very stuck trying to look right rather than being right with themselves…
The whole philosophy of the program for me is about being open, honest and willing to change. Letting go the old notions of what life is and looks like when we are successful. I cherish learning the truth of life in the moment of now, how to love people and be loved back without conditions and that wisdom is happening as life is happening…
And last night, a chair which was full of truth, sharing the horror and messiness and wonder of life driven by addiction and then a recovery driven by their "truth." Truth is what it is, beautiful and tragic in the moment. When a person shares their truth in their sharing that is the most appropriate way that person can share. There is no generic appropriate way to share in fellowship, or we shut down and hinder recovery and exclude individual realities…
I do not believe our fellowship requires rules, laws and regulations and there is one ultimate authority. We are but trusted servants, equal in our rights and need have freedom of expression. Each individual makes up their own mind about what is appropriate for them and it is not for me to judge or suggest appropriateness in sharing experience, strength and hope… Progress not perfection…
-/-
DonInLondon 2005-2011
Letting go fear, wanting to put on a brave brave face, hiding behind a mask of ego ego [defects Step 6]. Open, honest and willing to develop our courage, faith and confidence [shortcomings. Step 7] ~ Wentworth Miller "Confidence is at the root of so many attractive qualities, a sense of humor, a sense of style, a willingness to be who you are no matter what anyone else might think or say.." -/-
Change is part of nature when we are young.. and remains so if we stay young at heart ~ Jack Welch "Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging into total confusion for a while." -/- We need work at change because.. simply we are all worth it!
We help another, we feel happier? Provided we do some good, and not be a do gooder ~ Gerald Jampolsky "Through our willingness to help others we can learn to be happy rather than depressed." Better to help someone asking than seek out a target? We cannot fix anyone, we may help someone..
Sanity restored, just for today, sober life is a choice ~ Leo Buscaglia "What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life." -/- Relapse and slips bring back the insanity where there are no choices in living but to see it through the bottom of a glass.. and at rock bottom. We can come back from the brink in fellowship...
AA Daily Reflection: THE IDEA OF FAITH ~ MARCH 6, Do not let any prejudice you might have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 47
The idea of faith is a very large chunk to swallow when fear, doubt and anger abound in and around me. Sometimes just the idea of doing something different, something I am not accustomed to doing, can eventually become an act of faith if I do it regularly, and do it without debating whether it’s the right thing to do. When a bad day comes along and everything is going wrong, a meeting or a talk with another drunk often distracts me just enough to persuade me that everything is not quite as impossible, as overwhelming as I had thought. In the same way, going to a meeting or talking to a fellow alcoholic are acts of faith; I believe I’m arresting my disease. These are ways I slowly move toward faith in a Higher Power.
Step 3 Reading Video Link:
"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him"
-/-
This does not mean I always know the questions or find out what the questions are. It simply means I am open, honest and willing to change my views and beliefs, and my outlook as life is changing and I am changing. Herbert Spencer is often quoted that we live in ignorance if we have contempt prior to investigation…
In early days, learning what it meant to be in recovery one day at a time, I was very confused. My thinking made me very suspicious of everything and anyone who suggested there was just one way to keep in recovery. What worked for me was letting go and not looking for an answer from one person. Sticking to the winner's, it was a gut reaction that most people were sharing the truth of their recovery, and some people were clinging on for dear life and they were very stuck trying to look right rather than being right with themselves…
The whole philosophy of the program for me is about being open, honest and willing to change. Letting go the old notions of what life is and looks like when we are successful. I cherish learning the truth of life in the moment of now, how to love people and be loved back without conditions and that wisdom is happening as life is happening…
And last night, a chair which was full of truth, sharing the horror and messiness and wonder of life driven by addiction and then a recovery driven by their "truth." Truth is what it is, beautiful and tragic in the moment. When a person shares their truth in their sharing that is the most appropriate way that person can share. There is no generic appropriate way to share in fellowship, or we shut down and hinder recovery and exclude individual realities…
I do not believe our fellowship requires rules, laws and regulations and there is one ultimate authority. We are but trusted servants, equal in our rights and need have freedom of expression. Each individual makes up their own mind about what is appropriate for them and it is not for me to judge or suggest appropriateness in sharing experience, strength and hope… Progress not perfection…
-/-
DonInLondon 2005-2011
Letting go fear, wanting to put on a brave brave face, hiding behind a mask of ego ego [defects Step 6]. Open, honest and willing to develop our courage, faith and confidence [shortcomings. Step 7] ~ Wentworth Miller "Confidence is at the root of so many attractive qualities, a sense of humor, a sense of style, a willingness to be who you are no matter what anyone else might think or say.." -/-
Change is part of nature when we are young.. and remains so if we stay young at heart ~ Jack Welch "Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging into total confusion for a while." -/- We need work at change because.. simply we are all worth it!
We help another, we feel happier? Provided we do some good, and not be a do gooder ~ Gerald Jampolsky "Through our willingness to help others we can learn to be happy rather than depressed." Better to help someone asking than seek out a target? We cannot fix anyone, we may help someone..
Sanity restored, just for today, sober life is a choice ~ Leo Buscaglia "What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life." -/- Relapse and slips bring back the insanity where there are no choices in living but to see it through the bottom of a glass.. and at rock bottom. We can come back from the brink in fellowship...
AA Daily Reflection: THE IDEA OF FAITH ~ MARCH 6, Do not let any prejudice you might have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 47
The idea of faith is a very large chunk to swallow when fear, doubt and anger abound in and around me. Sometimes just the idea of doing something different, something I am not accustomed to doing, can eventually become an act of faith if I do it regularly, and do it without debating whether it’s the right thing to do. When a bad day comes along and everything is going wrong, a meeting or a talk with another drunk often distracts me just enough to persuade me that everything is not quite as impossible, as overwhelming as I had thought. In the same way, going to a meeting or talking to a fellow alcoholic are acts of faith; I believe I’m arresting my disease. These are ways I slowly move toward faith in a Higher Power.
Step 3 Reading Video Link:
"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him"
-/-
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