Tuesday 23 July 2013

Alcoholics Anonymous | July 23 | DonInLondon | Step 7 "Courage To Change"


July 23, 2013 step seven in mind: and tradition seven, all about just enough, and having enough to keep the show on the road. I will be doing a tradition seven share some time towards the end of this week. And I had an appointment at the hospital for a retinopathy check-up which gave me time to read not only tradition seven, one or two others as well. Gratitude for the love and wisdom shared through the years, freely given and received.

In the United Kingdom, we recently had gratitude week where we pass the pot around and send the extra money to headquarters to help with general service expenses. Reading tradition seven, I was in complete synchronicity with Bill, who was able to give a five dollar gratuity to an individual and on the same day, when his meeting needed some more money to make the rent, his reluctance and simply offering $.50 cents and taking a dime out, is often the same outlook I have when the pot comes round in my meetings. Funnily enough, after quite a few years, when the gratitude pot is passed, I am able to be more generous these days. I have always been generous, at least I thought so, but there is something perverse in me which considers the relative wealth of all the people in the meeting, and it can make me be more frugal with my limited resources.

Is not what you do in recovery which is important to me. It is what I do in recovery which is important to me. To be as generous as possible with time and sharing, to be as generous as possible when the pot goes round, and listen to the secretary if there are needs for more funds, at least to look and see what I have to give, without ruining my own housekeeping budget. When people are turned out well, we might assume they can afford more than we can. Judge not, because just because a person presents well it does not mean they are financially wealthy. And all we need do is seek to play our part in matters as best we can without judging or we find ourselves as tight-fisted as the next…

Last night, thunderstorms and lightning. I love thunder and lightning, to see it and to hear it and see and if possible feel the rain pounding. The power of nature is uplifting and quite frightening when we are caught in its power. I can remember sailing a small craft in the Caribbean and being caught in a storm within minutes. The boat sank, and without a life jacket, I was standing on the tip of the mast. Quite big sharks were circling me, and I was stuck in a state of watchfulness for about an hour before being rescued by the owner of the boat I had sunk. When the owner rescued me, he was very annoyed about the boat sinking and my part in it. It turned out it had sprung a leak and it was not my fault. He apologised, and said the sharks would not have bitten me because I was too full of rum at the time…

I wonder sometimes how we survive some of the escapades over the years. And I've had a few escapades which make me laugh when I look back and then I feel quite serious, many don't survive these escapades. Or the consequences for the dangerous behaviour of the past have been quite severe. In my case I have gratitude for having had the escapades, I needed them to take me to a place of rock bottom, where I could let go everything and start again. When I say let go, I mean to let go the life I was leading because it had no value in the long run for me or anyone else. So my consequences these days, are living long enough to understand what I can do, what I cannot do and the wisdom to know the difference on the happy road of destiny one day at a time.

There is a song, "my eyes are dim I cannot see," and stay this is true with the check-up for my eyesight. Which I have to say is quite good considering all things. People talk of enlightenment, spiritual connection and many other aspects which might be considered to be in the realms of religion and faith, a belief in God which they understand. My higher power is very practical, living and understanding the reality of now and what can be done, and enlightenment comes through people and experience of life. There are many books of wisdom we can find all around us, we need to remind ourselves, we are also writing our own book of wisdom as life continues. The quality of the wisdom depends on the experience of life and the more we share it, the better informed we become as we get feedback from those living this happy road of destiny. There is good in the worst situations, there is bad in the best situations and sometimes it's downright ugly. And onwards we may tread today.

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