Alcoholics Anonymous Blog/Video Nov 3 DonInLondon Step 11 "Truth Love Wisdom"
"Love, forgiveness, harmony, truth, faith, hope, light, and joy to every human being."
November 3, 2013 Step Eleven Month: "sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out." Thy will be done. Not my will, not self-will, yes self-determination, and yes to inclusion in the big picture which impacts on everyone. A prayer which is selfless has more chance of being answered when we ask for help. Meditation: to improve our conscious contact with reality, the can do and cannot do and the wisdom to know the difference today.
Good bad and ugly can happen within moments from waking and starting to explore the world. We can turn on the radio, television, the computer. We can have letters from the world about anything and everything twenty-four seven. So we cope with the reality of all these forms of communication before we even set foot outside our front door. Our mood on waking can be serene or exhausted depending on yesterday and dreams and feelings driving our thoughts around and around. It is difficult being human today!
Letters from friends: some are travelling, and to letters from blasts from the past, both of whom I still love today. And another which sent me a copy of copyrighted material about the do's and don'ts within Fellowship. A bit like the curate's egg: "good in parts." Being November, where I share my experience strength and hope of step eleven and tradition eleven, tradition eleven is always a concern of mine. Providing I do not hinder the spiritual and emotional development of others, I am still on my journey learning the emotional and spiritual way of life from waking to bedtime.
How we pray selflessly? I'm sure from time to time I do indulge in the fantasy of winning the lottery, making life good for family and friends and everyone I might encounter. More practical prayers are about love, forgiveness, harmony, truth, faith, hope, light, and joy to every human being. If I have these feelings and intentions, my thinking is guided toward the good of life even when it's bad and ugly. Sometimes I have to take time and be very considerate of the feelings of those I might offend by my behaviour. Self-determination is the right of each and every one of us, freedom to choose what is possible and not possible based on our humanity, integrity and personal ethics. Social media has opened the door to diversity and transparency, on the other hand social media is often feared as the opening of Pandora's Box and the only thing left in the box is hope. Diversity and freedom and then transparency opens the door to everything as well as self-prejudice, prejudice against the world. Thank God for the twelve steps and most of the traditions as they are.
I was lucky to get to a meeting yesterday morning after my personal reflections. At the end of the meeting when we all share and say the serenity prayer, I feel grounded and happy. At the same time, even though we may be saying the words because we have memorised them, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference" I don't just say the serenity prayer at the end of the meeting, I seem to recite it in my head many times a day. Can do, cannot do and I keep learning the difference. Not about my will, thy will be done. Thy will to the common good of humanity and not just me. This often changes everything to a bigger perspective which I can only know with the help of the many.
Expectations, entitlements, these are things we are often prone to think about. "Don't you know who I am?" Or even if you don't know who I am, why are you treating me so badly in my own opinion? I hope I set my expectations to zero; it stops resentments against myself and other people when things go wrong. Actually sometimes things do go wrong, and it's nobody's fault, it does not mean we have to endure them over and over again, thank God for step two!
Sunday mornings are like any other morning, I try to remind myself about step one: powerless over everything and yet free to choose next steps today. So step two: reminded of the insanity of doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result. Step three: I am accountable for what I do and the consequences, letting go fear pride and ego, and working on courage to change, faith in doing the next right thing and confidence to be a learner today. Oh yes and the serenity prayer at the beginning of the day and the can do and cannot do and the wisdom to be learned moment to moment. Whatever the good of your understanding or the God of your understanding, a better perspective is on offer today.
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