Alcoholics Anonymous Blog & Video | Dec 18 | DonInLondon | Step 12 "Freedom To Choose"
Humility "open to learning life today," surrendering to the "Truth, Love and Wisdom in the moment of now," step twelve: liberty, liberation, release, emancipation, deliverance, forgiveness, tolerance and love.
December 18, 2013 Step Twelve Month: "having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs..." Funerals in Fellowship: comic and tragic, funny ha ha, funny peculiar, and simply funny in the most respectful way. When people share about the recently departed, at their funeral, the truth of their lives comes out, the love they gave and the love they received in life is manifest. A celebration of the good life found living one day at a time becomes obvious. We are not immune to anything in recovery, especially the passage of time and the opportunity to live longer and as a consequence more things to contend with as health is impacted by nature. A really good send-off yesterday, the man cherished beyond measure.
Bring together a group of people who knew one person in recovery and then we see we have maybe this one similarity, a desire to be sober one day at a time. And the diversity and differences, different faiths, different backgrounds, different origins from all over the world, different beliefs, different opinions, different religions, different politics, different lifestyles, different upbringing, to the point where there is no difference which matters. Often day by day, we may find each other disagreeable, often we find each other unfathomable, we find each other confusing, and yet underneath all of this, we get on because we have learned how to love, be loved back and keep on learning the wisdom and the beauty of life.
Yesterday was full of laughter, some fear death and try to be stoic, most have faith of some sort or other and courage to share their memories together, to start the grieving process or continue the grieving process as we feel the loss of another human being. As a Fellowship in which we find a way to live together and make progress and keep learning life, I guess to outsiders, our collective outlook can be very confusing to observe. I think the vicar yesterday might have been startled as our friend came into the service of remembrance with the music of Queen, "under pressure," which made the mourners laugh and cry at the same time. It set the tone for the service. These events are things we do or don't do depending on our beliefs and opinions. We learn a lot about each other at these events and all about love.
I don't know how I feel about funerals generally, and in the past I felt awkward and going to services where those attending had strong religious beliefs and my religious beliefs do not form or belong to any particular sect. All I find in recovery is, every single person has their own belief, every single person has their own outlook and it is perfectly okay to develop your own belief, opinion and outlook about life and death. I just felt like I was in the best company, celebrating another person’s contribution to life and it did not matter whether anyone there was a believer, an atheist or agnostic, we all knew it was about somebody else and not one single living individual. The anarchic democracy which is the foundation of Fellowship works in mysterious ways as well as obvious ways, one day at a time. There is nothing to fear in reality, apart from the obvious dangers of nature and of mankind’s making.
And this morning, just back from an early-morning meeting, just for today, and daily reflections all about sharing our experience strength and hope with the newcomer. Simply we share what we know about our story as best we can. And this is how it works in recovery. We are learning what the truth of now is by being as open and honest as we can. Learning to be open and honest is a skill, and if we encourage people around us day-to-day, maybe they will become more open and honest with us. When we deny truth to another, don't feel like being completely honest, we try to control the outcome, rather than let the outcome develop naturally through discussion and agreement. Learning to be honest with oneself, to thine own self be true helps others be honest with us and life certainly takes on new meaning one day at a time.
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