Alcoholics Anonymous Blog December 3 2014 "Freedom To Choose”
Contingent on the day I ask for help: "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 do have to ask for help, and it also means I am open to listening? Every meeting ends with the serenity prayer, and if we really are in tune and in the moment, we are open honest and willing to change the things we can. It really does depend on the current conditions today.
Can I surrender to the truth of now? Do I have useful endeavours? Am I able to love others? Am I able to be loved? I am hopeful today.
Surrendering to the truth of now: being able to listen to others, and identify what is true and beyond my current perspective. Very often, anyone in recovery, anyone simply living in the moment of now is driven by personal belief and opinion, and perspective needs to be found or we can discard the truth and prefer to believe and have opinions which defy reality. Being present in the moment of now, we can feel very alone when we have no perspective or belief in others. And sometimes we are right, and they are wrong.
I received a copy of a letter to my general practitioner from a hospital specialist which suggested I failed to attend an appointment/consultation. I do feel irritated, I have yet to find any appointment date for the consultation. And as a consequence of this letter from the specialist, I now need to instigate a diabetic review for my type I diabetes and other chronic ailments with the general practice, otherwise, all my medications and insulin are cancelled automatically. Being told in this manner is quite irksome, so I better put my skates on and arrange the review promptly. This automatic production of a standard letter suggesting failure on my part indicates the irritation others may experience when the hospital administration fuck things up. I forgive them.
Sharing a message experience strength and hope, is a privilege. And wherever anyone makes the effort, it will be read or not, judged and criticised, helpful and useless, contingent on the current conditions today. If we share in a meeting, one-to-one with another person, outside a meeting, inside a meeting, it may or may not be helpful. Often, we have no idea what the impact of our experience strength and hope may be. And many times, it will go unread, and very often not heard. That does not matter, what matters is sobriety and the intent, which is to be helpful. The privilege is being alive and sober one day at a time. And sharing a message of hope based on truth, love and developing wisdom is always worthwhile. No feedback necessary!
I notice a friend of mine on a particular social network, doing very similar and often better sharing of experience, strength and hope, have no feedback from anyone. When we write something, to help anyone anywhere, we never know if we are making a difference. Often feedback can be difficult to give, and often no matter who we might be, we do ruffle the feathers of others. And that's good, if we help people find their path by being different and diverse, their path being completely different is good. If we didn't have diversity and difference, we would have no perspective on life. Value difference and diversity, agree to disagree, love people, and if we like their behaviour wonderful, and love people even if we don't like their way or their behaviour.
Step Twelve Reading 12 & 12
Alcoholics Anonymous Videos, AA is for Alcoholics, AA 12 Steps, Addiction And Recovery, DonInLondon, Don Oddy,
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