I've been immersed in life the last couple of weeks, so I've been remiss in blogging. I've missed it, but I've just not had time to blog. Even now, I'm sneaking in this blog between a couple of chores left me by my wife. She's out getting her nails done with my soon to be married daughter. I deserve this blog!
At one of my favorite meetings earlier today, the chair offered "Hope" as the topic and it was a perfect fit to her story. In fact, it is a perfect fit with every one's stories in AA! It dawned on me me today that Hope is one of the essential ingredients for recovery. Every time we tell stories in AA, they are filled with all sorts of horrendous tales which include shame, hurt, guilt, failure, betrayal and pain. Strangely, when we hear these stories, we often laugh with one another and I've often thought that laughter to be odd and maybe even inappropriate. But I can't help joining in anyway! Why do we laugh (and sure, we cry too!) at these stories??
I think it's because our stories, by definition, contain hope. They contain hope for all of us because while these stories tell all sorts of hellish events from our past, we have all apparently lived to tell and share our stories. They are all stories of survival. Somehow we survived. Where life was nothing but hopelessness and isolation, we somehow survived. We got sober. Even if someone was sitting in the meeting today still with alcoholic flowing through their veins, for some reason, they were there in a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. Even if they were there at the behest of a lover, the command of a lawyer/judge, or the pain of a swollen liver, they were there sitting amongst others who also could simply not stop drinking and/or using. And not only had these people experienced the same hell of not being able to stop, it appears that many of them had figured out a way to stay sober one day at a time for many days.
That meeting really gave me a renewed spirit of hope. Reconnected with a bunch of people I now get to honestly consider friends. And am now able to go back to my chores with a certain lightness and calm. Pretty amazing.
Take care!
Mike L.
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It recently struck me as I was reflecting on what some people say: step one is the problem, step two is the solution. This somehow never sat right with me, for I believe the entire twelve steps to be the solution.
So I thought about it. What had to be the problem such that step one became the first step in a solution to that problem? My answer came while I was sitting in a meeting of professionals, scribbling notes, and at the top of the page I wrote this:
(the name of course does not matter, whether it is called step 0, 1/2, or pre-step one, but in either case, I believe this step to necessarily precede our twelve step solution)
"We came to believe that sobriety was impossible -- that our lives would never be happy again."
And I thought of what you wrote last month on magic vs. miracles. If we work this vital step 1/2 thoroughly, it is my belief that step one therefore becomes an action step -- the first step in our solution. I am probably not the first one to come up with something like this, but it meant something important to me on Thursday so I thought I would share it.
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