Monday 20 February 2012

February 20 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012

February 20 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 2 | 2012 |Today's AA daily reflection: "feeling the highs and lows of life." By the end of my drinking days, I could hardly feel a thing beyond a dark and desolate pain which ached in my gut and all I wanted was oblivion. As a newcomer in Alcoholics Anonymous, the laughter of other people disturbed me immensely. I kept on going, 90 meetings in 90 days, they were not laughing at me, they were laughing at the absurdity of life and I joined in and began to laugh again...



A wonderful meeting yesterday, a newcomers meeting and our principal sharer began by saying stop thinking! I must say I loved what was shared, I promised myself I would go to this meeting a few hours earlier and in between I am sure I came up with 1000 reasons not to go. Even today some years in recovery I can still think my way out what is good for me rather than go with the feeling of what is good me…



I know if I really do ask myself every day, when I wake up, "how am I feeling?" "Why?" "And what can I do next?" Often I have no clue why I feel good, bad or simply indifferent… At the same time it's good to ask why and usually if I don't feel good, it's because I am hungry, angry, lonely or tired, or any combination or just one of those things. If I feel good, why not go to a meeting or make contact with another human being? If I feel hungry angry lonely or tired, I better make conscious contact with another human being and have a reality check…



A reality check for me is about my emotional and spiritual condition. Knowing what my feelings are and how able am I to cope with the reality of my situation right now. Feelings always influence my thinking and feelings are happening all the time whether I like them or not. So if I know what my feelings are doing, I have a chance to think about what next and aim toward a solution rather than a problem or making a problem worse. Actions can change my feelings and often the thinking part about what to do next is heavily influenced by the twelve steps and experience strength and hope shared in meetings of the fellowship…



Yesterday afternoon after the meeting I met with friends and friends relatives for what I thought was going to be tea and cakes, fun and laughter. It was more than that, I was fed dinner and coffee and numerous sorts of cakes! And the delight of good company, old friends, new friends all of us laughing together, telling true stories and me sharing "tall stories" and sometimes so gleeful I cannot tell the difference from where truth ends and fictions exaggerate the humour I share… To love and be loved back just as we may be with all our human idiosyncrasies is the best it can be…



DonInLondon 2005-2011



Came to believe that a power greater than us.. ~ Mark Twain "The more we explain it, the more we don't understand it." Truth, love and wisdom of others a good start, sometimes in defining we return to denial, there is purpose in everything...



I do need to lean on the many in fellowship, and get help outside the fellowship when I am out of my depth. Experience has taught me the limits of what I can and cannot do. In fellowship as a non professional and as a citizen in daily life, when there is an emergency, we call emergency services and apply first aid as we may be trained...



Ralph Waldo Emerson "Play out the game, act well your part, and if the gods have blundered, we will not."



The more we know the less we know ~ Mark Twain "The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop." In the ever present moment we know what we know, then we learn more with an open mind...



Laughter and not taking ourselves too seriously, all the time! ~Joan Lunden "Holding on to anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth. Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the lightness in your life." -/- Forgive, forgive forgive...



In our fewllowship we we see the walking dead restored to sanity [some of the time..] Linda Ellerbee "I have always felt that laughter in the face of reality is probably the finest sound there is and will last until the day when the game is called on account of darkness. In this world, a good time to laugh is any time you can." Our gallows humour may seem insane to some, back from the brink we are lucky and laughter comes in time...



AA Daily Reflection: THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER ~ FEBRUARY 20, At this juncture, his A.A. sponsor usually laughs. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 26



Before my recovery from alcoholism began, laughter was one of the most painful sounds I knew. I never laughed and I felt that anyone else’s laughter was directed at me! My self-pity and anger denied me the simplest of pleasures or lightness of heart. By the end of my drinking not even alcohol could provoke a drunken giggle in me. When my A.A. sponsor began to laugh and point out my self-pity and ego-feeding deceptions, I was annoyed and hurt, but it taught me to lighten up and focus on my recovery. I soon learned to laugh at myself and eventually I taught those I sponsor to laugh also. Every day I ask God to help me stop taking myself too seriously.





Step 2 Reading Video Link:









"Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity"



-/-


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