We're right now in the middle of AA's Gratitude Week that began on 9 June and ends June 15. But it's not too late to celebrate right here in the middle!
Way back on June 10th, 1935 (nine years before I was born), Bill Wilson and his friend Dr. Robert Smith, set out to find the best way to reform alcoholics - and Alcoholics Anonymous was born.
We acknowledge this 85th birthday anniversary by taking part in AA's Gratitude Week.
AA members celebrate by holding gratitude meetings in their home groups, or by making a special donation to the General Service Office (either as an individual or by having a separate passing of the pot to send in labeled as your group's gratitude contribution), or by our just taking time every morning this week to be grateful for all that AA has given us personally.
Before our founders cobbled together our amazing program of recovery - drawing on medicine, religion, science, and their built-in first-hand knowledge of how alcoholics think and behave ...
... there was NO SOLUTION for drunks like us.
To be diagnosed as an "alcoholic" before 1935 was a death sentence. Alcoholism meant suffering a long, slow, painful decline into insanity, followed by death. So living in a time when AA is readily available is truly a miracle for every single one of us.
Stop and just think about that for a minute.
Remember when you hit the last stage of your own drinking? Remember the fear, the hangovers, the self-disgust, the scornful looks and remarks from friends and family, your own bafflement at not wanting to drink, but continuing to do so?
Or can you recall your denial you even had a problem until the cell door slammed behind you, or the family left, or you got fired? Or all of the above? Remember?
What if there had been no way out for you? What if the hand of AA hadn't been there? What if there hadn't been AA members to show you the way out? What if there had been no AA meeting to become your safe place?
Think about that for a minute, too.
As our book says, we are people who would not normally mix, coming as we do from different countries, political, economic, social and religious backgrounds. But mix we do, and we are saved because of the common solution AA offers to, and through, each one of us.
Every single member of AA has something to offer our fellow alcoholics (yes, this means you, too). Our presence alone is a comfort, our experiences resonate, our strength supports, our hope is contagious. And even when we're struggling we contribute, because by sharing our torment we open the door for others to help, and we clarify our own minds in the process.
Give a thought to what our AA friends offer us, of their caring, friendliness, understanding, support, and when we most need it - a jolt of truth - delivered with an honesty seldom found elsewhere. And we do the same for them. We are needed!
We, who were once slaves to our drink, have become free in AA. Freedom is what recovery is all about. We are free in sobriety to become who we were meant to be before our addiction(s) derailed us. We have become free to enjoy all that life has to offer.
Does being free mean we'll always get our own way? Uh, no. Sorry. We learn, we grow, and then we get more opportunities to learn still more. Many of our sober lessons will be difficult, because that's how we continue to grow to become better people.
We are where we are for a reason. Growth is work. We must be willing to do the simple things that our newer understanding asks of us. That's how we get to that "more will be revealed" part of our recovery.
All of us pray when we are hurting. In recovery we learn that if we pray regularly, when we continually try for that conscious contact, we won't have cause to be hurting as intensely, or as often.
Recovery - like old age - isn't for sissies. It's all about continuing to do-the-doing in both good times and bad. "Slowbriety" will get us where we need to go - one day at a time - and best of all, we'll get there sober.
Recovery is also all about being and remaining grateful for ALL our sober experiences and not just the ones we like. There is much to be learned about living from both joy and from pain. Both offer us reasons for gratitude.
When we are active in our recovery we change every single day … one day at a time This growth is not the result of wishing and hoping, but of action and prayer.
And science now tells us we cannot hold a negative thought and a positive thought at the same time. So making a gratitude list is a guaranteed path out of the doldrums. Try it. It works every time!
"We are not saints," and we will never be, but it's a healthy sign of our recovery when we really wish we could be ... when we truly want to be better and are willing to do everything it takes to become the best person we can be.
What an amazing gift AA is to people like us who, without it, would be doomed to an almost certain ugly and painful death.
Your disease wanted you to die alone and unloved at the bitter end of a shortened life. It still does. It doesn't want recovery for you.
Your disease wanted/wants you isolated, lonely, depressed, suicidal - and dead. Recovery in AA is your salvation. Recovery is also an ADVENTURE. So put on your pith helmet and be willing to explore all the many aspects of it.
Above all, never ever stop being grateful that you are alive and sober in - and because of - Alcoholics Anonymous!
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