Made A Decision
(99)
This and That about Recovery
I sat there in my car in the AA clubhouse parking lot and thumbed through the pages. I then drove to Shaver's bookstore in downtown Savannah and ordered a copy for myself. The following day I returned the loaned copy to its owner.
The book is called Believing In Myself. It was written by Earnie Larsen and Carol Hegarty.
Moving on:
Not all of our friendships in recovery are with members of AA. We sometimes make good friends in unlikely places, as is the case with my brother, Robert, who this week on April 3rd will celebrate 42 years of sobriety.
Following a meeting in June of 1998 a woman chased after me to my car to hand me a little book.
"Here," she said. "You NEED this book. This is my copy and I want it back, but keep it until you get a copy for yourself."
"Here," she said. "You NEED this book. This is my copy and I want it back, but keep it until you get a copy for yourself."
I sat there in my car in the AA clubhouse parking lot and thumbed through the pages. I then drove to Shaver's bookstore in downtown Savannah and ordered a copy for myself. The following day I returned the loaned copy to its owner.
The book is a daily reader and I've read it every day, every year, since that time. I give copies of the book to my sponsees and to many others besides. Used copies are available online at very reasonable prices and it is impossible for me to recommend it highly enough. It is a life changer. And I know this because it changed mine.
The book is called Believing In Myself. It was written by Earnie Larsen and Carol Hegarty.
I truly believe everyone in recovery should have a copy.
Moving on:
Not all of our friendships in recovery are with members of AA. We sometimes make good friends in unlikely places, as is the case with my brother, Robert, who this week on April 3rd will celebrate 42 years of sobriety.
Rob is currently enjoying a creative writing class and recently was given the assignment: "What’s one thing that cheers you up when your down in the dumps?" His response was to bring back into print a friend he had written about in an earlier assignment, a character that delighted everyone.
Here's what he wrote:
I have tried with some success not to get down in the dumps by using the acronym H.A.L.T. These initials remind me to not let myself get too HUNGRY, ANGRY, LONELY or TIRED. By taking positive action on one or more of these keywords when I'm feeling out of sorts, I can usually identify the cause and get myself back on a more even keel.
Recognizing and tending to my appropriate need (or needs) can quickly change my mood from positive to negative.
My worst-case bad mood scenario is when I awake in the middle of the night. Then, like an alarm clock, my mind turns on and sends me the message: “You've got mail”.
Until I can blessedly fall back to sleep this brings up unrecorded time lying on my back staring into the darkness while I try to solve unsolvable situations concerning past, or future, thought and actions. Time spent not necessarily putting me in the dumps - but exhaustively frustrating.
But my greatest asset - one that constantly cheers me up - is our permanent boarder, friend and family member, Hop-A-Long, a grasshopper blessed with a permanent fixed-in-place happy personality. Hop-A-Long can't help but put me in a better mood if I feel down in the dumps about any real or imagined problems.
Due to the fact that my six-legged-friend gets up earlier than me, and being inwardly attuned to others' moods, he can tell if I'm out of sorts just by the way I walk down the short hallway to the kitchen. Hearing the sound of heavy-footed shuffling of my feet, rather than my walking lightly in step, he has already anticipated my mood and by the time I get to the table he has poured me a cup of coffee. It's a technique guaranteed to help start my day in a more cheerful manner.
Once I settle down with my coffee, if I then unknowingly give even a hint of leftover grumpy, he will remind me - by handing me a small notepad and a pen - to make a short list of things that I am grateful for today. Friends, family, health, etc., etc. Making a "gratitude list" (as he calls it) is always a good reminder of plusses rather than self-imposed negatives in my life. The more I write about things to be grateful for, the faster all bad thoughts seem to just melt away. It's a much better way to start the day.
My small friend's guidance back to gratitude reminds me how important our friends are to help us through all the good, bad and sometimes even ugly things that happen in our lives over which we have little or no control. I am glad to have my insect friend, whom I have also come to believe is much wiser and certainly smarter than me, because beside speaking grasshopper and English, he is also fluent in Italian.
He loves to sing passages from Italian opera in his small but powerful baritone voice and often spontaneously (and happily) breaks into song, which always cheers me.
I feel privileged that Hop-A-Long has my back and unquestionably gives me his unconditional love through his seemingly unlimited ways and means of cheering me up. Heck, more than once in the past, he has even gone so far as to do accurate impersonations of my actions and mannerism, complete with my midwest nasal tone of voice. But he always does so with emphasis on parodying my lows with comedy, making me laugh at my follies. What more can one ask for to get out of a funk?
So, today, why not think about that special friend you have that brings joy into your life? It's a sure way to get yourself thinking about only good life thoughts. Y'all have a good day now!
As you can tell from my brother's story, this post today is - in part - an April Fool post.
So April Fools' Day everyone!!!
(Even so, Robert's story contains a lot of good solid recovery advice for all those able to read between the lines!)
Finally today, our Big Book tells us we alcoholics are physically allergic to alcohol, along with having a mental compulsion to continue drinking when we ingest it in any form. That's truly all we need to know about the drug ethanol to inspire us to keep sober.
But I'm an information junky by nature and can't resist attaching the following clip for those like me who always want to know "the rest of the story." It is a very scientific, serious, detailed and lengthy video (no April Fool's Day clip this) of the effects of alcohol on the human body.
Watching it start to finish offers us a lot of information on why staying clean and sober is a very good idea for us all. Knowledge is power!
Here it is:https://www.youtube.com/
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