OKaysez

 

Up your attitude with gratitude.

               Guess What? It's Gratitude Week! 

On June 10th, 1935, Bill Wilson and his brand new friend Dr. Robert Smith, set out to find the best way to help alcoholics heal and Alcoholics Anonymous was born. 

We acknowledge this remarkable anniversary by taking part in A.A.'s Gratitude Week, held annually from June 9 through June 15. 

A.A. 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 A.A. 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 this time when A.A. 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? 

Can you recall your denial that 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 A.A. hadn't been there? What if there hadn't been A.A. members to show you the way out? What if there had been no A.A. meeting to become your safe place?

Think about all that for a moment, too.

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 survive, because of the common solution A.A. offers via every one of us. 

Every single member of A.A. has something to offer our fellow alcoholics (This means you, too). Our presence alone is a comfort, our experiences resonate, our strength supports and our hope is contagious. Even when we're struggling ourselves we contribute, because by sharing our torment we open the door for others to help us, and clarify our own minds in the process.

Give a thought to what our A.A. 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 A.A.. Freedom is what recovery is all about. We are free in sobriety to become the person we were meant to be before our addiction(s) derailed us. We have become free to enjoy all 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. Some 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 understandings ask of us. That's how we get to that "more will be revealed" part of our recovery.

All of us pray when hurting. In recovery we learn if we pray regularly, when we continually try for that conscious contact, we won't always hurt as intensely, or as often, or for as long.

Recovery - like old age - ain’t for sissies. It's all about continuing to do-the-doing in good times and bad. "SLOW-briety" will get us where we need to go - one day at a time. Best of all, we'll get there sober. 

Recovery is also about being and remaining grateful for ALL our sober experiences, not just the ones we like. There is much to be learned from both joy and from pain. 

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. 

Scientists say 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! And the best part is, the more gratitude we have, the happier we will feel. 

"We are not saints," and we never will 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.

Our disease wanted us to die alone and unloved at the bitter end of a shortened life. It still does. It doesn't want recovery for us. Our disease wants us isolated, lonely, depressed, suicidal - and dead. 

A.A. is our salvation. Recovery is also an ADVENTURE.  So put on your pith helmet and get ready to explore all the many aspects of it. 

Above all, never ever stop being grateful that you are alive and sober in - all because of - Alcoholics Anonymous! 

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