The more gratitude you have the more abundance and success you get
Recently, I had a reminder of all that I have to be grateful for. I was reminded that, since I have joined AA and began working the Program to the best of my ability, I now have choices and success. Looking back, I don’t think that I had any choices before the Program showed me that there was a better way. The way of sobriety.
SOBRIETY is a lot more than just not picking up that drink or drug. Of course, not taking that first drink is a great start. But sobriety is feeling truly Happy, Joyous, and Free in almost every moment of my life since I was introduced to this amazing program.
When I first entered the Program, I heard How it Works read before almost every AA meeting that I attended. The 2nd paragraph jumped out and grabbed me by the throat almost from the very first time that I heard it. The part where it says “If you want what we have and are willing to go to any lengths to get it, the COD.” (Come On Down)
I wanted what I was seeing and hearing from the other members of AA regularly. Wanted it badly! I knew that I was willing to go to any lengths to get it, whatever these lengths consisted of.
I was raised where it would cost me whatever I had in my pockets to just come down off of my porch. If I told Recob that I had a dime, he told me it would cost a dime to come down. If I said a nickel, he took the nickel. I would continue on up to the corner store and get an ice cream cone with a hidden nickel. I would then take a thumping when I came out.
My mother could never understand why I was elated when Recob was killed in a motorcycle accident. Fear dogged me and I learned that alcohol would numb the fearful feelings for a short time. So, I dove headfirst into drinking, even though I blacked out most times that I drank. I didn’t drink for the taste but did for the effect.
I had many different types of friends growing up. Some just like me and many just waiting until they got older to go to prison. My first job when I got out of the Army was as a bouncer at a red neck joint in Muskegon, while supplementing it with foundry work in the daytime. This is where I met my first wife, with whom I went through, not a 16-year marriage but, a 16-year divorce waiting to happen. All of this is to say that I have never been out of place with almost anyone, no matter who they were or what they did.
The reminder that was mentioned earlier occurred recently while working at the St. Andrews Soup Kitchen on the East Side of Flint, MI. I heard that we lost another regular patron of our services. She was not a so-called “outstanding citizen.” But was a person who made her living, or I probably should say existence, by turning tricks as a streetwalker on the streets of East Side Flint. She was a drug addict who robbed her drug dealer and was paid back, along with an accomplice, with a severe beating. Word is that one died and the other was close. Was she one who I would invite over for dinner? No, but she was someone’s daughter or sister.
I hear these stories with too much regularity at the Soup Kitchen. When I do, the 1st thought is “Thank you God for guiding me to and keeping me on track with Alcoholics Anonymous. There, but for You, go I!” There was someone who attended our meetings here for a while who told someone that I was really intense. I plead guilty as charged. Learned a long time ago that I can’t take myself seriously and I don’t. I do take my AA Program as seriously as a heart attack, though, because “There but for the grace of God go I!”
Don’t be afraid of living. Be grateful and happy with the fact that you can now truly live and enjoy life. If you didn’t drink or drug today, you now have choices and can have success. Maybe for the first time. Do you choose to be miserable or do you choose to be Happy, Joyous, and Free? When grateful, what is your choice? The choice is yours and nobody else’s. Choose wisely! Thank you, God!
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