and when you have all this, Oh, Boy!
Recently, I was in a position to see, once again, many reasons to be grateful.
I was working at the St. Andrews Soup Kitchen on the East Side of Flint, MI. The usual crew of homeless, hopeless people from the East Side was in the Kitchen for some spiritual guidance and a warm meal.
People were wary and upset about a couple of shootings the night before. Zombie meth addicts were complaining about the alcoholics. Alcoholics moaning about the addicts.
Bi-polar people crabbing about the alcoholics and addicts. Alcoholics and addicts saying their only problem was that they were Bipolar. People truly grateful for lunch which will probably be the only food that they have today, or for several days.
Another was grateful that his furnace was fixed with a cheap DIY fix by a friend and for the first time in 5 years he had heat. A “meth zombie” spraying himself with Lysol so that we all would know that he was now clean and not carrying Covid.
And the beat and list go on! I knew a long time ago that there but for the grace of God go I. Why? Because my name is Jim and I am an alcoholic.
When I was introduced to the AA Program, I had no religious or spiritual background. The thought that I would maybe become one of the disfunctionals that I knew near where I lived as a kid was never far from my mind.
What a breath of fresh air it was to learn that my former God was not really that judgmental, punishing, tyrant that I had been told about. He was a loving, forgiving entity who wanted nothing but the best for me.
He started showing me how through the others in the program. Because of my background, I didn’t even, at first, want to call my Higher Power God because of the way that I had thought of It.
I very easily could have been one of these people who I see every week. Every day is not one filled with laughs and chuckles but every day is one in that I am Happy, Joyous, Free and full of gratitude and love.
Happy because you folks are showing me that this program is very much worth the effort it takes to get and keep.
Joyous because I am now on the giving side of the fence, not taking and fighting for more.
Free from addiction to any mind-altering substances. For all of this, I am truly grateful to you and all of the others who came before us and were and are willing to share.
The other day, Reverend Stephanie Sorensen, of the Flint Life Enrichment Center, talked of gratitude and the two important words, “Thank you.”
The words, “thank you,” are two of the most powerful words we can say when they come from our heart. Perhaps that’s why we say, “Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” even though there isn’t really a bottom to our heart. It’s bottomless and there is no limit to the love, forgiveness and joy it can feel.
There is life-changing power in our saying “thank you” to Life for our life, in our saying “thank you” to Existence for our existence. Creative power comes to us when we are grateful we’re alive and feel it “from the bottom of our heart.”
When we’re grateful for the Life within us that causes us to be aware we’re alive, when we appreciate the gift of this human experience even when we can’t see in a particular moment what to be thankful for, it changes our perception of that moment and we discover there is always something there to appreciate.
Mooji wrote, “Say thank you to your inmost being. Even if you cannot see at the moment what to say thank you for, keep on saying thank you. It will change the vibration inside and make you light and open and full of love, forgiveness and joy.”
It works for me! How about you? Thank you, God!
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