Today’s weather may be the kind where it would be great to just snuggle up a little deeper into the blankets and stay warm and dry. It is cold, wet, and rainy outside and some have their spirits downed because of this. We all have our own definition of good weather and this means that we all also define our “lousy weather.” What’s a blessing for me is lousy for you. Add to this possibly an ache or pain in the body and or a tragedy playing out in life and it is a perfect day to think “Poor Me!” “How can anyone feel anything but blue on a day like this?”
Today we were blessed to have been able to hand out some lunches and love to some people who exist in the East Side of Flint, which is annually in the top one to three cities in the US in poverty and violent crime statistics. They have no spot to “burrow into the covers” because the abandoned, probably burned out, house they spent the night in probably does not even have windows left, let alone beds, electricity, or even clean water. They probably lost a neighbor or so to an overdose, shooting, fire, or exposure last night. When we saw them and gave them a smile, a hug, and/or just a lunch they smiled briefly for possibly the only time in this day and said “thank you” as they walked or drove their stolen vehicle away.
Father Jay Gantz has been doing this for over 20 years in Flint and before that in New York, Detroit, Chicago, California and around. I have seen ugly, aggressive, filthy people calm down in seconds when they realized Father Jay was the one stepping into their fray. Today, I saw a 6’6, muscled, 62 year old former street thug, gangbanger, who has shot, beat, and robbed people, break down, cry, and hug with Fr Jay when he discovered that a young lady, who he had known since she was a child, had died of an overdose. These people were born Perfect expressions of God, as we all were, only to be brought down by others using their own free will to impose the feeling of being a victim on them. This was probably right from the start and only reinforced over the years. Many of these people are still in the madness of alcohol and/or drug abuse and see no way out because that is all that they ever knew and feel that no one else can really know or care.
These thoughts are really no different than the thoughts that I had when younger, before being introduced to AA by some of the formerly ugliest, meanest, most violent people in Detroit who became my loving, beautiful sponsors in early AA. When I now count my blessings, I no longer even have time to bitch. I woke up this morning and saw my wife and dog who love me. I walked the dog in the cold rain because she had to go and hasn’t been taught how to flush the toilet yet. I hear from our children and grandchildren on a fairly regular basis. I am alive, well, and fit.
As much as I lost when in the madness, I have regained it back and much more. Why? Because I found myself and discovered that there is real hope for this formerly lost self if only I continue trying to do the next right thing by working my program 24/7/365. Today I am truly Happy, Joyous, and Free because AA, which right now means you, is teaching me that life is worth living. Why? Because I am an individualized expression of God and one with all that exists and that you are too. This means that we are all brothers from different mothers or sisters from other misters. That means that I never have to be alone again, unless I choose to be. Do you want what we have? Are you willing to go to any lengths to get it? If yes, COD, come on down and join us and God bless you. If not, get ready because the ride only gets rougher. Also God blesses you, too, whichever way you choose.