shydawg
02-01-2009, 01:52 PM
SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES: GRATITUDE
(Reprinted From the "Winners Corner" November 1989)
Â*Â*Â*Â* "OH NO!Â* Not another gratitude meeting!"Â* I hear that
complaint every year around Thanksgiving.Â* It seems that
when we are at our cynical worst, this topic excites a gag reflex
and a great sigh of resentful boredom among many
addicts.Â* After all, what do WE have to be grateful for, we who
have only had our lives saved, who've just had our hopes
restored, whose hearts are, at long last, merely loved and able
to love?
Â*Â*Â*Â* The "attitude of gratitude" may sound like a corny cliche,
but I owe my life and my recovery to it.Â* While I may be
powerless over most things in the world, the one thing I seem to
have the most power over is my attitude.Â* My attitude is simply
what I'm choosing to look at, and the position I'm looking from.
I can face the swamp or the sky; I can focus on my hopelessness,
or on seeking inspiration from my Higher Power.Â* When I choose to
look at the blessings in my life, at the miracle of my recovery,
and at the gifts of love, laughter and light with which my God
has graced me, then I am surprised by a tear of joy in my voice,
so great is my feeling of joy and gratitude.Â* More than ever,
that's when my gratitude speaks, through caring and sharing the
N.A. way.Â* Yet when my disease starts gunning for me, and I take
the normal trials of everyday life PERSONALLY, I can lose touch
with that sense of appropriate appreciation.Â* That's when I need
to be reminded just how much I have to be grateful for.
Â*Â*Â*Â* Above all else, I am grateful to be clean today.Â* Without
this, I would surely have nothing else in my life to be grateful
for.Â* Next, I am grateful for my loving Higher Power.Â* (I know
that my God is not jealous; He doesn't mind being listed second.
He knows that if being clean were not my first priority, I would
surely not appreciate Him.)Â* I'm also grateful for the Steps, my
sponsor, sponsees, family, friends, recovery, clean time, and my
experience, talents and intelligence; service, spirituality,
nature, music, humor, pleasure, work, play, rest; vacations,
conventions, pets, toys, good weather, and over fifty other
wonderful things that I discovered on my last gratitude list.Â* I
was surprised to learn that I had counted my blessings!Â* I had
always laughed at that saying, and now here I was...Â*Â*Â*Â*
Â*Â*Â*Â* Whenever I'm asked to sponsor someone, the first thing I ask
them to do is to write a Gratitude List.Â* This assignment helps
accomplish three things: first, to discover that recovery is
sweet, and not a chore.Â* (What better way to learn that than to
look first at our gifts?Â* There will be time enough for counting
tears later.)Â* Second, to become accustomed to the simple
inventory process, without grandiose frills and historical
dramas.Â* Third, to show the simple willingness to get started.
If an addict can't find the willingness to do something for
himself as simple as writing a gratitude list, chances are that
he's not really willing to do ANYTHING for his own recovery!
It's simple, but then most good things are simple.
Â*Â*Â*Â* Staying in tune with my blessings helps to keep me out of
harm's way.Â* It has been said that a grateful addict won't use.
I've come to believe that it's always up to me to make that first
choice: to stay positive, and be part of the solution.Â* At first
I was puzzled when addicts said, "I'm grateful to be a recovering
addict."Â* I thought, that's crazy!Â* Who could be grateful to be
an addict?Â* But in time I understood.Â* Over the years, I had hit
bottom after bottom on self-will, emotional pain, moral confu
sion, and a sad life in general.Â* Without a quick bottom on
drugs, I might have just gone on, in chronic misery, to the age
of 90, and stayed as crazy and unhappy as I had been when I was a
kid, never learning the tools for dealing with life on life's
terms.Â* Instead, thanks to just being an addict and thanks to the
miracle of recovery in Narcotics Anonymous, today I can work one
simple program on one simple disease.
Â* In the fullness of time, being grateful opened my heart to
being cheerful, hopeful and joyful.Â* I have become grateful to
know that I'm just another recovering addict.Â* Through the
kindness of God and this program, my heart today has a Great
Fullness that was beyond my wildest dreams.Â*Â*Â*Â* -- D.L.H.
(Reprinted From the "Winners Corner" November 1989)
Â*Â*Â*Â* "OH NO!Â* Not another gratitude meeting!"Â* I hear that
complaint every year around Thanksgiving.Â* It seems that
when we are at our cynical worst, this topic excites a gag reflex
and a great sigh of resentful boredom among many
addicts.Â* After all, what do WE have to be grateful for, we who
have only had our lives saved, who've just had our hopes
restored, whose hearts are, at long last, merely loved and able
to love?
Â*Â*Â*Â* The "attitude of gratitude" may sound like a corny cliche,
but I owe my life and my recovery to it.Â* While I may be
powerless over most things in the world, the one thing I seem to
have the most power over is my attitude.Â* My attitude is simply
what I'm choosing to look at, and the position I'm looking from.
I can face the swamp or the sky; I can focus on my hopelessness,
or on seeking inspiration from my Higher Power.Â* When I choose to
look at the blessings in my life, at the miracle of my recovery,
and at the gifts of love, laughter and light with which my God
has graced me, then I am surprised by a tear of joy in my voice,
so great is my feeling of joy and gratitude.Â* More than ever,
that's when my gratitude speaks, through caring and sharing the
N.A. way.Â* Yet when my disease starts gunning for me, and I take
the normal trials of everyday life PERSONALLY, I can lose touch
with that sense of appropriate appreciation.Â* That's when I need
to be reminded just how much I have to be grateful for.
Â*Â*Â*Â* Above all else, I am grateful to be clean today.Â* Without
this, I would surely have nothing else in my life to be grateful
for.Â* Next, I am grateful for my loving Higher Power.Â* (I know
that my God is not jealous; He doesn't mind being listed second.
He knows that if being clean were not my first priority, I would
surely not appreciate Him.)Â* I'm also grateful for the Steps, my
sponsor, sponsees, family, friends, recovery, clean time, and my
experience, talents and intelligence; service, spirituality,
nature, music, humor, pleasure, work, play, rest; vacations,
conventions, pets, toys, good weather, and over fifty other
wonderful things that I discovered on my last gratitude list.Â* I
was surprised to learn that I had counted my blessings!Â* I had
always laughed at that saying, and now here I was...Â*Â*Â*Â*
Â*Â*Â*Â* Whenever I'm asked to sponsor someone, the first thing I ask
them to do is to write a Gratitude List.Â* This assignment helps
accomplish three things: first, to discover that recovery is
sweet, and not a chore.Â* (What better way to learn that than to
look first at our gifts?Â* There will be time enough for counting
tears later.)Â* Second, to become accustomed to the simple
inventory process, without grandiose frills and historical
dramas.Â* Third, to show the simple willingness to get started.
If an addict can't find the willingness to do something for
himself as simple as writing a gratitude list, chances are that
he's not really willing to do ANYTHING for his own recovery!
It's simple, but then most good things are simple.
Â*Â*Â*Â* Staying in tune with my blessings helps to keep me out of
harm's way.Â* It has been said that a grateful addict won't use.
I've come to believe that it's always up to me to make that first
choice: to stay positive, and be part of the solution.Â* At first
I was puzzled when addicts said, "I'm grateful to be a recovering
addict."Â* I thought, that's crazy!Â* Who could be grateful to be
an addict?Â* But in time I understood.Â* Over the years, I had hit
bottom after bottom on self-will, emotional pain, moral confu
sion, and a sad life in general.Â* Without a quick bottom on
drugs, I might have just gone on, in chronic misery, to the age
of 90, and stayed as crazy and unhappy as I had been when I was a
kid, never learning the tools for dealing with life on life's
terms.Â* Instead, thanks to just being an addict and thanks to the
miracle of recovery in Narcotics Anonymous, today I can work one
simple program on one simple disease.
Â* In the fullness of time, being grateful opened my heart to
being cheerful, hopeful and joyful.Â* I have become grateful to
know that I'm just another recovering addict.Â* Through the
kindness of God and this program, my heart today has a Great
Fullness that was beyond my wildest dreams.Â*Â*Â*Â* -- D.L.H.