The Higher the Expectations, the Lower the Serenity

Another stellar Monday meeting… 14 attendees, which ties the record!

The beauty of running your own meeting is having the authority to tailor the content to suit your own life circumstances.  I really needed to hear a well-known story in the Big Book, and since this is the first Monday in May, I got to select it.  The image above is an oft-quoted paragraph from the story entitled “Acceptance is the Answer.”

I have written about this story several times in the past 15 months.  When I was just starting out, I attended numerous meetings that featured it, until I finally grasped its importance, and now I only get to hear it when I choose it (which I do, at every opportunity).  If you have a copy of the Big Book, pull it out and read it… it contains a powerful message.

Why is it so difficult to accept people, places and things exactly as they are?  I know, as an alcoholic/addict, that it was in the acceptance of my disease that I found relief, and a solution.  So why is it so tough to use that same formula with the rest of life?

When I perceive that I’ve been wronged, I will lose serenity in an instant, and it becomes astonishingly difficult to climb out of the hole I have dug for myself.  Once in the hole of resentment, I have perfect recall of all past times I have been similarly wronged, and the hole becomes deeper.  I react in kind, believing myself justified because, after all, I have been wronged!  Of course, I am conveniently forgetting the old adage that two wrongs do not make a right… and the hole gets deeper.

So how do I climb out of the hole?  Reading the paragraph in the image above is an excellent start.  When I can truly accept others as they are, and look to what I can change (my thoughts, my actions/reactions, and, consequently, my feelings), I start living in the solution rather than the problem.  And when I live in the solution, rather than the problem, the problem tends to dissipate.

Today, I am starting with the man (woman) in the mirror, and I’m asking him (her) to change his (her) ways!

Today’s Miracle:

Using Michael Jackson lyrics to support recovery is a miracle…

 

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