On AA and Spirituality

I had to hit two meetings today because the exhaustion of life, a recent relapse and the anxiety around my Dad’s death just did me in. I barely worked today. I was a wreck all day (ironically, one of my worst days in a while on World Mental Health Day). I started to head towards the bar, and just immersed myself in meetings instead. Hey - progress. Nice. One of the things that’s resonating as I lay in bed is this concept of God and our incessant need to nail down our full understanding of what that even is. One person quoted someone who said, “if it were small enough to be understood, it wouldn’t be big enough to achieve what we need it to achieve.” I love that, because I struggle with all things G-related, and understanding the vastness and fleeting nature of how it might work gives space for it to exist more in my life.

Someone was also talking about this idea that you can work a program just enough to stay sober, or work one so fully that you become sober and happy, and it reminded me of all the dry drunks I know—people who count the days but never really do any of the work required to get to the root of where all this BS started, so dangerous and destructive behaviors just change form.

A powerful day indeed. Hope you’re all doing as well as you can do today.

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Hi Kelley - I totally randomly found your post as I was browsing. I hope you're hanging in there. Have an awesome day! Sometimes when I struggle with the moment, I have to step WAY back, and thank God for allowing me to experience things like a Crisp Colorado morning, with the leaves on the ground, and the sunlight on my face. Simple things. We are so blessed to experience this life. It's humbling. I'm grateful. In that, I realize I can deal with the moment, because before I know it, it's gone, and maybe, so is the state of mind that was bumming me out.

Well said Kelley…. I find myself at 9 months sober feeling the need to start the work because I am sober but not happy. In AA I’ve met people who took them 3 years 7 years sober before they started the steps and I also met people that started them asap. All of them say it was the best decision to complete the steps. It’s starting to make more sense that’s for sure.

I like how you express your feelings as best you can. Good to write out feelings.