October 27

DISCIPLINE MONTH: DAY 27: “One half of life is luck; the other half is discipline – and that’s the important half, for without discipline you wouldn’t know what to do with your luck.” – Carl Zuckmayer

I don’t know about luck, but I know for sure that Grace is a component of my life. I believe it is the other half.

Because luck seems so random, I hate to attribute it to the things I call blessings or grace. There is a big part of me that does not believe in the random occurrence of either grace or blessings. The Universe has amazed me in its perfection on too many occasions for me to believe that it is just luck.

So, I am going to change that part of the quote to suit my needs today…sorry Carl! And it works, because it is true that I do not know what to do with Grace without discipline.

I believe we are given these tools of recovery to learn discipline. We addicts seem to be most challenged by discipline and most likely to rebel against it. Even when it seems like a great idea! Therefore, it is a process we come to in the working of these steps and as we go through them, we continue to evolve into disciplined folks.

This is not to say that we are rigid and unbending in our disciplines. We can pick and choose those things that work best for us. I did a Gratitude letter every day for 5 years before I decided it was going to be a lifelong discipline for me. And it came about as I learned more and more of the psychology and neurobiology of what was happening.

I had the experiential results in my own life, but I became hooked when I read the research and the biological changes being made in the brain. The science confirmed, for me, what was only my experience with it and I loved the science.

It was several years before I got the opportunity to get into the classroom with the real masters of the science. In the years before that time, I was reading everything I could to learn about it all. Fascinating stuff!

And with meditation and yoga and the nutrition stuff I still do, that was begun in the early 1970s. I did not have the discipline to maintain any of those practices consistently until I got into recovery. That was when it all became a discipline for me.

I sit every day no matter what. Sometimes there are conflicts in my schedule, has been like that a few times over the years. I adapt my schedule and make these things a priority, just as I always have with calling my sponsor, going to meetings and working my own steps, as well as working with others. I do not EVER sponsor others when I am not working on my own stuff. I think that is dangerous.

So, I receive Grace, all the time, every day that I abstain from those things that have been put behind me in recovery. This list is growing all the time. At first it was just the drugs and booze. Now it includes spitting and several other behaviors that I have let go of because I could see the damage done to both myself and others.

I have made great progress, as have we all. And there is still work to be done and many things that will change, both as I age and as I remain in the process of these steps and the recovery that is so precious to me. Every day is a new opportunity to recognize the Grace in my life, along with opportunities for me to improve on using discipline in my life!