January 25

ACCEPTANCE MONTH: DAY 25: “Know that everything is in perfect order whether you understand it or not.” ― Valery Satterwhite

The ego wants to fight everything. So, we insist on “understanding” life, analyzing it, attempting to control or manipulate what is going on.

When we cannot do this, we get angry and insist that life isn’t fair and we are not getting what we want. Most of us are better off NOT getting what we want.

The challenge is to sit still and be open to what IS and what IS coming next. As soon as we accept what IS, the shift is ON! That is already gone and something new, and something new, and something new. Isn’t that fun???

Not a lot for addicts. We are so fear-based in our thinking (ego!) that we cannot grasp the wonder and the joy and the beauty of the next moment.

And we talk about this thing being HARD…not so. It is different, unique, unusual, sometimes uncomfortable. But never, ever, ever is it HARD. Recovery is SO many things, but hard ain’t one of them. And we talk about PAIN. There is NO pain in recovery. Pain is the thing WE create when we resist life. It is painful to stand in the face of a wave and tell the ocean to stop. We ARE going to get pounded. That is the nature of a wave. When we stand still and rigid in the face of life, we are going to get pounded. That is the nature of life.

And that is what causes the pain. Change isn’t scary or painful, unless we are resisting what we cannot control. Oh! And if, as we have discussed in Step 1, I am Powerless and my (LIFE) is Unmanageable, that means I cannot control or resist ANYTHING! Oh!

So, consequently, we must learn to sit still and let life flow around, above, under, and through us. We must accept it ALL. Our opinions are useless, why even have them? Ego. Judgment comes from the fear-based thinking we are accustomed to when we get here. (EGO!)

What if we learn to resist that? We would be more fully into acceptance and joy and life and living and there would be a zillion more hours in our lives! Yay!

The stories would be gone and we would be so busy living that we would let go of worry, control, fear, resistance, denial, ALL OF IT!

Okay, sign me up. How about you?