FAITH MONTH: DAY 26: “In order to have faith in his own path, he does not need to prove that someone else’s path is wrong.” ― Paulo Coelho
There are very few people around here who do the amount or kinds of work I do to remain peaceful in recovery. I have met one or two, but they are few and far between.
I believe most addicts do the minimum of work they can get away with, because we are inherently lazy people. Conditioning tells us that we are going to “fix” our problems with a pill or a drink to begin with. This is vastly and heavily supported in our culture and the families we come from. So, to believe that we are going to work more than necessary in recovery is not true. I do a lot of work to get the results I get, because they are wonderful and feel good. They take years to manifest direct results, so most of the people I work with and have known over the years are NOT going to do this.
However, all of that being said and recognized as true, there is no disparagement on my part for any of these folks and the journey they travel.
I get what I get because I do what I do. There is nothing else to say about that. That old saying from the early days of my recovery is: “If you like what you are getting, keep doing what you are doing.” And that is all that we need to know. There is always more work to do, there is always more for us to look at in our beliefs and the way we behave around those beliefs. There is always something more to know and understand about our relationships in the world around us.
Ego will rear its ugly head and say, “I work so hard…blah, blah, blah.” And that is patently untrue. We don’t. We think about it, we talk about it more than anything. But we all have a journey and a way of being in the world.
Faith means we have to keep going, even when we are unwilling. It is the thing that keeps us eating well when we want to binge eat ice cream and donuts or hamburgers. It is the thing that motivates us to work out and sleep enough and take care of our health. Not because we don’t want to get fat or be out of shape, but because we want to live well.
The same things apply to spiritual work. We do what we do to get what we get. If we are happy with the way we feel about our lives, we don’t want to examine anything that WE are doing. We wait for everyone else to change to suit us more perfectly and to increase our pleasure.
This will not work, but we insist on others doing the work for us. I can go and sit all day and watch others hike up the hills where I live. I do NOT get any benefit from their exercise. I must get off my butt and go and do the hiking so I can move my body more perfectly.
I do not wait till I lose the weight to go to the gym. I go and begin to see the results. My energy increases, my health benefits increase, I feel better. Not too concerned with the idea of looking good. My best practices are the yoga I do in my home (no one sees, but I know!) and the solitary hikes I take throughout the week.
This is not to impress others, but to take maximum benefit of the days I live. I FEEL better, I work better, I function at the top of my game. And I can move my body and do things that I want to do.
The same goes for the work of recovery. It is never over. There is always more service to do, more new members to interface with, and more for me to give away.
BUT…I cannot transmit something I haven’t got. My favorite 3 words in the BB are: “See to it…” We must have a connection with something to call what we have recovery. That is why we must do the work here.
Dolphin Hug 