January 13

ACCEPTANCE MONTH: DAY 13: “I knew then that this is how God loves us all and receives us all, and that there is no such thing in this universe as hell, except maybe in our own terrified minds. Because if even one broken and limited human being could experience even one such episode of absolute forgiveness and acceptance of her own self, then imagine—just imagine! — what God, in all His eternal compassion, can forgive and accept.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert

In every spiritual story I have ever heard or read, there is this AHA! moment, when we get it that there is something SO BIG, SO LOVING, SO AMAZING that we are transported by the awe of that.

Maybe we should call them AWEHA moments…maybe. I love playing with words and that just hit me. Insert smiley emoji here.

Some of my favorite times in my work are those when a client looks at me, with great, big eyes and says…OMG! I got that! YAY! It isn’t all the time, but it does happen, for all of us.

We believe in a punishing, jealous, mean and (too human) God. This is the biggest hurdle for most addicts in recovery. We believe we are BAD and need to get GOOD. So sad, because none of that is true. We are the judges and then blame God for our failures.

We only fail when we refuse to see that there may be a path that is different than the one in our stubborn heads. Oh! (More about this in Step 3 and 11!)

My personal experience is one of having had these Aweha! moments many times in my course of life and recovery. I had hundreds of them long before I ever got into recovery. They were the reason I was able to keep going. I always had a fundamental understanding of the Universe and the Power; I just could not frame it like I can with the help of 12 Steps.

That framework gives me what I need to put tennis shoes on the Power and allow it to run with me down the road of life. That is what this thing gives me…tennies for God.

We all get our moments. More and more often as we learn to align our thinking with our heart, not our fine minds.

Life is very, very good. When I get my mind out of the driver’s seat and let it unfold in the perfect way it is designed to. When I let go of self-centered fear and see the beauty of the vast oceans and Universe and how wonderful and loved and accepted I am today. My ego is the only thing standing in my way. And, thank God, I know it today.