May 25

INTEGRITY MONT: DAY 25: “When your words and actions are unified you radiate a sense of integrity.” ― Daphne Michaels

I get to meet a lot of people who are incarcerated. It is the joy of the service I get to perform. I love service. It is the foundation and backbone of my recovery. I meet mostly men, but it does not matter. I am respected and trusted  by them because they know my integrity is there.

Funny, but their senses of intuition are more finely honed than most people’s. I am sure that is a condition of their lives in the setting where they reside.

And that trust is a deep honor for me. I tell them the truth and they respect and trust that the foundation of my truth is honest and integral. This means more to me than the opinions or people in the world around me. I honor it a great deal more.

Just as I have been able to work with some very badly emotionally damaged folks, I love that I get to know those whose lives do not follow the straightest of courses. I find that I resonate a great deal more strongly with them than anyone else. They are truly my people.

And they are not easy to trust. Their levels of honor and their ways of living into that are more dear to me than in the world where I live.

Being integral with them is a righteous responsibility that I love getting to maintain and keep myself in line with. Today I am mindful of that, because it was high up on my gratitude list. I have shared intimate moments with many of these people and I am grateful for their faith in my ability to teach and tell the truth when it really matters.

We may do this when it is expedient to our purposes, to manipulate and get what we want, or to look good in meetings and with those we want to impress. But when it is a matter of doing it when it matters to others, is, for me, the greatest honor of all.

I love this stuff and where it takes me. I love the benefits and side-effects of recovery. For me, these are the things I came here to be and to do and to become.