May 9

INTEGRITY MONTH: DAY 9: “Character is holding to our integrity when everyone around us is holding on to everything except their integrity and pressing us to do the same.”― Craig D. Lounsbrough

When I first started this journey, I was presented first with an opportunity to challenge my newfound honesty and integrity daily. I was given a job where I handled large sums of other-people’s money every day without oversight. What an order! I was honest about it all. And I was truly building my life up from the scrapheap that had been created when I lost everything by going into the recovery home. Everything! But I was able to cling to that path, and then it got even more challenging. Soon I found that I was the gatekeeper for money from all the meetings (and the Area) as their Treasurer. Yikes! I had jars of money in my home.

And yet I remained steadfast in not using any of the money that did not belong to me. Several very miraculous events kept me true to my path. What a gift!

About 2 years in, I went to work in a place that I loved and had the opportunity to stay in that job for a long time (for me!) There was a lot of dishonest stuff going on, and I was the only staff member who was privy to it. It shook my foundation a great deal for a long time, but I was able to navigate that experience without succumbing to the behavior of a long-time (so-called) sober member who did not. That person is still around, but so am I. And I have been able to witness some of the other things that have gone on in that realm since then. What I got to learn was that another person’s journey does not have to be connected to mine. A great teaching took place and I am a grateful student.

That old saying about “if you want what we have…” So choices are made and we get what we get. I found out that there are no shortcuts to integrity. That there is nothing I want badly enough to take in ways that the prices are too dear to pay. That is my lesson. I am grateful and will continue to believe it is the journey I am here for.