Transcript

Pride · Sober Readings

Scott Hayes: Good morning, welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Wednesday, the fifteenth of July. Let's begin today's episode with the serenity prayer. God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference. From Daily Reflections Pride For thousands of years we have been demanding more than our share of security, prestige, and romance. When we seemed to be succeeding, we drank to dream still greater dreams. When we were frustrated, even in part, we drank for oblivion. Never was there enough of what we thought we wanted. In all these strivings, so many of them well intentioned, our crippling handicap had been our lack of humility. We had lacked the perspective to see that character building and spiritual values had to come first, and that material satisfactions were not the purpose of living. That's on page seventy one of Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. Time and again I approached the seventh step only to fall back and regroup. Something was missing, and the impact of the step escaped me. What have I overlooked? A single word, read but ignored, the foundation of all the steps. Indeed, the entire Alcoholics Anonymous program. That word is humbly. I understood my shortcomings. I constantly put tasks off. I angered easily. I felt too much self-pity, and I thought Why me? Then I remembered pride goeth before the fall, and I eliminated pride from my life. Today's reading from twenty four hours july fifteenth AA thought for the day. After we had sobered up through the AA program, we gradually began to get a peace of mind and serenity which we never thought were possible. This peace of mind is based on a feeling that fundamentally all is well. That does not mean that all is well on the surface of things. Little things can keep going wrong, and big things can keep on upsetting us. But deep down in our hearts we know that everything is eventually going to be alright, now that we are living sober lives. So ask yourself today: have I achieved a deep down inner calm? In the meditation for the day? You are climbing up the ladder of life, which reaches into eternity. Would God plant your feet upon an insecure ladder? Its supports may be out of sight, hidden in secret places, but if God has asked you to step on and up firmly, then surely he has secured your ladder. Faith gives you the strength to climb steadily this ladder of life. You should leave your security to God and trust him not to let you fall. He is there to give you all the power you need to keep on climbing. And today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may climb the ladder of life without fear. I pray that I may progress steadily through the rest of my life with faith and confidence. Today's meditation from Touchstone. There is nothing you can say in answer to a compliment. I have been complimented myself a great many times, and they always embarrass me. I always feel that they have not said enough. That's a quote from Mark Twain. Hearing the good words and praise of another person is harder for some of us to accept than criticism and abuse. Perhaps it is easier to receive what we are accustomed to, or maybe we feel a loss of control when someone compliments us. This is a time for us to begin accepting others' actions. We do not need to be in control of our relationships at all times. When friends offer sincere compliments, we don't need to push them away or brush them off. All we need to do is allow others' positive messages to come into us. In a good relationship, we listen to the feelings of our friends, and sometimes that means truly listening as they tell us their good feelings about us. Today, I will be open to the compliments that come my way without controlling them. And for today's final reading, I'm gonna read a story out of the grapevine dated December of 2020. And this story is titled No Meetings in Sight. What to do when a large section of the state you're in has no AA meetings. One woman was about to find out. I got sober in Los Angeles, where I was blessed with a choice of more than 1200 meetings a week, all within driving and mass transit distance from where I rested my head each night. There were even 20 meetings of every variety within walking distance of my home. Later, I moved to the Great Northwest. Still blessed with over 900 meetings a week in my area, I had the mindset that if one really wanted sobriety, it was only a matter of willingness to go to any lengths. Fast forward several decades. I found myself traveling full time for work, so I attended meetings all across the United States. New faces, new formats, hard chairs, soft chairs, and even luxurious women's meetings in downtown Dallas with imported coffee and couches and pastries. I went all over Gaithersburg, Maryland, New Jersey, New Bedford, Connecticut. In Houston I attended the West Chase Nooner's group, which meets every weekday. It was an inviting, loving meeting. I always felt welcome there, sitting on those old chairs and drinking in the great coffee and solid sobriety. There were meetings in Wichita Falls, Texas, with their old school c clubhouses, similar to what I experienced when I first got sober and was scared out of my mind. The blue-haired women and grisly looking men are all still there. Only now They all kind of look like me and my AA friends. I laugh out loud sometimes when I think about my life in AA, to see the time pass and feel the gratitude. Sometimes it feels as if the building may collapse around us from all the laughter, and other times it just roars through the walls with mutual understanding. One thing in common with all of us, everywhere, is our alcoholism. I was in rural Alabama a while back. I pulled up the AA meeting app on my phone and found nothing. Literally no AA meetings in the area. So I called GSO and they had a couple of suggestions, but no information on meetings. I called the local hospital. I figured there would be a meeting there. I was referred by a helpful switchboard operator to a hospital social worker. She transferred me to the patient advocate who said she couldn't help me. But she gave me the number of a mental health facility in the county and That might be able to help. When I called, I found out I had been given the email address and phone number for the Secretary of Mental Health for the State of Alabama. Not knowing what else to do, I left a message for her. Amazingly, this wonderful woman called me back right away and provided me with the phone number of the county health coordinator for the small hamlet where I would be working for the next nine weeks. I called and left a message, and the woman emailed me the next morning. Informing me that there were no AA meetings anywhere in the county. Wow. My options were limited. I could drive to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, or Meridian, Mississippi, or down to Selma. Each of these was fifty miles away in an hour drive. I was left humbled. What did alcoholics do in this part of the state if they wanted to quit drinking? I eventually found out that people went to the County Mental Health Authority. Registered for treatment and after detox, they could go to the one inpatient twelve step meeting available each week. No transportation available. No guarantee the meeting would even be open if no one was in the current program cycle. I really understand now that depending on where we live, we do not all have the same opportunities. I was grateful beyond measure once I hit Missouri, Tennessee, and Illinois. There were meetings there within walking distance of my hotel. I am deeply saddened that some people don't have the opportunities and options for meetings I have had. Many of my clients in Alabama have never been out of that county. Sometimes it's not just about willingness. There are those who will not have access to AA. They don't have the luxury of complaining that there's no coffee at the meeting, or that the meeting is run out of their favorite type of cookie. I get to stop, pray, cry a little, shake off my seemingly petty resentments. And move on because that is what AA has shown me. There are those still suffering alcoholics who might die never knowing what AA is or could mean for them. I may not be able to stay and help fix this, but when I am able, I will do my best to ensure a meeting is open and available if I can. And since I have the options, I call my sponsor and call back the woman I sponsor. Then I go to a meeting. That was written by Anna W. in Oregon City, Oregon, in December of 2020. And I can certainly relate to that story and I can feel grateful for where I live because there is 40 to 50 meetings in the small town that I live in. And when I moved back home to another small town up north, there was one meeting in that town. And to go to another meeting, I had to drive 45 minutes to get to another town. So I am truly grateful for where I live and the number of AA meetings that I am that I have the option to go to each day and each week. So tell me about your small town or your city or where you live and how many meetings are available to you and how many different types of meetings that you go to. Do you visit all different types of meetings, or do you go to the same home group meeting all the time? I'd like to know. Send me an email at sober readings with Scott at gmail.com. And also, if you'd like to be a guest reader and come on the show and talk about it, I'd love to have you. And so that's going to do it for today's episode of Sober Readings. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, hit the like button, share this episode with someone you think might need it, and subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. And also, if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's readings, just go to my website, soberreadings.com, and click the donate button. So again, thank you so much for listening, stay sober, keep reading, and I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other, and remember, just for today, don't drink, go to a meeting, and keep coming back. Have a great day, and as my friend Larry says, best day ever.