Acceptance: Alcoholics Anonymous is a Gift from God. However, a gift is NOT a gift unless it is accepted by a recipient. It takes two for a giving to be completed. Every gift is twice blest, in him that gives and him that takes. (Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice...greatly paraphrased)
Meeting last evening was on "acceptance". Good topic. Most everyone shared, and the thoughts centered about accepting my alcoholism--more than simply admitting it? (I always thought admitting MEANT accepting, but whatever.
Next prevalent thoughts were that I need to accept persons, places, and things, as they are--for the most part--because there is VERY little outside myself, that I can change. Even when I disagree with persons, speakers, meeting consensus, groups, governments (Ooops!), and other things, I must learn to accept them.
Well, sobriety has become a habit which I'm enjoying, and so I try to grow in this virtue which used to sound to me quite trite (rhyme!), e.g., "acceptance". And I AM lots more accepting than in the far--OR recent--past. But a thought did occur to me during the meeting. NOTE: Watch out, Steve--a thought! Thoughts are BAD for me, especially when I'm alone...or with someone.
I have become a happy person, mostly a fun person, a spirit-filled person. As long as it fits into God's will (I only discern this under adult supervision, BTW), I'll DO it. Sometimes I'll get away with it! (Joke)
I find that people in general, especially old men (I'm only 75!) seem to dislike hearing someone claim to be in a happified state more than one day a week. So I've decided to accept being happy, and to proclaim it--as long as it may last. I accept it and just let those guys enjoy drinking their unsweetened lemon juice.
More and more I am noticing how happified (yes, it's a word!) I've become these past few years, with only a few indentations in overall serenity. It is only as THE result of our (my) program. So I will live in today in an acceptance kind of way. Ha! I LOVE it!
I'm speaking tonight at the "cookie" meeting, 8 PM, and I'm gonna tell them about you people, and what an impact you have made on my program, my life, and my lack of free time and SLEEP!
I am Grateful for:
being an alcoholic
AA
family
church
happiness
MOTOR SCOOTER!!!
health
AA Friends
special friends
And CERTAINLY though last...by FAR not least--you, my blog community.
accept-a-roni
10 comments:
i love this aacept-a-roni you describe here!!!
btw, i don't think admitting and accepting is the same thing. i admitted to the problem, but accepting it was much harder and difficult to deal with, cause accepting (to me) means living (preferable happy) with it. and that only came a whole while after i was sober. after i could get rid of resentment...
Shad, you are correct...don't know of what I was thinking. Thanks for the reminder -grin-
Steve E.
Acceptance for me means that I stop fighting. I stop asking why.
Accepting my character defects is difficult. I always want to fight them, try harder to control them, beat myself up when I fail. Never admitting I am powerless.
Acceptance is when I let go and let God.
Great topic. Thanks for sharing.
Now where did I leave that lemon jiuce?
You rock aacept-a-roni! Being happy is a good state of mind. And acceptance is something that I've honed to a good level in Al-Anon.
What a great post!!! I love the whole idea of "happified" and may have to blog about it myself! thank you for being in my world and life!
G
If you look up acceptance in the first 164 pages of the big book, it only refers to accepting that we are alcoholics. All that other crap about accepting everything as being perfect, like child molesters, is in some crack-pot story in the back of the book. Oooops! I guess I have an opinion about that!
I love the acceptance page from the Big Book, I read it often. I think with acceptance comes freedom.
I'll take happy any day!
I thought admitting meant accepting too. Gonna have to look into this! Happy Friday accept-a-roni.........
I am working on the acceptance thing - I have just come to understand that recovery can be easier with the help of 12 steps.
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