LIFE LINE

 

LIFELINE

 LIFELINE

My father was sightless from the age of 4-5, and became a mute at age 50.  He was a farmer, who with my mother spent some of their winters visiting us in sunny, warm (Yeah...right--grin!) Naples, FL.

Deaf-Blind Pop just loved, REALLY loved to swim in the Gulf of Mexico.  He could tell by the sun and the breeze which way was the shore--when he swam out to a sandbar.  One time he swam out there, the sun hid itself, and the breeze decided a siesta was a good idea. So he determined which way to swim, and he wrongly chose to swim west, toward Corpus Christi, TX...800 miles across the Gulf.

Someone did swim out there finally...but nobody including himself knew he was "in trouble".  One of my sisters, visiting for a week, bought a 500-foot boat-towing line at a marina, and from that day, Pop was tethered to my mother who sat in a chair on the beach collecting coquina for soup-making.  And so whenever Pop wanted to swim back to shore, he just followed his lifeline.

I make the analogy here of a Peep swimming around in the life of an alcoholic.  There is no way to discover the direction for the shore of sobriety.  It just does never occur to the Alkie, that if he doesn't take that first drink, he will never, NEVER get drunk.  Somehow, an outside force (Higher Power?  God!?) intervenes in any number of human ways/forms. The lifeline of Alcoholics Anonymous is hooked onto his belt at first.  The Steps, which he learns about from a sponsor, become a way of life which he works at following...never perfectly.

Eventually--it happened to me--that lifeline of sobriety in AA became wrapped around his heart, and a love which cannot be expressed in words, grew (slowly in my case).  Only in actions, behaviors, mistakes, amends, a knowledge of self, a willingness to grow along spiritual lines, and helping others to live God's Will, can I show my regard, my respect for, my LOVE of this program which has given me an extra 35 years to live.

Peeps, let us stay sober and help one another today.  Let us please not be spiteful.  But let us in forgiveness, grow in the grace of humility...and SOBRIETY!  Allow me please to lovingly try to understand those who show disagreement with me, and just Let Go and Let God!


Photo in Deviant Art:   life_lines_by_werol.jpg

HAPPY SOBER NEW YEAR!!!

The Step (One!) is a gift from my daughter the firefighter,
she made it just for me. It weighs about 60 pounds.
What I'm wondering is.........would this photo have
qualified for "hAAlf nAAked Thursday"?

OPINION

Our Alcoholics Anonymous 'Big Book' (which originally WAS a big book, because it was printed on cheap, thick paper) contains early in the introductory pages, a chapter titled THE DOCTOR'S OPINION. Without going into the merits of this entry by the wonderful doctor friend of AA, I wish to single out a small phrase, which took me a number of years to understand. Sure, foggy brain was partly the problem, but I have since thought the doctor might have edited or added a couple words. You may see what I mean.

Six words found in 3rd Edition at bottom of p. xxvi, and in Fourth Edition at bottom of p. xxviii. The words are: "They are restless, irritable, and discontented..." For at least twenty years I thought I 'knew' this was a reference to the drinking alcoholic--the sick drunk--always "restless, irritable, and discontent".

In fairness to the doctor, the words, in context, read: "They are restless, irritable, and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks..." (I believed he could well have inserted just before the quote, "When not drinking--they are restless, etc....")

I also knew that I had NOT been "restless, irritable, and discontent", until I stopped drinking! THEN it happened. My life came apart at the seams. Days and nights became long hours of total chaos in our home, at my workplace (I was a bartender!), and in the daily business of living. I became reclusive, fearful and totally paranoiac.

(You who 'followed me' all around my daily activities, must recall how I'd duck behind vehicles, and double back my route, causing me to spend lots of wheel-spinning time. Many activities took me twice the time they should have, due to "making myself invisible"-type antics.)

In reality--to me--my problems began when I stopped drinking and drugging. That's funny, when you'd know the common mentality is that drunk alcoholics are almost always in trouble. Well, maybe that's true, but when I was drunk...did I care? Ha! Nope.

But when I sobered up, there was no more running away from the problems, they were like the beat of the feet in the Hound of Heaven.

And for the rest of my life, I am honored to follow the AA program for living, a way of life in which I anticipate with true JOY what God might have in store for me tomorrow. Can't wait!

Let's all have a New Year's Eve full of HOPE, and let's all stay sober, OK? "I mean that now, people!" HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Love and {{{hugs}}} to all you wonderful bloggers, especially pg

Who published this, and when???