Unfolding, Growing, Blossoming

I went to my meetings yesterday and met with a couple of sponsees.  I'm grateful.

At the 3 o'clock AA meeting we had a speaker.  She was lovely to hear because she used the "How it works" chapter to tell her story.  So her story had a recognizable structure.

What fascinated me the most was a part in her story where she described feeling "different", "not fitting in".  She said it was late in the evening and her family was in the backyard just hanging out.  Her 5 other siblings were sitting in the lighted area with the parents and she had separated herself from them all.  She was in the dark and thought, "They don't like me, they're all talking about me."  This experience was something she wasn't able to talk about, to process, and became a part of her she did not talk about, was uncomfortable about.  She added other things she wasn't able to talk about through the years.  Until finally arriving in the rooms of the 12 Steps process.

I embrace her and all the others who have arrived...AND KEEP COMING BACK.  It really does take an act of courage to work this program, to go to the meetings, to read the literature, to walk the talk, to do the deal.  I love her and all the others who suit up and show up to be a part of this unfolding miracle of healing and growing.  I feel moved and happy to "fit in", feel at home.

I may not be "all that and a pack of potato chips" but I am all of me, like no other, uniquely qualified to help others who also suffer from this spiritual malady.  Just like you are.  Like fingerprints, there are no two exactly alike but they all come from fingertips.

I have been to the pit of hell and know what it feels like and what it takes to keep my butt out of there because I can go there in a flash, a blink of an eye, at any time of day or night if I don't do the work.

"Change only happens when
                        the pain of holding on
                                         is greater
                                                    than the fear
                                                                   of letting go."

Yep.  It's like that...I got this quote from http://www.teen-anon.com/quotes.htm.  I hope you visit this site and find some you like to pass on!  Love, Carol xoxox