Re: What to call this???
It’s those “AHA� moments that we’ll generally look back on, and refer to as the first of our “spiritual awakening�, always in retrospect, and most often the result of some action that we have in some way taken. For those of us who espouse that “spiritual� solution, it makes perfect sense, and we begin to look at just how some of those “spiritual laws� determine the length and breadth of our journey.
For more secularly oriented folks the identically same circumstances may indeed occur, yet the “outcome� of movement described in radically different , certainly less mystical terms. I suppose only that it further confirms that we will be met at the level of our needs, and within a context of our personal framework for understanding. Whether it is those spiritual laws, the physics of synchronicity, the belief in a “personal� God, or consortium with Karma. The “end� or outcome will be seen as an investment in the process we’re attempting to enlist. And whatever works sure makes sense to me.
Fact is there are few belief systems if any that are incapable of producing the results that we’re after,-------- if indeed we believe that they can. When it comes down to the specifics of booze and behavior, there is a dizzying array of “programs� out there that seem to be sub-sets of some of those belief systems listed above. It’s also equally obvious that those belief systems in and of themselves appear to be inadequate to the job of either “sobering us up� or modifying aberrant behavior, when of course it’s “us� that is incapable of developing the where-withal to do so, without the assistance of some more closely targeted support.
And while we find reams of printed matter, great recovery ideology, pop recovery psychology, recovery sites like this, and Dr Phil humming in the background, we still can’t seem to read our way to recovery, or watch TV and get sober or well. If that were the case millions of us would have done so years ago. Oh yeah, maybe the “ social drinker� or those nominally affected by the dis-ease can interpolate that stuff into a meaningful recovery, but as alcoholics or addicts or those affected by their disease, we already proven we’re pretty much beyond that rationale.
The recovery that we will come to know will always involve us in the practice of doing what we simply do not want to do,--------------repeatedly, over and over again, until we do. Want to do it, that is. As much as there are characteristics common to active alcoholism or addiction, the same is true for the practice of recovery,. Those of us that have been around Alanon for any amount of time generally sign onto the concept of the steps as the specificity of what we DO. That IS the program of Alanon. It’s application is another matter altogether, but then I’ve gone on waaaaay too long as is.
Jeff