Growing Up In AA
 

Growing up in AA is sometimes a slow process for me and usually because sometimes I have a closed mind .

Even though we all suffer from the same illness, we do often have many differing opinions and values coming in .

When someone at an AA meeting expresses their own opinion, I may sometimes find myself becoming a little frustrated inside, especially when their opinion does not match my own opinion .

But I am realizing this is because I am not willing to let go of old ideas that I have held onto for a long time .

I am not able to appreciate different points of view .

My mind is closed .

It is easy to be happy when everyone is in agreement with me .

It is also very easy to get upset when everything goes against me .

But I have found it is not so easy to admit my own wrongs - But I can't be right all the time .

So, the sooner I learn that everyone has the right to their own opinion, the more peace I will have .

In the past I often corrected other people, but God forbid anyone correct me lol .
I can still also become very impatient with other people’s weaknesses .

I can often blame events and situations for my unhappiness .

But what it is really is my unwillingness to accept the people, places and things in my life exactly as they are at this moment .

I am realizing that events and certain situations do not make a person weak but actually show the kind of stuff they are really made of .

If I pay attention there are heroes all around me and if I keep an open mind I can really learn a lot .

Also the most beautiful people I have known are the ones who have known defeat, have struggled, have lost yet have found their way out of the deepest despair . They have grown up .



These people are special because they appreciate their lives, they have an understanding of life like no one else I have met .

That understandiug fills them with compassion, a gentleness and a loving concern .


I realize that beautiful people don't just happen, they have been somewhere, a place that was once dark and they now can see the light .
:tyou

This, to me, is difficult. ie: Owning my stuff. Yet it is, for me very important. For me, and I've heard others say so too, when one drinks maturation stops and when one stops drinking maturation picks up again. For me it is very much about maturing or growing up. AA has been central in that process.
A very thought provoking post. Thank you.

When we can accept the world as it is not as I would have it then we will know peace