Thanksgiving and "Gratitude"

Old 11-23-2016, 05:15 AM
  # 1 (permalink)  
Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Wilmington, DE
Posts: 393
Thanksgiving and "Gratitude"

Hello all,

Monday evening I attended the Annual Gratitude Service which is co-sponsored by Limen House, a local sober living and recovery house, and Father Martin's Ashley residential rehab where my daughter was first treated (heroin).

This service has been held for more than 25 years; always the Monday before Thanksgiving, always at the same church, always at 7:00 pm, basically unannounced or advertised and always has a standing-room-only crowd. Dynamic, inspirational and uplifting. This year was no exception.

Many in the Wilmington recovery community mark this as a "must attend" event, myself included. A church service combined with a 12 step meeting and intertwined with various speakers and readings from NA, AA, Al-Anon, and Nar-Anon literature. Traditional hymns like "How Great Thou Art" and "Amazing Grace" mixed with guitar-accompanied recovery music with titles like "You've got to be all in" and "90 meetings in 90 days".

When was the last time you were in a church, upstairs in the Sanctuary, not in the basement!, and a lay reader got up to read and prefaced their reading with "Good evening, my name is Cindy and I am a recovering heroin addict." Followed by the boisterous congregational response of "HI CINDY!" ? I am certain that the uninitiated would not know exactly what to make of that! ........but this crowd does, they "get it".

Among the readings that were presented was a morsel from Melody Beattie; it is certainly not new, but is well worth repeating and keeping in mind as you gather with family and friends this Thanksgiving:

Gratitude

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough , and more.
It turns denial into acceptance,
chaos to order,
confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast,
a house into a home,
a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past,
brings peace for today
and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Hoping that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Keep coming back,

Jim
JimC60 is offline  
Old 11-23-2016, 08:24 PM
  # 2 (permalink)  
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 213
What a wonderful church service! Thank you for posting about it.

I pray my XRAF will be led to such a church someday.
Firesong is offline  
Old 11-24-2016, 05:52 AM
  # 3 (permalink)  
Ann
Nature Girl
 
Ann's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: By The Lake
Posts: 60,328
Jim, you have such a wonderful way with words, I felt like I was right there with you. Such a service is worth whatever it takes to get there.

God bless all those who make such a service possible, God bless those who share from their hearts and help people understand what is so very hard to fathom.

And I love Melody Beattie's words, ever wise and always helpful.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Jim, and to all our SoberRecovery family here. May we take a day of rest to think of our many blessings, to pray for those who are struggling through the holidays and to reach out, maybe a little more than usual to share what we have with those who have less.

Ann is offline  

Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are Off




All times are GMT -7. The time now is 04:35 AM.