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

What a wonderful church service! Thank you for posting about it.

I pray my XRAF will be led to such a church someday.

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.

http://pumpernickelpixie.com/wp-cont...ing-quotes.jpg