The journey we take today is much more rewarding then the journey of yesterday. This should be one of Alcoholic Anonymous promises. For those of you whom do not know the promises they are located on pages 83 and 84 of the “Big Book”.
Here’s a strange truth about A.A. It is for everyone. Dose this sound odd to you? Well it did me too for quit some time. As I learn more, day by day, about the true function of A.A. I learn that life can become a more wonderful journey if I follow a few simple steps. Not the 12 steps of A.A. but the steps that only an active member in A.A. can learn. The greatest example is in learning how to pray. Now I know that the word pray may offend some but lets look at it from a different point of view.
When you are happy what happens? You smile, you laugh, and you have that feeling that everything will be ok. Have you ever thought of praying at those times? Of course not why should you, “everything is O.K.”. But it’s not. This is what A.A. teaches. You are not O.K. if you do not give credit where credit is due. Hence the slogan they use, “slow down”. When things are going good for you this is the time you should take to just meditate or pray a very simple mantra, “THANK YOU”. It’s that simple. Who are you thanking? Who cares just do it! But A.A. also says to do the same when things are not going very well.
Wait I’m confused. We are suppose to be thankful no matter what? Yes! Why? Because there is always someone else who is happier or sadder. There is always someone else in a worse situation then ourselves. What A.A. teaches is that it’s time to be thankful we are alive and well. Life’s little problems will come and go like the tide, but inner peace can be forever if cultivated.
There is nothing new to the A.A. or a 12 step program for life. Jesus, Buddha, and dozens of others have tried to tell the world though out the ages that true harmony with one’s self and other’s comes from with in the self. You can’t make me happy, you can’t make me sad, but I, I can choose not to be happy or I can choose not to be sad. Hence the title, If I live for today, do the best I can today, then why would my spirit be sad about yesterday? For I did the best I can then and I am doing the best I can now.
I read a book about these very thoughts that should be on very shelf in the world. (I will not plug the book, but paraphrase). It speaks of the 23rd psalm. “The lord is my Shepard”, well the gist of the book says to read the psalm breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 2 weeks and your life will change. Question, will your “life” change or will you change? I think it is the later. Here, look at it this way.
In High School what did the school do before the big game? A “Pep Fest”, oh how nice, hey I get out of class for the last 2 hours. I’ll beat you that schools with young people thinking this were mediocre at best. The schools with student that truly felt they were winners most probably were the winners of the big game. Not because of some meta-physical collective will to win. But because they each, fans, and players, choose to believe in the out come. Point being, if you choose to feel badly. If you choose not to be thankful for what you have. Then you will never care for what is good in your life or the world.
This is the heart and soul of A.A.’s 12 step program. Try a social experiment, go to an A.A. meeting and listen to the talk. They not the glum lot most think they are. They talk, laugh and cry, but it is always based on gratitude for their reprieve.