Gratitude & Humility - Have It Or Lose It

August 03. Manic Monday is over & Tuesday is creeping in as the morning gets nearer. I hope that your week has begun great & if not that Tuesday is a new day for you to start all over again. I thank my higher power for my sobriety today & the ability to start any day over that isn't going well, afterall, I only have today. Monday was good for me, I got alot of rest that I needed after a long & stressful weekend. I went to my usual monday meeting that my friend & I started, MARS Group. There was a new person & some of the usual great friends I have made there. The topic was on the 8th Step & making our ammends list, as well as everyone getting into their personal dilemma's if any. I chose not to be too vocal today, doing alot of listening & thinking & looking at my great friend sitting across from me. I had hoped they were okay, they didn't say much & didn't share about personal issues, funnily enough neither did I. When the meeting ended I did a little chatting w/ everyone & I left feeling in an okay spot mentally & spiritually. I went to visit my sponsor at our home group that was adjourning & to drop off merchandise to people who had ordered it frome me. We talked just a few moments & he had to go. I went to say hi to my friend shawn afterwards & had some coffee while playing cards. He was fighting with his girlfriend & being very ungrateful about life & what he had in general, I had to leave & go home after that because I personally am thirsty for many of the life's treats that he complained about.

I thought of a topic driving home, it seems to fit into what I am feeling & can work in to some of the things I saw & heard tonight. When we are not in good spiritual condition, which can be often for some of us, we often don't realize what great things we have compared to others who are willing & eager to have some of the things that to us are a 'bother'. If you don't quite know what I mean, I'm going to go further than this statement & offer some personal examples from just today. I heard someone complaining about having to clean out their car & that they were angry because it's old & not something they really want to be driving. I can even remember feeling that same way some years ago about one of my vehicles, before sobriety & spiritual change in my life. But we can take a whole other outlook on this, that someone else has right now at this very moment somewhere in the world. This person could say a few things depending on their situation like: "At least you have a car, I have to walk." "My car doesn't start anymore" "I lost my driver's license" "I have to take the bus because I cannot afford a car". Now I personally can see where there is a lack of spirituality in the first person's complaint. They are so bothered by the fact they have to wash & clean out the car, that it had high milage & was old, that they couldn't even consider this fact: 'What if they didn't have a car at all & had to walk, take the bus, lose their license, or it blew up & they could not afford to fix or replace it?' Being Humble is difficult, it is learned through life's lessons & often when we lose something or have it taken away, but it does not need to be so.. If we seek spiritual growth in our life, we can find Humility & Gratitude through living right & helping others. Their situations will show us what we have to be grateful for & our helping them will be rewarded by our higher power in the satisfaction of being a good spiritual being.

I want to bring up another example of this, for those of us who are stuck on the last example & not seeing how this Humble attitude affects our whole world, not just the material & monitary things we have, need, or want. When visiting my friend tonight, I had to leave because I was uncomfortable. Here was a wonderful girl by his side, loving & loyal, filling his drink & buying his cigarettes for him & he was yelling at her because she didn't do something he asked her to do because his list of demands was too long for her to remember without writing them all down. In the end, it was all over the fact that she forgot to grab him a sweater to wear when she had four other things to do on the same trip downstairs. Some of us out there would pray each day in thanks for a loving person to call our own, one that does for us un-necissarily & abundantly just because they love us. Spiritual people with gratitude are thankful for one favor being done that we ask of somebody, let alone four, and when one is forgotten out of five the Humble smile & say thank you to the one we love that was so generous to try & help us. I have learned that great emotional, physical, and mental loss, terror, or impact is necessary for some people to change, learn spirituality, or to show gratitude. Some are incapable of this change at all, because they cannot be honest enough with themselves or believe enough in a loving & rightful Higher Power. But some can, I like to think that I try to live in gratitude & for spiritual growth in & around my life, and I have seen some that are so good at it I truly admire what they have. Those people can be models for me to build my life after & I can do so proudly. For the one's who must be so miserable & ungrateful for the wonderful people in their life.. You do not know what your missing, learning to love yourself will help your ability to love others & adopting spiritual ways will improve your relationship with them rather then risking one day being alone, be it a parent, sibling, friend, or one they have fallen in love with. Some people would be grateful to have what they do & they are spiritually ready to recieve a good person in their life, if we ungratefully take things or people for granted our higher power might just give them to someone who is ready & waiting. Be your best, because you never know what may come of it or come next. Good Night. Good Morning.. <3 Jimmy