Acceptance - Patience & Tolerance For All

September 2. Hey friends, family & followers. I hope your week is rounding out, mine certainly is & I am very grateful to have started a new month in both life & sobriety. In a few days I have to turn in my license, over a year past the last time I touched a drug or drink, or even done something legally wrong at that. The courts & two specific judges were kind enough to give me the time I needed to get my life back together before inacting the suspension that is mandatory in my home state. It's something I don't look forward to, but in the same sense feel will help strengthen me & help me practice tolerance, patience, & acceptance in my life. Today was a day like many others & thats just fine by me, no longer do I crave the thrill of destruction in my life from drugs & alcohol. In the early afternoon I enjoyed a visit from my sisters for a few minutes & put a rack system for my jewelry storage together with my mom. A little later I had to help my dad get his tractor unstuck & then met up with my cousin to spend some much needed time together, earlier in the week we had some tensions between us that could have been avoided had either of us known how the other was thinking or feeling. After all that I got myself to a much needed meeting that just happened to have my Sponsor as the guest speaker. After hearing his great story of recovery & life success he picked a topic that at one time was a huge problem in my sober life, and still can make things difficult from time to time. His choice of topic after his story was acceptance & the group went around the room to share about how it fits into their individual lives & program today. It was such a good topic & I haven't spoken about it in a while, so I thought I would make it the topic for tonight.

Acceptance is the solution to all my problems in life today. That statement is bold, but very true & very difficult to practice it on a consistant basis. All other tools in recovery aside, all spiritual aides removed, Acceptance is the one thing that a person can adopt that will help them grow, heal, & recover from any problem in life. It doesn't just level our thinking, it puts our thinking miles ahead of our problems. How? I can't say how it works for others, but I can talk about how it works for me. Some time ago I was told that my biggest problem at that time was with Acceptance. I wracked my brain trying to figure out how the hell it was a problem, because the traditional association in the 12 Step world with acceptance is this: The Person does not accept that they are alcoholic or addicted and that they continue to think they can successfully do things their way or as they always did with different results. It is pure insanity for those who do not see it, but I did see it & I was sure that I was both alcoholic & addicted. I couldn't see how I had a problem with Acceptance, I was sober & I was sure I could never drink or drug again at all possible costs. So what was my support group pointing out when they said I had a problem with this "Acceptance". It took some deep searching, asking of others, and realizing how little I really did accept around & in my life at that time. I was totally out of tune with acceptance & I will share some of how to shed some light on this topic.

I was in fact very accepting of being alcoholic & the fact I could NEVER drink or drug again without losing control of my life again. That wasn't the problem. I was unaccepting of everything else around me. I wanted to change the way my parents thought, rather than accept them for who they were & work on myself to be able to live with them. I wanted to change my friends & how they did things in their lives, rather than work on my own abilities to either live & let live in their lives or to stay away for my own well being. I couldn't accept a bad day at my business & just take it for what it was, I had to question my products, my approach, and the level of success in my location. The possibility of a slow day just being a slow day was oblivious to me & I couldn't seem to remember all the successful days in the past that got me that far. So many areas of my life were getting slammed by my lack of ability to be patient, tolerant, and accept things I could not change for what they were. I needed to learn to accept these countless things & the many more that will come for what they were, and if anything was to be changed at all it would be myself because that is the one & only thing I can control if my spiritual condition is good. I can't put into words how the alcoholic or even the spiritually sick mind works, you'd have to experience it to accept it for what it is, but I can say this it is without acceptance unless it is recoivering. Today I get acceptance through the help of my Higher Power & an understanding that all things are as they are meant to be, at that given moment, and will become what they should as according to a plan I will never understand fully. Sometimes that will be a girlfriend that I cannot change, a job that is stressful, a customer that doesn't buy into me or my products, or a part of myself that is what it is & that I cannot immediately remove or change... all of these thins require my acceptance. If I can pray for nothing more for the world around me & myself, I would wish that everyone be able to learn Acceptance, through patience & tolerance of others & ourselves we can learn to accept. Our Higher Power will reveal more to us, and if we accept things we can see so much more that is revealed. My only hopes at permanent recovery are through good Spiritual Condition & maintainence through the practice of acceptance, made easier & stronger in my life through the personal house & spiritual soul cleaning found in the 12 Steps. Thanks for blogging in, for supporting me, and for a topic I so deseperately needed to hear for myself & others. Good Night.. Good Morning.. <3 Jimmy