Peeper Frogs in Rural New York State

"Whatever the Great Spirit has made is holy.  A mountain, a tree, the whispering stream is holy.  So much has been lost in the translation that we are inclined to pick apart what another thinks is holy and good.  Our limitless connection to all that is holy can give us a great comprehension ofof peace and health and all that is needed.  If we follow the much-trodden path, believing that to be holy we must be poverty-stricken, downcast, and victims of an angry God, we are fooled.  The idea that we can earn our way overburdens us.  When we put it all down and turn toward the Light, sweet grace is poured upon us."

Cherokee Lady

I will repeat my contention that if you are having trouble connecting with a Higher Power head out into nature and take a look, a listen, a whiff.  A friend of mine who lives in rural New York sent me a note today about listening to the emerging peeper frogs making their early Spring racket.  Cold in the morning, warmish in the afternoon, the definition of Spring.

"The view of the human being as a miserable, creature, forever shackled by original sin, gave way to a vision of the free, autonomous, creative being, whose nature was innately good and whose faculties were unlimited."

A synopsis of the Humanist Italian Renaissance movement from the Harper Atlas of World History

Regret:  Feeling sad, repentant, or disappointed over (something that has happened or been done, especially a loss or missed opportunity).

If you made a generic list of things describing a typical guy and a corresponding list for women and didn't put a header on the lists and then described me without revealing my gender . . . most people would say: "Oh, woman, definitely.  No doubt about it."  While one of our excellent suggestions for new people in Alcoholics Anonymous is "boys with boys and girls with girls" I do find that - not being too guy-like - that I often feel a stronger connection with the girls and I say that in a totally dispassionate way.  I have no agenda while really understanding the mindset of a woman over a man.  Men come in pissed and resistant and aggressive while women are often ashamed and remorseful.  Most of the men I sponsor are so hard on themselves that I can't bring myself to even raise my voice a little.  Those men who need a good kick in the ass should look elsewhere because I'm more of a pat on the shoulder kind of character.  

Anyway, one of my favorite after-the-meeting questions to a hesitant newcomer is "If you had shared what would you have said?"  I find that inevitably unleashes a fire hose of commentary, indicating that the newcomer had something they wanted to share but was too intimidated to speak up.  "I didn't have anything to say," they'll often comment, to which I reply: "I don't have anything to say, either, but I talk all the time."  There's a brother and sister who have started attending the meeting.  The guy . . . I don't know about yet.  I'm not sure he's in.  He speaks about how busy his life is right now - and in his defense he is indeed busy - but I've heard too many people over the years use the excuse that they'll ramp up their Program after this, that, or the other is taken care of.  Nobody let that stuff get in the way of their drinking so I'm skeptical of the reasoning.  The point is - and I do eventually get to the point after a lot of distracted rambling bullshit - I asked the sister what she would have shared last Saturday and I heard, as she talked a mile a minute, regret and remorse and guilt about not being a good mother and worrying that her recovery responsibilities were taking away from her family responsibilities and on and on and on, and while I try not to give advice, I had to interrupt and say: "Stop that."  Jesus H. Christ, woman, stop that.  Life is tough enough without beating yourself up.