Pass It On

"There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation, and prayer.  Taken separately, these practices can bring much relief and benefit.  But when they are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakable foundation for life."  12&12 p. 98     

I love this reminder.  Synergy - the concept that the combined effect of two or more entities is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

The twelfth month of the year often stimulates a discussion on our Twelfth Step work.  Responsibilities might be a better word as we're reminded time and time again that nothing so much ensures our sobriety as work with another alcoholic.  And Dr. Bob, in his summation of why he continued to go to meetings, listed repayment of his debt to the men who took the time to pilot him through early sobriety.  They didn't ask for this repayment; he understood that the gift they received by helping someone else was one he could also expect to receive . . . so long as he jumped in and began to help new people.  A guy in my meeting recently said that his sponsor told him that "the first year was all about you and after that it's about what you can pass on to someone else."  Good advice.  Great advice.

Alcoholics are not easy to talk to early on.  They are resistant.  One of the benefits of Alcoholics Anonymous is that our members really try to speak as an equal, as a fellow sufferer instead of as an authority who is telling someone what to do, either as a punishment for bad behavior or as an enticement towards good behavior.  Man, do we hate to be told what to do.  Man, does it ring hollow when someone without the alcoholic affliction tries to give advice - advice often given with good intentions and a genuine desire to be helpful.  I never tell anyone "I know what you're going through" unless I know what they're going through.  It's insincere to tell someone who is suffering that I understand when I don't, in fact, understand.