Comments on: Surrender

By: Java

Java — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:40:17 +0000

I, like Mary, can relate to your “making every mistake” comment. Why is it that some of the smartest people can be so damned stupid? I think it’s because we know too much.

By: Mary (MPJ)

Mary (MPJ) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:26:00 +0000

I love this: “Wisdom, for me, comes not from making a mistake, but from making every mistake.” As someone smart and stubbornly independent, I can so relate.

Big hugs to you!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:09:22 +0000

leave it on GOD and then pray for the best of luck, I hope your higher power makes it all turn out right in the end … AND LEARN FROM ALL OF THIS

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:00:13 +0000

It’s a simple law that is universally true that the simplest answer is usually the right one -even in the world of spirit. The point of origin in seeking a spiritual solution seems most effective when all other measures are exhausted; the point when I say “I am SO FUCKED.”

Learning to live in sobriety seems to be this series of moments of clarity, in different areas of my life, where I see just how fucked I really am.

I wish my tolerance for pain wasn’t so high.

By: Letting Go « Fence Postings

Letting Go « Fence Postings — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:56:52 +0000

[...] from another Daily Read, The Last Chance Texaco [...]

By: BoyGrowsUp

BoyGrowsUp — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:31:23 +0000

These last two posts leave me wanting to give you the hugest hug ever given. But that is not possible until I figure out astral travel (although Boise and Seattle aren’t THAT far). I don’t know if it helps to read that someone else (me) has had the exact feelings and thoughts you have put down here.

The ray of hope I gleaned from your posts is the statement that your Higher Power most likely wants you to lighten up and get to work. From what I have read in recovery literature, from what my peers in recovery have said in meetings, and from what I have (thank God) experienced myself the past few months, I think can safely say: You are on to something.

But why? How could you tackle what you are currently facing armed with nothing more than the intuition that God is asking that you consider letting go of figuring it all out?

I can’t explain that, since it is the essence of counter logic. But there is SO MUCH evidence that tossing one’s hands in the air, getting on one’s knees and saying: HELP! (repeatedly) works better than any new job or antidepressant.

Just a small nudge toward belief in the miraculous is what I am talking about here. The mental task of taking that black box of worries and unresolved problems and shoving it over to the other side of the table to your Higher Power, and saying: “Please help me. I just can’t do this.” And then saying it again, like wash, rinse and repeat, until you see life change before your very eyes.

I heard Leslie Jordan (of Murphy Brown and Will & Grace fame) speak at Pride last week about his recovery from meth and alcohol addiction. His best advice: Write HELP with shaving cream on your mirror every morning as you shave while asking your Higher Power just that. Do not let the day go by without simply asking Him: “What should I do, Lord? “Where should I go? and “To whom should I speak?”

At the end of the day, erase the “HELP” and replace it with “Thanks.” Seriously.

Leslie said this, and working the steps with a sponsor, was his spiritual journey out of addiction and into a productive life.

Typically I am quick to judge the perceived naivety of “simple” spiritual tactics like this. But I now am willing to put my arrogance aside and do the stupid silly-sounding things in order to build my life on a foundation rooted in a Higher Power rather than one I vainly keep trying to assemble.