[Leed]

Days of Healing, Days of Joy..................................................Dec. 1st

"God gave us a memory that we might have roses in December................
..................................................................................James M. Barrie

Feelings come to have many meanings for us. Not a few of those meanings are negative. We come to fear a great many things, but feelings can also work as markers in time which help us clear a path back to the experience that generated the feeling. A nasty burn, for example, with its accompanying feelings of pain and panic, reminds us of that event. And those feelings certainly form our thinking about fire.

The same thing happens every time we feel peace, joy, success, and happiness. That's why it's so important that we play, even if it feels uncomfortable; that we celebrate, even if we feel undeserving, that we laugh even if we don't think we know how.

Each time we do those happy things, those recovery things, we plant a marker that makes it easier for us to find our way back to that happy state and to experience that feeling again.
________________________________
What I can do once, I can do twice. I'm learning that feelings can help as well as hurt me.

When I was drinking, "laughing" was easy - albeit fake. Everyone laughed even when something wasn't very funny.

When I got sober, I couldn't laugh. I was afraid, anxious, fearful and found nothing very funny. I was too serious about sobriety and my program to laugh or find anything humorous. So my home group decided to do something about it and took me skiing -- which I'd never done before and I was in my 40''s!!! Needless to say, we all found it a bit funny while I went down the bunny hill several times ~ but I didn't fall. The point being is they showed me that I COULD have a good time without drinking; that I could laugh again, sober. I'll never forget that day. It was a turning point in my program and in my life.