Circumstances

Days of healing Days of Joy................................a Hazelden book

"I found that my circumstances couldn't improve unless I did."........Barney V.

If we spend enough time with other alcoholics we'll eventually hear someone tell a "grass is greener" story. They'll say they are moving to another part of the country to get a new start, find a better program, or to be with healthier people. If they live on the West Coast, it's the East Coast they're heading for. If they live on the East Coast, it's the West Coast that has all the answers.

But circumstances in themselves don't change people. Unless we're willing to work on ourselves, any change in circumstances will eventually not matter at all. If we stay the same, in time our circumstances will all come to be the same. Same play, different stage.

Most of us can be dysfunctional anywhere. And we can also make a healthy turnaround anywhere. The issue is not what's around us; it's what's in us.
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I pray today for rigorous honesty and the ability to see that the answer is within me, not in the circumstances around me.

This reminds me of a fellow in AA who kept going from one meeting to another, looking for a "home group." He could never find one that "suited" him. He said the meetings were never "good" enough. But after talking to him a little bit after a meeting, I kind of got the idea that the problem wasn't in the meetings, but it was in HIM. He wasn't working the Steps, he wasn't doing ANY reading, he basically was a 'dry drunk." NO meeting would have done him any good. Any suggestions just brought about excuses, so I gave up. It wasn't long after that I heard he had gone back to drinking.

I was taught early on that I had to change people, places and things and I had to change MYSELF. This was so true! It wasn't easy -- but it saved my life. Thanks for letting me share. Hugs, Lee

Inspiring and so so true leed