Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday! While I do my best to live a life of gratitude, I also choose to start each of my week’s now in this blog by focusing on one thing I’m truly grateful for, which for today, is going to be my 12 Step recovery work from a life of addiction.
I used to think that the only thing that was important when it came to addiction was to remain clean and sober from the substance of the addiction itself and if I did, everything else would work itself out in my life. So, I spent a very long time doing just that, except I did nothing about all those unsettled insides of me. Eventually, I became so broken because of it and turned into nothing more than a dry addict. I remained just as sick as when I had engaged in each of the addictions themselves and that’s because I didn’t realize that the disease of addiction wasn’t so much about the substance of the addiction itself, as it was about healing what was going on underneath it all within me. Thank God I finally learned that when I accepted I couldn’t do this on my own anymore and opted to fully enter a life of 12 Step recovery.
Ever since, I have found so much more stability in life, as it’s the steps that led me to turn my will and my life over to the care of God. And through the process of turning my will and life over to the care of God, I was able to get honest with myself and start to find forgiveness in my heart for all the resentments I had carried for years. And through the process of finding forgiveness in my heart for all those resentments I had carried for years, I began to see vast numbers of character defects that had hurt both myself and plenty of others along the way. And through the process of beginning to see all those character defects that hurt both myself and plenty of others along the way, I found a desire to make amends and restitution. And through the process of making each of those amends and restitution, I started to develop a life of humility. And through the process of developing a life of humility, I learned that prayer and meditation and a number of other spiritual practices were going to be necessary to remain this way. And through the process of doing daily prayer and meditation and a number of other spiritual practices, I found a desire living within me to help others. And finally, through the process of helping others, I began to practice the 12 Steps of recovery in every facet of my life, which helped me to wake up one day and realized just how much more stable my life had become than before I ever began my 12 Step recovery work.
This is why I’m truly grateful for my 12 Step recovery work, because if it wasn’t for it, I’d still be a complete toxic mess, causing more chaos and disruption in this world, than doing my best as I do now, to create a little peace and joy in life for both myself and all others. But even more importantly, it’s because of my 12 Step recovery work that I not only have a much more unconditionally loving and forgiving heart today, but also a grateful one as well, one that is the very reason why I started Grateful Heart Monday’s in the first place! 🙂
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson