Sharing with others

[caressa]

Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.

- Edward R. Murrow

This quote reminds me that all I can do is share my experience, strength and hope. Not everyone will agree with me, not everyone will identify with me, and if they compare their life to mine, they will probably be puzzled and not have a clue as to what I am talking about.

When I share my story, it isn't about telling people what they want to hear or tell them in words that they can always understand, it is my wish to make people pause to think and not look at my life but at their own.

This is a program of reflection. I found myself in the rooms of recovery by taking a little from this one, a little more from that one, a lot from this one and none from that one. This is a disease of perception. What I thought to be my truth was often covered by a blanket of denial. It was generally a result of mixed messages and old tapes. Often it was viewed with rose-coloured glasses or observed with tunnel vision and often tuned out with selective hearing and a closed mind.

I can remember many years ago my mother sharing a story about an older member of the church who use to say, "Have you so little faith that your prayers hit the ceiling and bounce back?"

The internet makes the world a small place. Our words can spread far and wide and yet what strength do they carry? Do they only go to the end of the bar? Is there still ego and am I still coming from that place of being the "Great I am!" Do I share my story or do I preach, talk down to people, and dictate what others are to believe? Am I coming from a place that says my word is law and I have all the answers?

The longer I am in recovery the more I realize how little I know! Just when I think I have it all together I find myself in a strange place, a place I have never been before, or worse still, a place I have been before and thought I would never go back there.

I am very grateful for the unconditiona love of my Higher Power who accepts me for who I am and where I am at in today.

How well I remember wanting to be the voice that was heard and the authority in control back when I was volunteering at the Legion. Even in early recovery, I still loved the sound of my own voice and was glad when I got the chance to read the 'long' step or tradition as they were read around the room. I was the leading authority in everything, just ask me!

Today, I am so grateful that all I have to do is share my thoughts and actions, be they my human nature run amuck, my foibiles, my quirks, my sucesses, my triumphs, my challenges; to grow, hopefully in grace and share with others the fellowship of the program.

[Ron]

It is important what we say but equally as important why we are saying it and how we say it.

Ron

[caressa]

True and yet some people aren't always able to express themselves and I was told there wasn't a right or wrong way as long as you got it out. I knew a woman who seldom posted on a site because she didn't feel like she could put her thoughts into words and she compared herself to others. Expression of speech was not easy for her and she felt inferior which she thankfully overcame when encourage to put her own thoughts in her own words. She could speak verbally, but had trouble putting it down on paper or to type what she wanted to say. It didn't matter so much how it was said it was more important to just share what was bothering her. It was also important to share the good with the bad.

Me it takes me about five words to say what some people say in one or two. I have still to learn to get to the chase of the matter and shut up. The amazing thing is that when I learned to play bridge, I did learn to pass and not always go for the gusto. That was a big thing for me.

We all have different talents. My mother-in-law use to say to me, "You write like you talk and you never had any trouble talking." This was way back when I wrote a column in two newspapers and wrote a column and was co-editor of the local Legion magazine.

[majestyjo]

Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.

- Edward R. Murrow

Love this quote. That is why I try to remind people that this is my story, my interpretation of what have heard and remembered over the years and all is a combo of NA, AA, ACOA, CODA, AL-ANON, NAR-ANON, OA, EA, AND CA literature and meetings.