November 4

Exchanging Love

“…we give love because it was given so freely to us. New frontiers are open to us as we learn how to love. Love can be the flow of life energy from one person to another”

Basic Text pp. 100-101
Love given, and love received, is the essence of life itself. It is the universal common denominator, connecting us to those around us. Addiction deprived us of that connection, locking us within ourselves.

The love we find in the NA program reopens the world to us. It unlocks the cage of addiction which once imprisoned us. By receiving love from other NA members, we find out – perhaps for the first time – what love is and what it can do. We hear fellow members talk about the sharing of love, and we sense the substance it lends to their lives.

We begin to suspect that, if giving and receiving love means so much to others, maybe it can give meaning to our lives, too. We sense that we are on the verge of a great discovery, yet we also sense that we won’t fully understand the meaning of love unless we give ours away. We try it, and discover the missing connection between ourselves and the world.

Today, we realize that what they said was true: “We keep what we have only by giving it away.”

Just for today: Life is a new frontier for me, and the vehicle I will use to explore it is love. I will give freely the love I have received.

. . . when they [self-examination, meditation and prayer] are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakable foundation for life. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 98

The last three Steps of the program invoke God’s loving discipline upon my willful nature. If I devote just a few moments every night to a review of the highlights of my day, along with an acknowledgment of those aspects that didn’t please me so much, I gain a personal history of myself, one that is essential to my growth, or lack of it, and to ask in prayerful meditation to be relieved of those continuing shortcomings that cause me pain. Meditation and prayer also teach me the art of focusing and listening. I find that the turmoil of the day gets tuned out as I pray for His will and guidance. The practice of asking Him to help me in my strivings for perfection puts a new slant on the tedium of any day, because I know there is honor in any job done well. The daily discipline of prayer and meditation will keep me in fit spiritual condition, able to face whatever the day brings – without the thought of a drink.

MY MIND

Today I feel like sometimes I freely give the love I receive, but that I don’t get it back. I had to step outside that thought, and I realized I do get it back. I get it back in so many different ways, and from so many different people. Yes, I am disappointed when I give love, and try to show others the love I receive in the rooms, but that expectation that I should receive it back it where I get caught up in my head. When I first came to the rooms I was alone, but I was shown so much love, and acceptance, from everyone. I am sure they did not expect it back, how could they? I was in no place to be able to give love back. Through the love and support of others in the rooms I was able to learn how to love. Now I am able to give love to those who need it and those who even don’t sometimes.

I have always believed that lack of love is one of the common denominators amongst those in recovery. Not that they weren’t loved in their life, but that we didn’t know how to accept it, or how to give it. I am pretty sure that when any person is asked to define love, we all have different ideas and concepts of it. Sometimes it is hard to even put into words a certain type of love, but today I know I have it in my life. I am not perfect, I do not always do my best at showing love or receiving it, but today I am able to know what it is and be grateful to those people in the rooms who showed me what it was.