Saturday Morning Good Things

I don't work anymore, I am so grateful for that, retired.

Grateful for my husband, great provider, that I am able to be retired.

My patio in the fresh morning sunlight.

My fountain.

My beautiful doggies playing in the morning.

My Readings.

"Buddhism Without Beliefs"

The chapter is about friendships. It was talking about contemporary secular, democratic societies. that such traditional models of friendship are bound to be challenged. Friendships being defined, or rather any relationships being defined by hierarchy of an extended family, the rule of law, or submission to the will of another. They endorse the assumption of the existence of an elite whose explicit commitment grants them implicit extraordinaries.
Whenever Buddhism has become a religion, true friendship has tended to be compromised by issues of power. Both the fellowship and guru-disciple models have given rise to large, impersonal, hierarchy, and authoritarian bodies governed by professional elites.
Here is the punchline...... It is also possible to imagine a community of friendships in which diversity is celebrated rather than censured. In which smallness of scale is regarded as success rather than failure. In which power is shared by all rather than invested in a minority of experts. In which women and men are treated as genuine equals. In which questions are valued more than answers.

My life today has no hierarchies of any kind, my friendships are based on how I treat others today, how can I be a good and loving kind person today. I remember before coming into AA and finding out that I am no better than and no less than, that my relationships have so much more quality to them; so much more meaning. I don't have relationships based on what can you do for me, it encompassed all areas of my life, from co-workers, husbands, mother, father, sisters and brothers, daughter and even just the passer by, the grocery store clerk, who ever was my next victim.

I love the punchline part of the chapter..... for me AA is that community of friendships in which diversity is celebrated, I would have never thought that I could be sitting in a room full of people that are so different to me, for example the heroin addict, the person that has been in and out of prisons all of their drinking and using careers, the senior citizen, the teenagers, the lawyers, doctors, housewives,the transients, the mental disorders; the list can go on and on. Before coming into AA I would never have caught myself in a room full of people and felt comfortable with myself.
Smallness of scale is regarded as success rather than failure, this brings to mind that I have only today, just like the newcomer and just like the old timers with 25 years or more, we all have just today and that is a success, there are no failures, the progress rather than perfection is so comforting, I get to be and stumble and falter and when I do I have the comfort of knowing that all in AA are there to help me move forward on my path in this journey.

In which power is shared by all rather than invested in a minority of experts, Whoa my God is no better than your God!!! What a concept for this type!! I get to be OK with whomever is your team leader and you are OK with whomever is mine!!

Women and men are treated as genuine equals; we all have one thing in common the desire to not drink, bottom line we are all here to help one another no matter what your gender is or your sexual preference or your belief in a God, we are all equals.

Last but not least.....In which questions are valued more than answers
We have no answers just our experience, the newcomers and the old timers and the in between; yes we do ask questions but there are no correct answers, we just get to keep trudging on our path to recovery, this journey, and from our experience comes knowledge and a little wisdom in what I have been through, my experience, and if someone asks questions we can answer with only that! Its not what I think you should know, it is this is what my experience is and if it works for you so be it! I love this community of friends.
AA has raised me up, yes I am only 13 in sobriety years, but I am so grateful for that and that I am still just as equal and still able to continue to want to grow more and more into being the person I believe I was meant to be before that first drink.