Blog for July 10th, 2023
Reminders
Oh yes, reminders! They are all around us, you just have to keep an eye out for them. Today, I was reminded of that! Lol. It’s been a crazy week, ups and downs as it usually is, but I have felt a pain and a sorrow I haven’t had in a while. I mentioned in another blog about facing dragons. This week the dragon got louder and crazier.
It has been hard to stay on the positive side of things when you are getting attacked constantly. But I do have an awesome God and I have been leaning on Him, as I should. But just when I feel the calmness of His presence and rest in the security of His love and care, the dragon flies in from another direction and blindsides me!
Yet, my God does love me and sometimes He has to send me reminders of that, in times of being attacked, when I feel left out in the cold, going down for the third time. He reminds me of the goodness He has surrounded me with in my life.
Some of the goodness is, my son’s birthday a couple of days ago and I got to have really dinner with him, his sister, some of their kids, my wonderful husband. He reminds me with our very beautiful granddaughter’s twentieth birthday. She is amazing and beautiful.
He reminds me with a friend coming with some tacos and burritos for us. He reminds me in the hugs, the parties for our kids. The smiles and love that we share, along with a lot of good food.
He reminds me when a sponsee invites me to the sponsor/sponsee luncheon and I get to sit with a bunch of awesome ladies in our fellowship. Laugh, talk, enjoy each other. And it was there that I felt the biggest reminding of all. I was sitting next to a lady that was a real chore when she first got clean, she was pretty hard to handle and gave everyone a bad time.
Yet, there she was, sitting next to me, being kind and polite, she has about twenty years clean now and has come a long, long way. She can socialize with the best of them now. So I thought, “wow, look at this, who would have thought?” You just never know who will stay, who will grow and change, who will get better and be a treasure among us. Thank-you Lord.
I was reminded of the love in our fellowship as people, friends I’ve known for many many years came to give me hugs. I love it when they joke with me too. I was reminded of the joy we can have here. The love.
Then, the first speaker spoke, she was awesome. She knew people that we knew from down in her area, but they have passed on, they were very important people in our early recovery, Tom and Freddie. She also knew my sister and brother-in-law, this is a small world, a small fellowship for sure.
When she spoke, she touched my heart, I teared up, which is unusual for me at a speaker meeting. She spoke to my mama heart and my recovery heart. The things she’d been through and survived were very inspiring. I went and told her so too and got her number. That’s what we do here.
The second speaker was equally great. He had a heck of a story too and is a miracle, as we all are, but in that he’s been in two really bad accidents and has survived. He was in the hospital two months after one of his accidents, it was really bad. He spoke of the love of the fellowship, how so many members came to see him in the hospital. I was reminded of the love of our fellowship. It seems that people who have been down and out the most have the biggest hearts.
I get daily reminders, everyday of the year if I’ll just look up and see. The homeless sleeping on the sidewalks, panhandling, talking to themselves, the news. Reminders are all around us about how bad it was and still could be for us if we start using again. Just watch the news, heck, they even found cocaine at the White House this last week! No one immune or safe from this disease.
I also seen a couple of people who have been in the background helping me fight off the dragons, I was reminded that I am not alone. Not in the dragon fight or the battle against addiction. I was reminded that we d
o not have to live like that. Thank-you Lord. What you’ve done for me- it’s beyond my comprehension and today, I was reminded.