Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Rule 62...

Rule 62 comes from the story of a super-promoter in the book AA Comes of Age pp. 103-104. Briefly, against advice, the promoter created a great AA organization, of which he was the captain. They had 61 rules that were to guide them in their enterprise.

When, the organization collapsed, he created rule 62:
"Don't take yourself to damned seriously."
I fail to remember this guiding principle all to often in my life. As is also often said, "I may not be much but I'm all I think about..."

One of the things I hate most about being sick (do allergies qualify me as sick?) is that I'm forced more into self (awareness and care) than what is healthy for me. I get sick and then I get really sick.

I normally meet with a sponsee at 6 am on Wednesday but he was late - he's had a problem showing up lately so I wasn't totally surprised and quickly moved on past him in my plans for the day. When he finally called and said he was on his way, it was no big deal.

...except, it was...

For a wonderful 45 minutes, we were able to look at his fears, his problems and his solution and it completely turned my head around.

Now, I just need to move to what's next in terms of becoming useful - per the promise in many places in our Big Book (e.g., p. 49).

Thank you, God...

3 comments:

Syd said...

I was asked in college for a quote about life and I said, Don't take myself too seriously. But I did. And that was the problem. I did take myself way too seriously. Glad that you were able to work on a solution with your sponsee.

Scott W said...

Sometimes loosening the reigns is all it takes.

Mary Christine said...

Not feeling well is a real exercise in all kinds of things. I don't much like that kind of exercise.