The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
It's been several months since my first, tearful "I don't think Al-Anon can work for me because I'm an atheist" post.
I'm glad I stayed.
I didn't find religion, and nobody tried to make me. Instead, I found human potential. There is so much badness in the world that it is easy to forget how much goodness most people have inside them. Al-Anon is a great reminder of that.
Today, I had this incredible moment of realizing that my sponsor cares about me, she isn't just doing this to be polite. I almost cried, because I still have a hard time believing anyone would care about me. It's been a long time since I've really felt that kind of human connection.
I don't need a religion. Al-Anon *is* my higher power, and it's working out just fine.
-- Edited by atheos on Saturday 26th of November 2011 05:21:57 PM
Your post reminds me of how my early sponsor taught me that being humble was being "teachable". I also heard when I first got into program that "we were not a religion"...but...(and here is where I was looking for the hook) "if you work the steps religiously" ...you will grow in recovery. Perspective I have found is everything and the family groups allowed me as wide a perspective as I could conjure up. Even people like myself who are born and raised culturally within the grasp of a specific religion loose faith and hope; that is the human side of me not the spiritual side and I did loose hope and faith even though I continued to practice "my religion" hard and fast as I could. Everything changed for me when I started to practice the steps just as hard and fast and today I would be considered "something other" by the christians I was raised with and the other christians who tried to change me toward their form of belief. None of them understood alcoholism outside of a "moral issue" when it really was a disease which drives good people crazy and then kills them if not arrested. I have a Higher Power of my own today and that Higher Power has me 24/7. ((((hugs))))
