Mr. SponsorPants

5 Quotes by Frederick Buechner

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It's the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.

 

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you.

 

Doubts are the ants-in-the-pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.

 

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments and life itself is grace.

 

Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.

 

 

 

 

why I need meetings #3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You matter

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lately, when talking to a new sponsee -- not The New Sponsee of previous entries, he is still in the mix, but a different new sponsee -- one who slipped past my defenses (tattered tissue paper things that they are) and added themselves more recently to the sponsee Dance Card (through the usual Backstage Pass of real willingness to do the deal and abject fear of the power of their alcoholism), I am struck by just how low our self esteem can go. Just how much we can loathe ourselves. How deeply we've internalized messages over the years which evolve into an internal chorus which subtly, constantly, undermines our growth.

Here on Mr. SponsorPants -- and of course in my own recovery -- I have reflected on how the real danger of low self esteem for an alcoholic is not the low part, it's the self part. How the nearly obsessive focus on self is a fertile playground for our addiction to keep us walled off from any real recovery.

That doesn't mean, however, that the "low" part of "low self esteem" shouldn't be addressed at all. Lately, in discussions with this most recent sponsee, I've been especially moved to hear them begin working through some of the mental self abuse so common in an alcoholic's thinking.

Needless to say, I identify with the journey.

Not long ago they were at my place for our regular weekly meeting, and we'd had a particularly good conversation about the 12 Steps; especially about the way the lights were "coming on" for them. Willing but fearful (which, I just thought as I typed that, might be an excellent title for my autobiography some day: "Willing But Fearful") they sort of collapsed in on themselves and said something like, "It makes sense when we talk about it, but sometimes, when I'm home, it seems pointless. Like it just doesn't matter if I get sober, after... Like there's no point in trying or getting better or anything because... well... just because I always... just because, I guess."

We talked about that, and got a few things reconsidered and reconfigured (not the least of which was, "For God's sake CALL ME when you feel that way..."), but after they left I stood at the door for a while, unable to stop replaying what they'd said. The expression on their face. How many times had I felt that way over the years, or heard people, either in meetings, or sitting right there on my sofa, express similar fear... doubt... pain? Too many, maybe.

So I sat down and I wrote the following. And now, each week before they come over, I pull it out and read it, and say a little prayer that I can infuse absolutely everything I say to them with this message as we go through the Big Book and the 12 Steps together.

(I think it would be weird to just straight up read this to them. Or give it to them. It would be, probably, "too much" right now.)

When I wrote this I had not intended it for Mr. SponsorPants. It was, like some things I've written over the years, a more personal exercise; one equal parts a request for a Divine Guidance and a desire for personal clarification.

But "exigent circumstances" -- which have nothing whatsoever to do with this particular sponsee -- have prompted me to share it on the blog after all:

 

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You matter.

You are worth saving.

You are.

Set aside for a moment the question of God's Will and paths taken and opportunities squandered and mistakes and choices poorly made and the sometimes terrible unfairness of the Universe. Those questions, while very deserving of consideration at different stages of our spiritual growth, are right now nothing more than giant abstracts and distractions, pulling you into the past or creating a bogeyman of the future.

Regardless of what we did, and what they did, and what we should have done, and what they should have done... the fact is, there is only this one you, this incarnation, with all its dents and scars and experiences. It -- you -- are a thing unique in all Creation, and thus a thing of immeasurable value.

We only have this version of You to treasure.

Right now you are exactly how you are supposed to be. Not one single molecule of wrong.

You are not supposed to be more than or less of anything in this moment.

Why?

Because who you are now is the absolutely perfect place from which you can grow: Grow to be the authentic, graceful, healthy, ultimate You that all souls have a pull to reach towards and the potential to achieve.

And where does growth begin? From a seed.

You are a seed.

The seed of tomorrow's healthier, happier you. And a seed, with all it's promise of Becoming, could never be "wrong," right?

A seed is just itself. It's not "less" than what it should be, because it has to be this perfect thing before it can be the next (perfect) thing it can -- and is supposed to -- be.

Today, in this day -- and every day -- we are all seeds. Not Wrong Things, but exactly the kind of seed we need to be to become whatever biggest and best outcome is possible for us.

And regardless of God and paths and then and them, should haves and shouldn'ts, the confounding, mind blowing truth is that today you are yesterday's biggest and best outcome, yet at the very same time you are the seed of tomorrow's same.

So you are not damaged goods, or bad news, or a walking mistake. How could you be, given that!

You are growing exactly how you are supposed to be growing Thus, even the mistakes are not mistakes.

And those dents? Those scars?

Credentials! Proof of character, measure of humanity and badges of honor.

You matter.

You are worth saving.

You are.

When you forget that, or when you don't believe that, remember instead the people who can remind you, and talk to them.

Talking with you helps them remember the same is true for themselves, too.

 

 

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 There are more essays like this in "Mr. SponsorPants: Adventures in Sobriety and The 12 Steps for AA's and Others."  Available as an eBook on Kindle via Amazon.  Download the Kindle reader app for free on any device or platform, from PC to Smartphone.

 

the notion that it's too late to do anything

 

 

 

 

 

Shooters: Quick shots from Meetings

 

 

 

 

"I'm not responsible for my first thought,

but I'm responsible for my second one."

 

 

consider

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I perceive is merely what I perceive.

As the chapter "We Agnostics" talks about in the Big Book, our ability to see all that comprises the physical universe is severely limited -- I experience the results of the laws of the physical universe but I cannot always perceive them -- I do not actually see solar radiation, but I sunburn -- so why might not the same be true of the spiritual universe? I can experience the results of spiritual laws, but I may not always perceive them. At best I see a spiritual result and then try to work backwards and deduce what spiritual principles might exist to produce it.

Consider: Before people understood magnetism they could witness its result. They could use it without knowing about polarity, or that the force is basically the result of an alignment of electrons at the atomic level, or any of the other basic facts about the phenomenon that we know -- or can easily find out -- today. (Thanks Wikipedia!)

To their eyes, sometimes the metal stuck to the (lode)stone, and sometimes it didn't. Sometimes there was an attraction and sometimes there was a repulsion. Some metals retained a magnetic charge strongly and others not at all. Of course from these observations two things naturally happened: One is that people began to understand how magnetism works, and the other is that along the way to understanding, many inaccurate theories and false conclusions were reached.

Speaking for myself, I need to remember this when I consider God, the universe, the Great All and how Spiritual Laws may work. I -- and others -- observe and experience, and along the way we may become quite convinced of things which are, in fact, inaccurate theories and false conclusions.

Thus I must strive to keep an open mind, even when I feel comfortable or connected to my Higher Power. It is important that I always work to remain a student.

I listen for the still, small voice inside. I meditate and I pray -- because I do not need to understand how these things work in order to experience that they do work.

The human mind is designed to question, to seek understanding, but in this case I do not need to achieve it -- in point of fact I actually cannot.

I just need to live one day at a time by the spiritual principles laid out in Alcoholics Anonymous (which echo so many other spiritual schools of thought) and when I do I experience these results: A reprieve from my addiction, a peaceful mind and a miraculously open heart.

I consider it a good way for me to live.

 

you're not actually drowning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sometimes painful

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

why I need meetings #1: It's not paranoia if it's true, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

I say "we" but I usually mostly really mean "me"

 

It is comical, tragic, and positively absurd

the extent to which,

and the lengths we will go,

to try and control what other people think of us.

 

And it is equally ridiculous and extreme when we declare:

"I don't care what people think!" 

Not at all? Seriously? Humans are hard wired as social creatures.

(There's a reason Tom Hanks' character in "Castaway" had a relationship with a volleyball, after all.)

 

The opinion of the people I love and respect does, in fact, carry some weight. As it should.

 

The trick is always this:

Balance.

Being right-sized.

 

I used to care so damn much about what people thought of me that today, when it is right-sized, it almost seems as though I don't care at all.

I do, but now I don't live-and-die by it.

That is a sweet and giddy freedom, that freedom from the "bondage of self."

 

Now I understand how warped my ego was that I thought anyone was thinking about me at all, really.

 

Balance. My first experience of it in sobriety (and thus probably my first experience of it ever) was that mysterious midpoint I would quickly pass through as I swung wildly back and forth from one extreme to the other.

Now, on the "oh god what are they thinking about me!" topic I am there often.

A lot even.

Not always, but pretty regularly.

How? A helluva lot of inventories, prayer, meditation, service and meetings.

A lot of meetings.