One Day At A Time
It seems it is time, once again, for me to write my annual article about Al-Anon, my personal 12-step program. Al-Anon is for friends and family members of alcoholics. I am an adult child of an alcoholic father. As I write this article, my friend who drug me to my first Al-Anon meeting, lay unresponsive in an ICU unit in Southern Indiana. Today, the odds are not in her favor for recovery. I spent my day at her bedside saying my good-byes, along with family members and a few other close friends. This foray into the beginnings of our friendship makes me consider what I’ve learned from Al-Anon, lessons I can only attribute to her influence.
Al-Anon taught me to live life one day at a time. I used to spend a great deal of time lamenting the past or dreading a doom-filled future. Living one day at a time is about self-compassion and self-acceptance. We cannot go back in time and erase our mistakes. And, we cannot live as if our self-worth is dependent upon those mistakes. If we do, we give them power over our future. Living life one day at a time allows us to strip off the trappings of yesterday and to let go of the dark clouds of doubt about tomorrow. It leaves us with nothing but an authentic self, right here, right now. This is the place where the potential exists for us to be our best selves. “God enters into you with all that is [God’s], as far as you have stripped yourself of yourself in all things,” writes Meister Eckhart. “It is here that you should begin, whatever the cost, for it is here that you will find true peace, and nowhere else.” Learning to live life one day at a time allows us to be in that place where true peace resides…this moment, right now, stripped of the trappings of yesterday and not yet loaded down with the burdens of tomorrow. Scripture tells us to not concern ourselves with tomorrow, for tomorrow has its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. When Moses asks God for a name before he takes God’s message back to the Hebrew people, God’s answer is “I am.” This tells us that God will not be found in our past; God was there at the time, but moved on when we moved on. God does not reside in the future; God will arrive at that point when we get there. God is right here, right now, right where you and I are sitting. If we seek God elsewhere, God will not be there. If we do not find God where we currently reside, it is not because God is absent from us, it is because we are not present with God.
Today, God sits with us as we wait to see if my friend will recover and carry on, or if she will enter into her eternal reward. As I wait, I realize neither of these circumstances matter. They will either be or not be. God is here with us now as we love her…and this is where we can find our peace. I am so grateful that she pulled me into this fellowship of other sojourners. I am so grateful that I had this day with her. For now, that is enough.
Blessings,
Tracy