Don't Sit Around With The Don'ts

I need to make sure that I remember that attitudes are infectious. As a teen I sometimes went deer hunting with my father. The truth is I didn't enjoy deer hunting and wasn't very good at it. This always made me feel like I fell short somehow. like I was a disappointment to my father, even though I can't remember him saying or doing anything to reinforce that feeling. As if to prove that I just never was cut out to be the great white hunter, one morning we headed out to the stands, and after driving for over half an hour to the property my father hunted, I realized I had left my rifle at the house. My father turned around and started back to get my weapon, and all I could think about is that I had made us an hour late, which could make all the difference in bagging a deer or not. I felt even more like a failure than usual. I didn't much care if I killed anything, but I couldn't handle the idea that I might have ruined my father's chances.

I ranted and raved and threw a fit, yelling and fussing and generally acting like an idiot on the drive home. I was so angry at myself, and with every breath I used my angry words to beat myself up and tear myself down a little more. My father didn't say anything. He turned on some praise and worship music, which I hated as a teen, and bean to quietly sing along as he drove. The more I lost control of myself, the calmer he became it seemed. After a few minutes I found I just didn't have the energy for it anymore, and I fell silent. Then something strange happened. I began to sing with him. Singing the praise and worship songs with my father took my mind out of the situation and off my fears and insecurities and for the rest of the drive home and back to the land we were to hunt, I actually felt free. It became a wonderful time of peace and joy and a happy memory of a time shared with my father. His calmness and understanding soothed and calmed me.

Attitudes are contagious, and if I am not where I need to be spiritually, I am more likely to catch or spread negativity than anything positive. This has been my experience. So unless I am going to spend time with someone as a service to try to help them, I need to not hang with the don'ts. These are not the right comrades for me to keep my program in top shape.

I don't think the steps have to be worked quickly or at all. I don't like this or that person. I don't practice tolerance. I don't put my faith into action. I don't.... When it comes to recovery, people who frequently say things similar to the above are dangerous to me.

But the ones who say it works if you work it...so work it, who say with God all thins are possible, who maintain there is a solution available to any and all who are willing to be honest with themselves, work, and help others...the ones who DO a program worth having and not just talk about it....these are the people I want to surround myself with, because that's the type of man I want to always be, and attitudes are contagious.