on friendship

Go often to the house of your friend: for weeds soon choke up the unused path.

--Scandinavian proverb

Our program has two parts: the Steps, and the fellowship. Both keep us sober. We can't stay sober if we go it alone. We need to work the Steps. We also need people -- the help of our friends daily. Recovery is about friendships. We get new friends. We get involved. We give. We get. In times of need, we may not want to ask our new friends for help. Maybe we don't want to "burden them." Maybe we're afraid to ask for help. Well, go ahead. Make that call. Ask your new friend to spend time with you. You deserve and need it. They deserve it; they need it.

[from my Keep it Simple - Daily Meditations for Twelve-Step Beginnings and Renewal devotional]

this little book is probably one of the simplest things i have read in a long while. and i am not one for devotional reading. but there was something about how easy the words are, how true they ring to me, and how complicated i seem to make everything in my life, that i find it a necessary read for me.

{i was told that alcoholics complicate everything -- if you ask an alcoholic what time it is, they tell you how to make a watch :) /digression}

i printed out 5 copies of this for my new girls i have met at my morning meetings (which i absolutely love this meeting and these people). there is a lot to be said for making the phone calls, reaching out to another alcoholic, building bonds, friendships. as someone who isolates very well, this is a huge step for me to write notes to people i don't really *know* but that i would like to get to know, better.

and yes, meg -- i am babysteppin' :)