Call Your Sponsor

[MajestyJo]

If you think you have a good idea you might want to get second opinion from your sponsor.

Walk Softly and Carry A Big Book

This reminds me that me alone with me is bad company. This seems to have made itself known a couple of times lately.

Sponsor can put a new perspective on things. It means that I can look at things and see the positive and negative side of things, not look at things with tunnel vision and through rose-coloured glasses.

There was a time I never moved until I talked to my sponsor. She was a woman of patience and tolerance.

The last time I talked to my sponsor I didn't listen to her because I didn't want to do what she suggested. It would have saved me a lot of aggravation.

It was important for me to recognize that she had a life too. Her life didn't revolve around me. She would call me back when it was good for her. I later learned about how much negative energy we can project onto someone by our words and deeds. Often she had to back off for self-preservation.

When I am alone with me, I have not one to disagree with me. That is not healthy. If there is only one voice being heard, someone is redundant and only one person is doing the thinking or all the work, then things are out of balance. It is about participaction and everyone taking part.

We can do what I can't do alone. My God speaks through others.

[MajestyJo]

Something that I need to do. She is home from her vacation in the sunny south. When I think of her, it is too late to call. I wasn't feeling very connected earlier, so did the meditations and prayer. She would have been out to a meeting, so maybe deep down I knew she wasn't there.

I do need to connect with her. A sponsor has always been such a big part of my recovery. At one time I had an AA sponsor, a Native woman as a co-sponsor, a NA sponsor, a spiritual adviser, and a service sponsor, and an Al-Anon sponsor.

I only have my Al-Anon sponsor now, but I do contact my very first sponsor when I need to. When I get led to call either of them, I try to make a point of doing. If I here the direction three times, I know I am overdue.

[MajestyJo]

Since neither sponsor nor sponsee is in the dictionary what is one who is sponsored called?

Someone who has been where you have and shares their experience, strength, and hope with a newcomer. Someone who suggests, guides, directs according to how she/he as lived CLEAN and SOBER.

A mentor, a confidant, a friend in need, and someone who will watch your back, and watch to see which way you are heading.

We can share, but what the sponsee, newcomer, new arrival to the fellowship does with it, and how we worked our program, doesn't mean they have to do the same thing. We sew the seed and hopefully, they will nurture it, and want what we have.

I found it best to find someone I could identify with, who has what I want, who walks his/her talk. When I look at them, do I see recovery?

[honeydumplin]

My sponsor and I used to e-mail regularly.
This is from one of those early e-mails.


No one has ever got as excited about my accomplishments as I have. I relish in them, privately. But when I have a chance to reveal something that I've done wrong, it is like I have to tell you. Perhaps that's why I'm so apt to fail miserably whenever I try to decieve someone. I've always been a terrible liar, and maybe in many ways, that is a gift. One which when working an honest program, cannot be celebrated enough.

I wish the people who didn't talk much, weren't so guarded.
I wish people that talk incessantly would just shut up.
Especially the people who talk about themselves.
But, I talk about myself too much too.
I need to work on that.
Maybe tomorrow.
Not today.
Did I mention, I'm a procrastinator?

No one has ever succeeded in pleasing me completely, but since the idea of that happening scares me I wouldn't have it any other way. Can you imagine how terrible it would be, if we all agreed on everything? I'm still sore if someone doesn't agree with me, and still feel like I've lost something when I disagree with someone verbally. I don't feel as bad though, when I do not voice the disagreement. I'm just glad that they can't hear what I'm thinking. When I first got sober, I wanted everyone to be my friend.

Thank God, that didn't happen. Yes, dissension is essential. I just don't take it as personal anymore.

Spring has been great, hasn't it? It's the best one I can remember. It was said, that we're two inches above normal. What does that mean?

Don't pay attention to the silly sign.
Go ahead.
Feed the animals.
Just keep movin'

I Love You!
Alot.

[MajestyJo]

Always good advice, call your sponsor, in the good times as well as the not so good times. If you don't have a sponsor, get one.