Just For Today
February 05, 2025 |
Keep coming back! |
Page 37 |
"We are grateful that we were made so welcome at meetings that we felt comfortable." |
Basic Text, p. 83 |
Remember how scared we were when we walked into our first NA meeting? Even if we walked in with a friend, most of us recall how difficult it was to attend that first meeting. What was it that kept us coming back? Most of us have grateful memories of the welcome we were given and how comfortable that made us feel. When we raised our hand as a newcomer, we opened the door for other members to approach us and welcome us. Sometimes the difference between those addicts who walk back out the door of their first meeting, never to return to NA, and the addicts who stay to seek recovery is the simple hug of an NA member. When we have been clean awhile, it's easy to step back from the procession of newcomers--after all, we've seen so many people come and go. But members with some clean time can make the difference between the addict who doesn't return and the addict who keeps coming back. By offering our phone numbers, a hug, or just a warm welcome, we extend the hand of Narcotics Anonymous to the addict who still suffers. |
Just for Today: I remember the welcome I was given when I first came to NA. Today, I will express my gratitude by offering a hug to a newcomer. |
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Spiritual Principle a Day
In any society, including Narcotics Anonymous, there's a natural tension between addressing the common good and getting our individual needs met. That tension may be more pronounced in a society made up of addicts who are trying to stay clean. We each live at the center of our own world, each with our own intricate history and collection of uniquely expressed defects of character--and assets too, lest we forget. The delivery of our NA message of hope depends in part upon the relationships that we create, nurture, and sustain among us. This is an extraordinary and sublimely beautiful challenge.
Unity takes up this challenge for the common good of NA. This means we prioritize carrying the NA message over our individual desires and our personal opinions of other members. We commit to the conscious action of coming together for a common cause. We serve with members we dislike or have valid cause to distrust, as well as those we find appealing and trustworthy.
Harmony is the recognition and appreciation that there's reverence and beauty in facing the challenges to unity. It's what we mean when we say, "I get to practice unity, instead of I have to." Or we don't practice it, and we run the risk of alienating our fellows. Harmony emerges when we practice unity despite our differences, and we try to do this with a sense of serenity and peacefulness. It's the essence of "we don't have to like each other to work together, but we have to love each other."
In service, conflicts sometimes arise. Aggression and retreat are absolutely natural reactions in the face of conflict, but they don't solve it. It takes effort to practice the principles of love, compassion, and understanding in harmony with unity, responsibility, and interdependence.