A Sick Friend

Though we did not like their symptoms and the way these disturbed us, they, like ourselves, were sick too. We asked God to help us show them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. Big Book p67

This is a hard concept for me to follow. I can see the sickness very easily in the newcomer, or the alcoholic who still reeks of whisky, but after a while and after getting to know my Fellows, everyone seems physically "normal". This is where I start to slide on this principle. I forget they are sick, just as I forget I am sick sometimes. Things get going pretty good in life, I resort to half-measures and then I find myself completely resting on my laurels and forgetting. I forget that without a Higher Power, I cannot see the Truth. I can only see a skewed perception based on my own stinking thinking.

Thank you Higher Power. Thank you for showing me how to be tolerant of other alcoholics, even when they have long term abstinence. Thank you for removing a lot of expectations of how people "should be" and thank you for the reminders that we are just very sick people coming together in unity for a common purpose. Thank you.