"Our disease has been arrested, and now anything is possible. We become increasingly open-minded an open to new ideas in all areas of our lives."
Basic Text p. 102
For many of us, our first few months or years in NA are a wonderful time. We're willing to try anything, and our eyes are constantly opened to new joys and new horizons. Finally freed from active addiction, our recovery young and fresh, anything seems possible.
With a little clean time under our belts, however, there may be less urgency to our program. We might not be quite as willing as we once where to put to use the experience of others. We may encountered a few seemingly intractable defects in our character, whittling away at the boundless optimism of our early recovery. We know too much to believe that anything is possible.
How do we restore enthusiasm to our recovery? We pray about it; we share about it; and we seek out the enthusiasm we are lacking. There are members - some with more clean time than ourselves, some with less - who have the enthusiasm we seek, and who would be happy to share it with us if we ask them to. To gain the benefit of their experience, however, we must practice open - mindedness and become teachable again. When we become open to new ideas and willing to try them out we'll find that, once more, anything seems possible.
Just for today: There is always more to learn and someone to learn from in my recovery. Today, I will be open to new ideas and willing to try them out. As long as I am, I know that anything is possible.