"My gratitude speaks when I care and when I share with others the NA way."
Gratitude Prayer
The longer we stay clean, the more we experience feelings of gratitude for our recovery. These feelings of gratitude aren't limited to particular gifts like new friends or the ability to be employed. More frequently, they arise from the overall sense of joy we feel in our new lives. These feelings are enhanced by our certainty of the course our lives would have taken if it weren't for the miracle we've experienced in Narcotics Anonymous.
These feelings are so all-encompassing, so wondrous, and sometimes so overwhelming that we often can't find words for them. We sometimes openly weep with happiness while sharing in a meeting, yet we grope for words to express what we are feeling. We want so badly to convey to newcomers the gratitude we feel, but it seems that our language lacks the superlatives to describe it.
When we share with tears in our eyes, when we choke up and can't talk at all-these are the times when our gratitude speaks most clearly. We share our gratitude directly from our hearts; with their hearts, others hear and understand. Our gratitude speaks eloquently, though our words may not.
Just for Today: My gratitude has a voice of its own; when it speaks, the heart understands. Today, I will share my gratitude with others, whether I can find the words or not.
Gratitude is such a common topic at meetings that I sometimes can take it for granted. It is usually my sponsor who reminds me to be grateful. Whenever I really start to get full of the "poor me's", remembering what my life used to be like before NA is always a good idea. I'm so grateful to the program for showing me a new way to live.
Gratitude is sometimes the only thing that keeps me clean, it gives me something to grab a hold of in tough times, once I take my mind off whats wrong in my life I have to look at all the good that has come from the result of trusting in God and this program. Gratitude is a humble place and hard to get to sometimes but it's an important tool for us ungrateful selfish folks ( speaking for myself of course )
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