An Online Al-Anon Email Meeting
Even after I came into Al-Anon, I still didn't quite "get it." When I read that part about "unmanageable" I mentally translated it "almost manageable." Maybe if I tried a little harder, or said things a little differently, or if I had not reacted this way or that way, I could have changed things!
Thank goodness I kept coming back, and finally had the realization that what it really means is "impossible to manage." I could not manage a disease. I couldn't argue with it, or use logic and reason with it. I could not manage someone else's life. And even if I could, it was not my job!
I could not even manage my own life without help from a power greater than myself, how did I ever expect to manage someone else's life!
The amazing thing about it was when I finally made the decision to turn my will and my life over the to the care of a higher power, I quickly began to notice that my HP was keeping his end of the bargain! Things started working out in my life in wonderful ways, much better than I had ever planned them!
So when I hear people struggling with the concept of a higher power, I'm always tempted to say, you got to believe it to receive it! Until I came to believe that my life was unmanageable it was. And after I admitted I was powerless, suddenly it no longer was -- with the help of a power greater than myself.
Buddy