Stories of Spiritual Awakenings

For several years, a group of us has been meeting on Tuesday mornings in the food court of a local mall.  My attendance plummeted during the last two months due to health issues.  I made it last week and today.  We chat, catch up on our week and read several pages from recovery literature.  

Our current read is titled Spiritual Awakenings: Journeys of the Spirit from the pages of the AA Grapevine which is a compendium of short stories from The Grapevine that were submitted by AA members.  It is a nice set of stories about how members came to be more spiritual. 

Here is an excerpt from today’s reading:

The story in a recent issue (February 1960) of the Grapevine about AA life on an Indian reservation called to mind a true story that has almost become a legend out here in the Southwest. At a meeting in southern Arizona, three Papago Indians were in attendance one night. Two were very young, and one was very old. After the meeting, both of the younger men pumped the speaker's hand and thanked him very profusely. The old Indian also said something in his native tongue, and one of the younger men interpreted it to the speaker as follows: "He say he don't know what you say, but he like where the words come from."

We have learned the art of listening in this Fellowship, and how wonderful has been the result! It is one of the great dividends that many of us overlook. Have you ever sat in an easy, pleasant conversation with another of our Fellowship when things took a sudden turn? You each listen avidly to the other; then you found yourself saying things that astonished even you. Something seemed to emerge from it all, and there was a simple naturalness in the long pause that followed.

If this has happened to you, then you know that you come out of it with a feeling of rapture, a feeling that, for a minute, you have been very close to a higher power. Have you ever been writing a letter to an old friend in the Fellowship, when your thoughts and meditation about him to came into focus and your writing took an exciting new turn? You have actually listened to memories; you have been listened to and heard; and your whole message is recast as a result.

It was good to be with my friends this morning.  Michelle has presumably relapsed and it felt good to be listened to by my friends as I vented on annoying behaviors while feeling loved and supported.

I am grateful to be a much better listener than how I used to be and to have friends that listen to me.  There is certainly plenty of room for me to have improved listening skills but at least now I am mostly mindfulling listening to others instead of habitually trying to escape from all conversations.