The arch to freedom ...

Thunder Arch
Originally uploaded by james_wicks
I always get something from the Monday night Big Book meeting I attend. Even if I've read it multiple times, it's incredible to hear something as if it's touched your ears for the 1st time.

This would be the 3rd meeting in which pgs. 62-63 on selfishness/self will were read. Yet, there were a few lines that really hit me, literally as if I had not heard them before: "G-d was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father and we are His children. Most good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom."

I looked up the word "keystone" on my iphone at the break during the meeting. The definition is: "The central supporting element of the whole." It is also, literally, the "headstone at the place on an arch where it meets, comes together." As I read these words several times to myself from my own Big Book, I imagined this massive arch, where all of us who are travelers of 12 step rooms proudly walk through as we come to accept a power greater than ourselves and that G-d is that keystone, joining the walls that form the arch so that we may pass through to experience the freedom that is a gift of this program. I have goosebumps throughout my entire body just visualizing this triumphant parade and knowing that I am among those who are marching.

There are no coincidences about when we are struck by certain aspects of the literature and why. On this very day, I was in a tender conversation with someone I love deeply, a fellow traveler of the rooms; a "keystone" phrase that has meaning for each of us is at this time in our lives is: "absolute freedom". It is an outcome that is promised when we are committed to our individual program, our step work, our willingness to heal our histories so that we no longer bring harm to ourselves or others.

I have a Director that I report to work for each morning through my ritual of prayer and meditation. This boss of mine is kind and loving and unconditional. I am not given orders, but rather, I ask how I may serve. And the paycheck is not material yet is priceless in its dividends. The benefits package is like no other. And all I have to do is show up willing and the rest is taken care of.

I am a proud agent of G-d.