The link below is an hour long audio recording of an AA speaker meeting by Earl H. that was given before a group of recovering alcoholic/addict men. Ron, Matt, and I listened to the whole thing together on New Year's Day. And what a gift! Truly, this was such a gift!
This talk is not just relevant to men who are alcoholic/addicts working to live clean/sober lives. Ron reflected that he experienced it to be very much like a powerful dharma talk. We all loved it! Because there was so much here, so much. Including humor! Ha! Laughter is so essential...
Maybe you might find in this like an amazing sermon. Or whatever your spiritual path, addiction or no addiction (although don't most of us have addictions in one form or another?), this may speak to you. Because, although Earl speaks to what it is to be a man, what it is to be a good man, this is also, and more deeply, what it is to be a human being in all our potential for wholeness and simple but profound kindness. And how it is that any of us can use our most challenging life experiences to "break us open" and in that process truly become more human, more who we are by dropping our masks and pretenses and image management and anger and projections and untouched emotions and harmful and hurtful belief systems and other ways that we are split off and disconnected and instead grow more authentic and whole and truthful and kind with ourselves and one another.
There is an essence woven throughout this of awakening, of kindness, and of the messy, difficult, and courageous hero's journey of waking up, thawing out, and shedding that which does not work for us, for the loved ones around us, and for our community and world. Doing this work of the heart makes all the difference. All the difference.
And what a powerful commitment to bring to 2016 - to be kind. To do the work of kindness. Powerful, powerful stuff. So, more than a Happy New Year, I wish for each of us whatever it is that we need to break open, to deepen, to grow in kindness toward ourselves and those we love and all beings. May this be what comes to us on our journeys in 2016. May the Force of Kindness be with you! ♥ Molly
Earl H. - AA Speaker - "The Path to Freedom"
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