Bookmarks – June – Saved by the Slogans

Saved by the Slogans

It seems like life went into hyper-drive after Memorial Day. Suddenly there were parties to attend, flowers to plant, windows to clean, and a $1,100 car air-conditioning bill to pay. Yikes.

Oh, I got to my meetings, thank Higher Power. But I wasn’t taking the time to really pray or even read my monthly issue of The Forum. I was sliding into my alter-ego, the Control Queen, and I was not very happy with myself.

Fortunately, I have enough Al-Anon under my belt to remember the Slogans. One by one, “How important is it?,” “One day at a time” and “Let go and let God” surfaced in my frazzled brain at the appropriate time and I could retain a semblance of serenity.

Saved again!

Our three daily readers—Hope for Today (B-27), Courage to Change (B-16) and One Day at a Time in Al-Anon (B-6)—have many pages devoted to the slogans in general and each one in particular. I admit to not always giving the slogans the closer look that the readings offer. But I am always glad when a chairing member of my home group suggests we focus on a slogan at a meeting. The readings reinforce the power of the slogans and remind me that I have a choice in how I respond to a stressful situation.

Here’s a recent example: on the Saturday afternoon of our Pennsylvania AFG Convention (which was full of recovery for me), my smartphone died. I was able to restart it but that was it. My techno-savvy husband Jack tried to revive it but for naught.

Now, please know that tech-savvy I am not. Before Al-Anon, I would have lost my mind.

I took a deep breath and realized I had no control over my dead cellphone. I asked myself how important it was, as in, was it more important than keeping my serenity and my cool? No, it was not.

So that Monday we drove the 45 minutes to Indiana, Pa., to an Xfinity store where a nice guy named Scott followed all the same phone recovery strategies Jack had tried (from where he sat, Jack could see what Scott was doing). Finally, it was apparent nothing could be done.

So I bought a relatively inexpensive phone and am slowly learning its new-fangled abilities.

I was grateful I had backed up photos on my old phone when it told me I was running out of storage space.

And I’m learning how to use my new phone one day at a time, because it’s progress, not perfection.

Thanks for letting me share!