'But it is clear that we made our own misery. God didn’t do it. Avoid then, the deliberate manufacture of misery, but if trouble comes, cheerfully capitalize it as an opportunity to demonstrate His omnipotence.' (Big Book, page 133)I cannot blame how I experience life on:
'Is not our age characterized by the ease with which we discard old ideas for new, by the complete readiness with which we throw away the theory or gadget which does not work for something new which does?' (Big Book, page 52)
- The stars
- My childhood
- My parents
- The society I live in
- My country
- The planet
- The laws of nature
- The events of the past
- The events of the present
- The speculated events of the future
- My circumstances, past, present, and future
- Genetics
- My body
- My brain
- Anything anyone has ever said (or failed to say)
- Anything anyone has ever done (or failed to do).
What can I blame it on?
The boogie.
What's 'the boogie'? It's how I jive. It's what I believe, think, and do. That's what drives how I experience life. These can be changed. It's no good saying 'I believe this, I think that, I do the other, that's why I feel X, Y, and Z,' and leaving it at that with a petulant sigh. Since everyone believes, thinks, and acts in their own way, there are obviously options available. The only worthwhile questions are whether I like the experience I am having of life and, to the extent that I do not, whether I am willing to jettison beliefs, thinking, and behaviour I have had for so long I believe they're who I am. Am I willing to be the hole in the doughnut?
I can sign up to that. But then the rubber hits the road, and here comes the real test. Someone says something mean. I have a setback. I face an uncertainty. I 'feel bad'. Am I willing to say: 'How I feel has nothing to do with any of these things. How I feel is stemming from the story I am telling about these things'? Am I willing to have the story changed for me by the Higher Power? When I jettison my story, and ask God for the right belief, thought, and action, I am shown a different way. It is then up to me to walk it.