I feel as a society as a whole we are moving into a more community connected consciousness, and I am entirely grateful for the 12 step fellowships for ushering me in this mentality. Together we can... alone we can't.
I have learned from personal experience that reaching out to others as a sounding board for the rat race taking place in my mind has been paramount in my recovery and learning who I am and who I am not. Getting to know new people gives me the opportunity to develop my personality through the mirror they provide me. And connecting with like minded groups helps me to find a connection to humanity that I cannot find sitting alone on my computer or on my couch.
I have been blessed with amazing friends within my fellowship and outside of it. I have come to learn that we have many different likes within our personality and connecting with like minded people means getting involved with more then one group. Not that i am saying join everything and overwhelm yourself with people from all walks of life... unless thats your personality. Its definitely not mine. I am a much more private person choosing to let only a few people close to my heart.
I have a friend from middle school that I still speak to almost daily, she lives far from me but we connect with each other because we share the same past. We grew up together and its empowering to both of us to watch each other get through challenges and success, knowing we grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. She is my truest sounding board. She gets my brain and calls me on stuff that my other friends cannot.
I have two friends that I met in a spiritual community about ten years ago and they are two of my dearest friends. They are also normies... they do not get how and why my brain works the way it does. Because they love me, they find my thought process to be amusing and love me through these times that I stumble fall and find the hard way around to a solution I love them for allowing me this grace, as they are my spiritual connection. They have been my life line as I ventured to the depths of hell and back. I lean heavily on them for my spiritual understandings as this is a very passionate area of my life.
However the largest community and the one closest to my heart is the fellowship that saved my life. The women that have become my friends have brains that work like mine, have similar life experiences and completely relate to my entire being. Being with a group of people just like me is empowering in a way I never understood before. It makes me think of a church group and why they seem to be so happy all the time. i am not sure if its the concept of God travelling through their beings or if it really is just the fellowship of like minded people connecting with each other.
I am a person who loves to dig and analyze ideas and concepts, but this one is so wonderful that it doesn't matter how or why. I know that because of the twelve step fellowship and the work book of the steps my life has changed in ways I never thought possible. All the things my spiritual teacher has been teaching me for over ten years now is finally taking hold.... but only because of the nurturing a support from this fellowship. Within my group of friends I feel empowered to embrace my emerging personality and move confidently into who I am. I feel love moving through me in ways that I never understood before.
Community is not just for people with the disease of addiction. I notice that all people striving for overall health have become part of a fellowship of sorts. Life is about relationships. We cannot take things to our graves but we can take memories and feelings of love. Again I cannot say enough good things about my twelve step fellowship and I wish that everyone in the world could experience what I am.
If you dont belong to a group yet, I recommend finding something your passionate about or something your personality compliments... I am an addict that's the group I fit best with..... and get involved in its fellowship. Community is the way to connection.
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