Shane M in his posting of March 27 on Episcopal Church Red Door, said a great deal. I have it in my file and will periodically dig it out for another reading. 

What is one to say about all this COVID stuff? “Who would ‘a thought?” It does seem strange not to be able to personally drop in on a meeting, but the internet sure provides plenty of opportunities to “stay tuned to the Program”.

With all the admonitions and orders and rulings to stay indoors and “don’t travel” my wife pointed something out to me I haven’t considered. “Say, we may not see our kids until the New Year.” Our kids live in New York City, Chicago and Denver - nice lovely places to visit, that’s for sure. But with things as they are, it will certainly be Fall, if then, before we are able to visit. The computer brings new opportunities to stay “in touch” that is for sure. But it isn’t the same.

That’s why Shane’s comment about gratitude is so relevant amid this pandemic: “[Gratitude is] the last resort in our tool-box [and] is probably the most powerful.”

The Program as a whole sustains me in these times. It is a way of thought, of looking at and solving problems. It tells us to periodically look ourselves anew and take the measure of our lives and day-to-day habits. 

Shane’s discussion of stress, concern, and worry is something we in the Program are well familiar with. We can “make a mountain out of a mole hill,” only this time, perhaps this COVID really is that mountain. One trait I formerly carried was the ego-centered feeling I was the center of solving all problems. By serious entry into the Program, I was reminded I couldn’t even solve my own addiction problem. I’d tried over the years and failed. It was only when I surrendered to that Higher Power, the one “greater than ourselves” and worked the Steps, that I found sobriety and serenity. I really couldn’t “do it all” and finally found serenity in leaving it all to my God.

Solving this COVID problem is in the hands of those who know how to look for a way to curtail its effect on our lives. This time we have been thrown into the middle of it by the forced personal isolations, closures of businesses, and an inaccessibility of people, places, and things we relied on in our daily lives to sustain our well-being. We need to remember to let them - the first-responders and the medical personnel and research persons - do their jobs. We can be a part of their efforts by our support of those efforts, financially and otherwise.  

We need to remember those whose businesses have collapsed, the clerks in stores and waitresses and servers in restaurants, the college kids and others that cannot even look for jobs (if the jobs are there), or anyone whose income is either gone or greatly reduced because of the widespread shut-downs of our former open lives.

We have to reflect an empathy to those worse off who may not have the resources to cope. We in the Program do have those resources. In the Program itself, and our relationships with all the rest of us who every day work the Steps, we lend a hand to a newcomer, make the coffee and cleanup the meeting room - for by doing so, we are not part of the problem but are trying to do our bit.

Oh, we are so lucky to have the Program to provide a way to accept the things we cannot change but maintain the courage to change that which we can, and the comfort and serenity to know the difference.

Jim A, Covington, KY