Love Without Strings

 No ‘strings’ = no conditions. Unconditional love. Love in action without expectation or thought of reciprocation. When I can accept freedom from the “bondage of self” (Big Book, page 63), I am closer to this goal. Acts of service keep me moving in the right direction and offer me the practice of humility.

I know the feeling of unlovability. I know the despair of lack of self-worth. I know the shame of past actions. I have hated myself, and cursed at my image in the mirror. Unconditional love was an unreachable concept, to both give and receive. That wasn’t a permanent state of affairs for me, but it gave me a look at hopelessness from a perspective I hope to never see again.

Enter alcohol. First, it allowed for more ‘fun’. My appreciation for myself was only valid when I wasn’t myself. I know how that feels. My experience can finally be of benefit to others who are on their own paths of sobriety. As I was given the opportunity to receive this pure form of friendship, I have also been given the responsibility to pass it on. 

This act of working with another soul comes from that place of ‘no strings attached’. The hope is that I can work with another to help them in the way I’ve been helped through the 12 Steps to finding sobriety. That sobriety is more than simply not drinking, as we know. It is a spiritual pathway in which each of us is encouraged to find our own understanding of That which is greater than ourselves. I don’t define for anyone but myself what that is - no conditions. The work itself helps me to find more clarity in my own relationship with my Creator.

In the giving, I receive, no strings attached.

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