Through the Red Door Blog

In his poem “Undressing”, Rumi writes “Learn the alchemy true human beings know: the moment you accept what troubles you’ve been given,/ the door will open./ Welcome difficulty as a familiar comrade./ Joke with torment brought by the friend./ Sorrows are rags of old clothes and jackets/ that serve to cover, then are taken off. / That undressing,/and the naked body underneath/is the sweetness that comes after grief.”

Little did I know what I was getting into when, for the third or fourth time, I finally accepted “I am powerless over alcohol that my life has become unmanageable.” “I am an alcoholic and an addict. My life is unmanageable. I need help.      

“...the moment you accept what troubles you’ve been given, the door will open.” One door after another opened and the phrase, “more will be revealed,” became a way of life’s surprises and I looked into my life of alcohol and drugs. There was nothing glamourous about it.      Once I accepted the reality of my disease, then the learning began. The student was ready and the teacher came.

The door into my emptiness opened wide. The values I proclaimed to live by were gone and I did not see them go as I was having way too much fun. The door into my loneliness and isolation opened and I had to accept that I had pushed away many good friends and then began to believe “they were not real friends anyhow.”

And even as the door opened, one of my difficulties was in accepting the reality that I was now facing. “Embrace whatever is hurting you,” said my therapist. I knew that line. I too was a therapist. And yet, that is what was needed to bring about the healing of the torn body within.

“Joke with torment brought by the friend.” Learn to laugh. Learn to laugh at some of what you said did. Learn to laugh at your pride and prejudice. Learn to laugh at all those notions you had about yourself and your greatness. “You are one of us. You are a fellow traveler on the road to wholeness. . We all make mistakes and it’s okay. Let’s continue the with the cleanup.”

“Sorrows are the rags of old clothes and jackets that serve to cover, then are taken off.” I had bundles of “rags of old clothes and jackets” that served to cover my fears, my emptiness, my longings, my lowering self-image. The room that was once filled with strong values was now littered with broken promises, values that one were my honor were now shattered and broken.

And so, I asked for help, found a Power greater than myself that began to restore me to sanity and, more often than not, I call that Power, God. Good Orderly Direction. Gut Orientated Dialogue.

The direction I took was to follow the steps, become rigorously honest with myself, God and another human being. I wrote. I cried. I wrote and wrote and I laughed. I cried. This undressing was painful and, as yet, no one saw my nakedness but myself. There was too much grief for me to go naked into the world.

“The undressing / and the naked body underneath,/ is the sweetness that comes after grief.” The doors that opened to show me my past, that left naked on the floor the wrongs of an unhealthy way of life, now opened doors to inner strength, an inner awareness, that I was being healed. I had cried enough. Now it was time for gratitude. Today, I am a grateful alcoholic and drug addict. I am grateful that I am alive to tell my story, to make amends and “to seek only knowledge of God’s will for me and the power to carry that out.”

“…the sweetness [harmony; freshness, wholesomeness, lovability,] that comes after grief.” Put it another way “If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half-way through. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it, we will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.…. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.”

Séamus D.
Séamus D. is a semi-retired Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Louisiana.

Recently, Howard, an AA friend, retired and soon will be heading to Florida. I will remember him because he always said there is a way for a person to tell if his alcohol consumption was out of balance. And yes, Howard, an attorney, also always said that his attorney fee for defense of a DUI charge is “around six figures.”

Wait a minute! I stopped writing this meditation and asked myself: “Isn’t there much delightful worth-while ‘AA stuff’ one experiences at every AA meeting?”

There you listen to others talking and working the Program. You’ve heard their stories, their difficulties, and those who have been “inners” then “outers” then hopefully “backers.” You’ve given leads at your home group. There’s talking with new people, enjoying the laughter, and providing aid for others at the meeting, and more.

And every AA meeting is a place where only one subject is discussed - how to live life soberly, positively, spiritually, and how to carry that message to others.

Just stop and think - for isn’t there always a self-appointed clown of sorts, maybe one who has been sober for 27 years, who for all to hear, says something for discussion just to let everyone know the person is still there working the Steps.

Often at AA meetings you laugh with folks speaking their leads with comments of their drunken craziness and “close calls.” Mini-leads provide short comments, no extra words, just right to the point, and usually humor is involved.

Every meeting you are reliving your own experiences with the Program. You note an effective comment by someone that made sense, and you made a mental note to use it sometime.

We see people reaching out to folks who are struggling, others working on mundane needs such as making coffee, working with the owners of the facilities, the behind the scenes and necessary stuff. leads are given by people from other AA groups and some real long-timers, a person who is part of the committee for the coming Thanksgiving dinner. In my city there are several hundred “AA-ers” gathered for thanks giving for Bill and Dr. Bob and the many before the crowd each offering help to all as needed.

One pleasurable encounter comes when you are traveling. You feel a “meeting need,” it’s a faraway city but you will find one and go. You are welcome and invited to return. People have attended meetings in all manner of countries and found that even if English is not the language of choice, you can “hear” AA language maybe even in faraway Timbuktu in Mali. Your heart really skips a beat on those occasions.

I felt the AA voices and joy in Akron when I visited Dr. Bob’s very small home on a corner in Akron. Bill W and Dr. Bob spent goodly time there discussing what turned out to be the AA concept and start of its organization. I was told by folks at the Doctor’s home that Dr. Bob’s empty bottles of liquor were still being found in the walls of his home, some also buried in the tiny yard. As Bill W. did, I went and stood in the entry hall of Akron’s The Mayflower Hotel. I stood where he stood. As Bill had done, I looked one way into its classy hotel bar, then the other direction, this time to another telephone booth. Bill went to that booth to find Dr. Bob.

For me, the most effective reminder of the AA Program is its emphasis on the Higher Power of our Lord. When the minister’s sermon turns to the Holy Spirit, I turn to connect with an AA meeting and its people, the lead, the undertaken efforts to assist new people, and seek aid as needed. We see this very thought in the Big Book’s Twelfth Step:

“Having had a spiritual awakening, as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Jim A, St X Noon, Cincinnati

A few weeks ago, I chaired a meeting. The news of the day was heavy and had been heavy for months. I had a tooth that needed to be pulled, and I was feeling sad about most everything. So, I chose as my topic for the meeting: “What concrete things do you do when your life and the world seem so bad.”

I got some wonderful ideas: repeating the Serenity Prayer over and over, mediating on the Promises, walking a labyrinth, spending more time (not less) in prayer and meditation in the morning. Go to more meetings. With each person sharing what works for them, I felt lighter and less alone.

When my daughter was little, one day she asked me – What is the purpose of life?? I was shocked! How was it that a 5-year-old thought to ask that question!

So, I did what any mother stalling for time would do and asked, "What do you think the purpose of life is?”

"Oh, I think the purpose of life is to keep God company. God would be so lonely if there weren't trees and ants and people. Don't you think so?"

"Yes, I think you're right".

She smiled proudly and ran off playing, leaving me with my mouth hanging open.

What a thought! God needs us, needs our company! And we need God! Maybe, this life is all about relationships. Maybe the giving and receiving between nature and humanity and God is what we are meant to do. God keeps us company and we do the same with God. My daughter had cut through centuries of theology and philosophy to remind me that life was about the giving and receiving of care and love. That’s what the people at my meeting did for me – they shared their ideas and reconnected me to them and to God.

While I was driving home, I realized that there was another way that I often connect with God, and God with me. Singing! I listen to an oldies station and often realize that a love song could be a message from God and/or a message from me to God. I sing along and the world as it is fades away and I am connected to my higher power.

Lately, one song has been helping me see the world and life and sobriety in a way that lifts my spirits and makes me smile. It’s Bill Withers Lovely Day. I change only a few words:

When I wake up in the morning, love
And the sunlight hurts my eyes
And something without warning, love
Bears heavy on my mind

Then I look to you
And the world's alright with me
Just one look towards you
And I know it's gonna be
A lovely day (lovely day, lovely day, lovely day, lovely day)

When someone else instead of me
Always seems to know the way

Then I look to you
And the world's alright with me
Just one look to you
And I know it's gonna be
A lovely day (lovely day, lovely day, lovely day, lovely day).

Try it! Think of a favorite love song and see how it can connect you to God and watch how it can keep you in company with God.

Libbie S

“God, I know I’ve been slacking on this.”

I slid the leather-bound journal my husband had made for me out from my bedside table, running my hand over the smooth cover that read, “That’s What He Said.”

It felt like switching my spiritual ride status back on to available.

Sobriety had given me a full life, and lately that life had become very busy—busy enough that I’d started rationalizing my lack of quiet time with God. Though staying consistent with my morning routine of spiritual readings and prayer, I’d recently drifted away from the practice of two-way prayer, which frankly had become one way. Each morning I’d be sure to catch God up to speed on what I needed His help with, but never inquiring how exactly I might serve others. 

“I don’t expect you to have much for me, or for me to be able to hear You, but I’m going to recommit to this, and we’ll just see how it goes for today.”

After saying the Third Step Prayer and the St. Francis Prayer, I opened my journal to a clean page and wrote at the top:

“Father God,

 How can I be useful today?”

 After a deep inhale and exhale, I let the pen write.

“My child,

 A meeting – you can go to a meeting this evening. There may be a woman there that needs your help. Check on Jeff. Darlene may need something today. Pay attention.”

The pen stopped.

I’d expected it to keep going as it had in the past, but a few more seconds went by and nothing.

Noticing how short it was, I started trying to think about what else God might want to tell me. Then I realized what I was doing. Thinking about it. That was me trying to insert myself.

I stopped, re-read the paragraph, and told God I would do those things.

I walked into the kitchen to make breakfast.

As I cracked an egg into the mixing bowl, I heard, “Check on Jeff.”  

I figured I’d see him at the meeting that night.

Then I heard it again.

“Check on Jeff.”

Like clockwork, just after 8:00 a.m., my husband called as he was getting off shift at the fire station. I told him about the guidance I’d received.

“God told me to go to the meeting tonight at 6 o’clock. I guess I’m going. You don’t have to come with me, but God told me to go, so I am.”

“Babe, I’m not arguing with God. If He told you to go the meeting I’m coming. Besides, I want to see why you need to be there,” he chuckled.

We were just about to hang up when I said, “Oh, and God had told me three times to check on Jeff—once on paper and twice in the kitchen. Jeff is usually at the meeting. Do you think I should wait till then?”

“If God told you three times, you probably should check on him now.”

 So, I sent a text.

“Hey, good morning! Great chatting with you the other night. God put you on my heart. Is everything okay?”

About an hour later, I received a response.

“Absolutely! It’s so funny, but I believe we are all connected somehow! I was out with my dog when you sent that text. I was just looking at the sun and waved and said, ‘Hi God!’ Thank you for thinking of me.”

I called to check on Darlene to see if she needed any help. She just appreciated being thought of.

When I got to the meeting, Jeff approached me and said, “It was too much to text to you, but you have no idea how much that meant to me today. I was really having a pity party and struggling. I was at the dog park when you sent that text and I didn’t have my phone, but while I was there, I thought of you.

I thought of when you first started praying and would sit on that bench, waving up at God because you really didn’t know how yet.

So, I waved and asked Him for help.”

As the meeting was coming to an end, I thought to myself that three out of four wasn’t bad.

Out in the parking lot, just as I was getting ready to hop in my car, she approached me.

“Christine is moving, and I need a new sponsor.”

Jaime H.

In ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, Bill W wrote: “Time after time newcomers have tried to keep to themselves certain facts about their lives…they have turned to easier methods...but they had not learned enough humility.”

It happened on or around September of 1969 and I remember it as if it were yesterday evening. I was invited to a meeting only to discover it was not what I thought it was. I was in a room with alcoholics. The air was thick with the smell of cigarette smoke and strong black coffee. I sat in the back, chain smoking and wondering what to say if I were asked to speak. I wanted to be out of there. Those people were telling my story, and I could not for the life of me understand why they were telling such behaviors in public. I needed a drink. I needed to get out of there.

Years later, I wasted my first four and a half years pretending to share when in fact I was so superficial that the group saw through me. Humility was not one of my qualities. Maybe it was but I certainly was not practicing it.

I wouldn’t say that I thought of myself as “perfect in every way.” But, in my imagination, I was close to it. After all, if people didn’t behave the way they did to me then I would be okay. It was their fault I did much of what I did.

Those were four and a half years I do not care to repeat. Not one day of them. I was superficial, in denial, minimizing and rationalizing. I was confronted, cared for, tolerated, until I had a spiritual awakening that brought me to my knees. I had to get honest. I had to do the work necessary to become sober and serene. I wanted what they had, and it was now time to do the work to receive the gift.

Back to the beginning, steps one through three and then it was time to get out the pen and paper and begin to see my true self appear in front of me. Lying, stealing, being indifferent, using people, places and things. That was me in those pages. It was not my true self -it was my dark shadow. What I was looking at was my behavior that came from addiction that caused me to no longer live by the values I once held. I felt embarrassed, angry at myself. And then, when I began to make Amends, I learned more about my behavior than I wanted to hear.

“Honesty is the best policy.” “Half measures availed us nothing.” Bill knew what he was talking about and did not sugarcoat it. “Time after time newcomers have tried to keep to themselves certain facts about their lives…they have turned to easier methods….but they had not learned enough humility.” I was not the first nor am I the last newcomer to want to keep to myself certain facts about my life.” And that wasn’t a one-time spring cleaning. I then had to take a daily inventory and when I was wrong promptly admit it. Humility in action. Learn to keep my mouth shut. Think before I speak

Go to meetings to listen and to share my experience, strength and hope. Read the Big Book and apply it to myself. Discover that the Big Book is filled with directions of how it works, Share; Talk; Go to...; Get a sponsor; Make amends; Be a sponsor; Write down...; Find a Higher Power; Pray only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out; Meditate; Improve conscious contact with God; Get on your knees. “Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.”

I didn’t like it at first, but I learned – the hard way – that humility is the path to freedom. Humility keeps me honest. Humility is not groveling, rather it is that strength that keeps me from returning to the person whose behavior I never liked and almost drowned in Guilt and Shame. I’ll take humility every day – it keeps me honest.       

Séamus D
Séamus D is an Episcopal priest in the New Orleans diocese.

In long-term recovery we often lean back into moments from our early recovery that help and sustain us. And sometimes in early recovery we have glimpses of what staying in recovery might mean for us later.

Here is one of mine:

When I was very new to the rooms of recovery, I heard a woman share in a meeting in a way that made me truly want to be deeply in recovery. The woman was telling the group that the day before her daughter had been hurt – hit by a car in front of their home. The woman said that she got into the ambulance with her daughter and she began to pray that her daughter would be okay and she was praying that God would fix this situation.

And then, she said, she stopped and she changed her prayer. Instead she began to pray, “God help me to get out of your way.”

I was stunned by her words. Just stunned that anyone could have that prayer come to mind in such a scary situation. I knew in that moment that it was recovery working in that woman’s life. And I knew then that I wanted what she and those Twelve-Step people had. I understood that what this woman did came from being in this program.

That was more than 40 years ago and that moment of realization and revelation has stayed with me. I still want that. It’s why I continue my recovery.

God help me to get out of your way. 

Diane C, Albany NY

Like it or not, a new person at an AA meeting may ask, “What am I getting into?” If honest, it has something to do with his or her drinking. That first AA meeting might spring from a “suggestion” by your spouse, a judge, your boss, maybe even seen by you as the next right thing to do.

So at 8:30, on a Tuesday night, you found your way to the nearby AA meeting in the bank’s one-room basement. There you encountered 20 or so folks, all standing around chatting, laughing, trying to balance the splashing of their wobbly Styrofoam cups. One or two folks welcomed you. It seemed to be at a party. You’d timed your entry to avoid a personal conversation. Before the meeting started, you sat down by yourself.

You listened to the opening remarks. Later, you recalled little. But you did recall that your anxiety seemed to worsen with the appearance of words like amends, higher power, surrender, asking friends for forgiveness. The strangeness continued: a large book was mentioned, various “steps” of some sort were read, there was a lot of looking back into one’s life, the sadness of the loss of friends was mentioned. You were a bit nervous with all this opening the door to a person’s life; you also felt another cloud was appearing when the chairman asked folks who were new “to stand up, tell us your name”. People clapped and urged them to return. Just before that point, you started to leave but for some reason, you didn’t.

Something strange had flashed through you that evening. People mentioned a “higher power” of sorts, church-like, which you didn’t understand or pay much attention to. Your mind was on your alcoholic behavior and what to do about it. But as time passed and your participation in this Tuesday evening meeting and many others continued, you saw exactly what was meant by “Work the Steps.” But you still sort of skipped talking about this “higher power thing” and so you remained blind to the spiritual aspect of Alcoholics Anonymous. Then several meetings later, one evening you heard a lead from someone who focused on this “spiritual” aspects of the Program. He caught your attention and from then on you began to see and accept and understand that the Higher Power was an integral part of the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous, maybe its backbone.

The speaker said, “Each element of the Program does not stand alone but together with a Higher Power provides a life free of alcohol and the way we live our lives”. You said you looked for aspects of this “new idea” (for you anyway) in your work toward an alcohol-free life. The speaker provided many examples of the connection of AA to a Higher Power. Thereafter, in your leads, you emphasized that fact.

In his lead that night, the speaker said he wanted his reference to a Higher Power to be focused, clear, to the point.

Paraphrasing what he said: that speaker said Steps 1, 2 and 3 essentially stated the essence of the Program: our “powerlessness” over alcohol, the acknowledgement that we needed a “Power greater than ourselves” to restore us to sanity, and we gave up “our will and our lives” to the care of God. He said we’d all tried our own efforts but failed and finally we had to turn to our Higher Power.

You saw that Steps 4 through 9 provided in detail how to seek “amends” from those we’d hurt. You said, “It’s a clear process to do so but it can’t hurt others anew.”

Finally, you saw Step 12 as a reminder to “carry this message” to others still suffering from their alcoholism.

His thoughts and understandings told me clearly that the Program was effective through our own efforts that were supported and guided by our Higher Power.

Bill and Dr. Bob knew we needed that support of the Steps as part of the love of Christ for us, His reaching out to us.

For me, that “Higher Power” finally became clear and strengthened my commitment to the Program’s teachings.

Jim A, St X Noon, Cincinnati

Since Easter I have been contemplating the resurrection of Jesus and myself – No, I do not see myself as the daughter of God. NO, I was not put to death and then rose from the dead.

Or did I?

I have been reflecting on all of us in sobriety. Were we not at the bottom? Was our life so very out of control?  Was it impossible to believe that we could have a new, sober life? Isn’t it true that we were living in the shadow of death and saw no way out. Didn’t our friends worry about losing us?

When I walked into my first meeting and saw the bright eyes and smiles of the women, I thought they were angels. The were happy, joyous and free! Through AA and the twelve steps they had been resurrected from their old life of pain and addiction. They lived a new life; one they could never have imagined.

 I crawled into that meeting lost and afraid. And yet I laughed, perhaps for the first time in many, many months.  When it was over, I had hope. Soon, I had the experience of friends telling me that they hardly recognized me!  I looked so calm and healthy. Some folks were skeptical, so they tested. “What have you done?”  Like the apostle Thomas in the upper room, they could not believe the change in me and needed proof.

As time takes time, I worked the steps, followed what was suggested to me and this Easter I realized – I had been resurrected! I was lost and now am found. Blind and now can see. I have been resurrected!

Libbie S

In THE LITTLE RED BOOK ‘Appreciation’ is listed as one of the “Vital factors contributing to the long records of contented sobriety… Appreciation continues the miracle of our sobriety. Cultivate this healthy mental attitude. As we develop appreciation we enlarge our capacity for happiness, service, and contented sobriety. Lack of appreciation and drunkenness are old buddies – they go hand in hand.”

Other words for appreciation are gratitude, thankfulness, indebtedness. No matter which one I choose, none of them were on my list for almost six years in the Fellowship. No matter how good I felt, I never appreciated the reality or the fact that I had to “attend those damn meetings” in order to keep my job. I did not appreciate the time going on a 12^th Step call; or ‘wasting my time’ telling my story in a psych unit. Appreciation was definitely not on my top one hundred words.

It never occurred to me that I should have appreciated my ability to read as I listened to others struggle to read “How it Works” or “The Prelude” or “The Promises.” Instead, I questioned, quietly, thank god, why they were asked or allowed to read at all.  It never occurred to me to appreciate that I had a job, a roof over my head and transport to get to meetings. It never occurred to me to appreciate the lady who cared for my daughter while I attended meetings. It never occurred to me to appreciate that I was still alive considering the reality that I was a black-out drinker.

Today I have no problem acknowledging that I am indebted to two men in the Fellowship who took me under their wing, told me truths about myself and kept me on the straight and narrow till such times as I got “really sober” and began to reflect on my life and develop a real understanding of “appreciation.”

It never occurred to me just how much I took for granted in the goodness of others; their level of tolerance of my attitudes and behavior. I took people for granted. I took for granted that I’d have employment. I took for granted that I had good health – and yet I was told I had the beginnings of emphysema (five years later I ceased nicotine in all forms).

“Appreciation is a vital factor contributing to the long records of contented sobriety.” With sobriety – after a lengthy dry drunk spell – came appreciation, gratitude, thankfulness, indebtedness.

After completing my first totally honest fourth step, I began to appreciate the reality that I am an alcoholic and that I have been given a gift of a way of life that is suggested to me so that I may choose life. Accepting being in recovery and gratitude for those who took me under their wing opened doors in my mind and heart for a lot of other gratitude.

I did not really learn to read till I was about eighteen, a senior in high school, and, once I mastered that gift, I loved reading. Today I can sit at a meeting and listen with appreciation as another is willing to read – however haltingly – the opening readings of our meetings.

I have learned to appreciate the depth of spirituality of this Fellowship. With my background in being in a seminary, I thought I knew all about spirituality. The reality set in when I was told that it was all in my head. Slowly the road from my head to my heart began to open and the tears came with it.

“Cultivate this healthy mental attitude.” Cultivate, nurture, encourage, support this healthy mental attitude. As one man said to me “Seamus, you wouldn’t know a feeling if it sat on your lap.” Eventually, I had to accept that he was right. My mental attitude was such that I was a ticking time bomb of anger and resentments. I was fascinated as I began to cultivate this new healthy mental attitude and realized that I was breathing better, I was more relaxed. 

“As we develop appreciation we enlarge our capacity for happiness, service, and contented sobriety.” To be happy was more than not being angry. Being happy was to have peace of mind, it was to be able to enjoy the company of others. The development of this attitude of Appreciation led me to humility, to be of service to others and the fellowship in the simple acts of cleaning ashtrays, setting up in prep for a meeting, chairing, sharing. And in so doing I experienced that “contented sobriety” and that, and all that goes along with it, I greatly appreciate.

Séamus D
Séamus D is an Episcopal priest in the New Orleans Diocese.

Our diocesan addiction and recovery commission hosted a wonderful half-day 11th Step Lenten retreat last Saturday. We connected with friends, made new ones, and welcomed back several people we hadn’t seen in a while.

We began the morning with refreshments and fellowship—good coffee, fruit, cookies, nuts, and a delicious homemade Cake Salé (a French savory loaf cake, similar to a quick bread, made with flour, eggs, milk, and oil, and filled with things like cheese, ham, olives, or vegetables). I had two pieces… twice!

We then moved into a beautiful space that also serves as a nave, where we hold our quarterly 12-step Eucharist gatherings. The tables were arranged in a horseshoe, with positive sayings hanging from them so people across the room could read them. Three that stood out to me were: “God does not love us if we change; God loves us so that we can change” (Richard Rohr), “The difference between you and God is that God doesn’t ever think He’s you” (Anne Lamott), and “Let Go & Let God” (every meeting ever).

Our first exercise was to go around the room and share how we got there—our connection to recovery and to the event—and also a peaceful sound. My connection to Episcopal Recovery, both nationally and locally, goes back to 1986, when I was working at an Episcopal church during a relapse and entered treatment again a few months later. I was so grateful my job was still there when I returned. Not long after, I started seeing mail come across my desk from the local recovery commission and from NECAD (now RMEC). I was thrilled to discover not one but two organizations that connected my Episcopal faith with 12-step recovery. My peaceful sound was a cat purring. It was great hearing everyone’s stories—the fellowships they attend, how long they’ve been in recovery (from one month to 40+ years), and their peaceful sounds. We had folks from AA, NA, SLAA, and Al-Anon.

After a short break, we came back to talk about prayer—specifically listening in prayer—by hearing Anne Lamott read from Help, Thanks, Wow, from the “Prayer 101” section. People shared different practices: some set aside time in the morning and evening, some journal to God, and some use a labyrinth.

One session on meditation introduced two-way prayer (https://www.twowayprayer.org/). I’ll admit, it sounded a little unbelievable at first—but I’m planning to give it a try soon. It’s about praying and then listening for God’s response. Here’s a brief outline of the practice:

• Try doing it daily for 30 days. Set aside 10–15 minutes each morning before the day gets busy. Choose a quiet space and use a journal just for this. Start by reading something meaningful or sacred that resonates with you.
• Sit quietly for a few moments, focusing on your breath or a favorite prayer. Sit comfortably but upright, aware of the presence you’re entering into.
• Focus on your connection with your Higher Power. Notice if anything feels in the way or if you need help in a particular area. Then shift into listening.
• Using your imagination, let God speak to you. Begin with a term of endearment and let the words flow. You’ll know when you’re finished—that’s when to stop.
• Read over what you’ve written. If the guidance feels honest, unselfish, loving, and pure, try to act on it. If you’re unsure, check it out with someone experienced in the practice.

One of our leaders also brought items that have helped him pray and meditate over the years—books, a couple of labyrinths, bells, and more. We even learned how to draw a labyrinth! I’ve since tried it myself and found it to be a really meaningful and rewarding way to pray and meditate. (Google How to Draw a Labyrinth)

To wrap up, we each shared what we learned and what we planned to take home and practice. It was a wonderful way to begin Holy Week, and I hope this becomes an annual event in our diocese.