Wearing My Birthday Suit

It's my birthday!!!

Well, not my birth birthday but my ACA birthday. I's been 6 years since I first set foot in an ACA meeting room. 

Most meetings end with a reading of The Promises which is a list of ways your life will improve if you are willing to do the work. They are as follows:

1.  We will discover our real identities by loving and accepting ourselves.

2.  Our self-esteem will increase as we give ourselves approval on a daily basis.

3.  Fear of authority figures and the need to “people-please” will leave us.

4.  Our ability to share intimacy will grow inside us.

5.  As we face our abandonment issues, we will be attracted by strengths and become more tolerant of weaknesses.

6.  We will enjoy feeling stable, peaceful, and financially secure.

7.  We will learn how to play and have fun in our lives.

8.  We will choose to love people who can love and be responsible for themselves.

9.  Healthy boundaries and limits will become easier for us to set.

10.  Fears of failures and success will leave us, as we intuitively make healthier choices.

11.  With help from our ACA support group, we will slowly release our dysfunctional behaviors.

12.  Gradually, with our Higher Power’s help, we learn to expect the best and get it.


This does not happen over night or all at once. For me it has been a gradual process of little steps in the right direction with occasional detours. 

One of the great beauties of the program is that it allows for all walks of faith, or no faith at all, to decide exactly who or what your Higher Power is. My HP is LOVE. I find goodness and strength and acceptance in love. When I am operating from love I simply can't go wrong. I have heard many other beliefs, such as Allah, mother nature, the universe, the god inside us and the wisdom of the meeting. I also love the term The Great Mystery. 

What I know is that my life has improved in every single aspect even while being under employed, going deaf or having to leave my community behind. I have had an anchor to bring me back in, back to love.

So, Happy Birthday to me!

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