We have no Power

A co-worker who's having a rough day visits my office to vent about the challenges she faces.  She's a good worker, very competent and intense about what she does.  I don't visit her office too often because I know she'll be on the phone wrangling with some agency about their rules and regulations.  But when she comes to my office, which is nearby, I know that she has something serious to discuss.

So she stopped by today and we talked.  She does her very best to solve problems on her own and quite frequently - when my office door is open - I can hear her wrestling with insurance providers about rates or regulations or something else that she has a lot of expertise in.  I actually am not up to speed with the details of insurance enough to understand the challenges she faces.  All I know is it's complicated stuff and I'm glad we have someone like her dealing with it.

Anyway, we talked for a while and I gave her my opinion, which is that there are many things in our world that we have no power over.  And that is also something that those of us in recovery learn as we mature in recovery:  that we are pretty much powerless over the way the world runs.  And if we can live by that precept we'll have much less stress in our lives.

But the problem with me - and the addicts around me - is that at times we become so immersed in our jobs that we forget to live by the guidelines we are given in the program:  that we are powerless over much of what happens in the world.  

Does that mean we do nothing and follow a zen path that says everything is cool all the time.  No, that's not what I'm saying.  What I am saying is that we need to not take it personally when things don't go our way.  When things go sideways we should understand that we have little or no control.  And when business starts unraveling before our eyes we must do what we can to change the situation.  But if we can't, then we need to accept it and move on.  Who knows?  Something better might be right around the corner.

Self awareness is the key.  But sometimes things come at us so fast from so many directions that we get buried in the moment.  And that's when we need to step back and breathe.  And tell ourselves that life's just as our creator intended.

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