“… the Realm of the Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek. It is open, we believe, to all…” The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, pg 46.
Even previous to entering a California drug rehabilitation facility, we may have dropped to our literal or figurative knees, begging for a Power of Universal Origin to help us get out of this mortifying cycle; to, in effect, save us from ourselves. In that moment we become willing to believe there must be a Power greater than ourselves which will bring us to sanity which may have otherwise been long since buried, if not unknown entirely.
As that moment of desperation floods the very essence of our being, causing us to cry out in the blackest part of the night, we realize we must have help and cannot do this alone. We barely begin to acknowledge there might be this Power Over All. With that said, we are now at a place where we are willing to believe, even if we don’t actually do so quite yet. We know not what this new Power might be called. Under what name do we address this Guiding Force of Life? During this time, we learn that our name for a Creative Intelligence may differ from someone else’s however, as Shakespeare once wrote, “What’s in a name?”
We may all have a different way to refer to this Spirit yet we learn the path on which we are starting, it is not the name that is of import. What’s important is that this highway of Recovery isn’t one of labels and judgment but of actions and behaviors.
The staff at this Los Angeles rehab comes from many backgrounds, as does each person we meet, both active in Recovery and those who are not. The important aspect is that this well-traversed Spiritual boulevard is made of many names and excludes none who actively, honestly wish to grow.
It is the action behind the name that allows us to include all.