Love is a force. It is not a result; it is a cause. It is not a product; it produces. It is a power, like money, or steam or electricity. It is valueless unless you can give something else by means of it. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Love and feeling loved--how often both elude us! We have taken the first step, though. Let's be grateful for our recovery; this is an act of love. We have chosen to love ourselves, and the program opens the way to our loving others. Love and loving are balms for the soul sickness we experience. We are being healed. We are healing one another.
Loving others means going beyond our own selfish concerns, for the moment, and putting others' concerns first. The result is that others feel our love. They feel a caring that is healing. And our spiritual natures are likewise soothed.
We find God and ourselves through touching the souls of one another. Our most special gift is being loved and giving love. Every moment we spend with another person is gift-giving time.
Every day is a gift-giving holiday, if I will but make it so.
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"LOVE" devoid of self-gratification, is in essence, the will, to the greatest good...of another.
I was so 'love-sick' before recovery. I wanted to feel love, and I tried to find someone who could give me love, as much as I wanted/needed, on my terms, and in the manner that I wanted to receive it. But no one could fill these shoes, and nothing was ever enough.
It was not until I stayed sober and began to help others, that I truly felt the depth of love that I had been missing. I called my sponsor in tears one night, after I had reached out to a newcomer, years ago. I told my sponsor, "I have FOUND it!!! I didn't PULL love out of anyone... I loved someone else in a right way for a change, and THAT is how I felt Love's Power!!!"
I have never quite been the same. Codependency started to fall away. Neediness started to disappear. I didn't need anyone elsegiving me anything to feel love. It was reciprocal, and it started with ME.
