Pick up the phone

The power of talking to another recovering person

“If the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me”

 -Jimmy Buffett song title

Phone sharing has been a critical part of my recovery in both AA and Al-Anon.  My sponsor required me to have a phone list of people I could call when she wasn’t available.  In fact, when she first became my sponsor, she had to go to Australia for over a month and would not be available by telephone (this was back when cell phone use was limited). I let her know that, at three months of sobriety, I had a good list of people I talked to on a daily basis.  So, her being out of the country did not affect my overall program much. 

At a recovery house where I was a part-time housemom, we required the clients (also called the girls) to make two outreach calls per day plus a sponsor call.  The girls would sit behind the table on the old-fashioned corded phone to make these calls. This gave these newcomers the practice they needed when they left the house in 30 days: call someone if you are having a hard time, call someone if you are lonely, call someone if you are going to pick up.

Today there are so many distractions to the simple phone call. Text messaging and social media have often been used by people in recovery to replace this valuable tool of one recovering person speaking to another. 

Today’s Prayer

God, my willingness sometimes wanes when it comes to reaching out to someone else by phone.  Let the distractions of this world fade as I really focus on the importance of one recovering person speaking to another. 

This is the January 21st reading from my book of daily readings, With Gratitude. I wanted to express my gratitude to all of those readers who have bought a copy of the book in January. I have sold 8 books so far this month, which is especially meaningful because my two-year publication anniversary is January 31!