Buttons

. Button, button, who has the button ???

I remember the name of the game from

when we played it in elementary school,

but I can't remember the rules

or how one was a winner or loser.

However, these are not the buttons

that I am referring to in the title of this article.

What I would like to discuss are the emotional buttons that most people have,

at least those bodies that are conscious and alive.

As a drunk I loved my buttons, they were the excuses needed to get pissed off

and go stomping off to the bar where I knew there were people who understood me

and where button pushing was an art, a science, to be used and abused for the

entertainment of one and all.

Then I found the rooms of AA and two things were pointed out to me:

1.) An alcoholic does not need an excuse to drink. An alcoholic drinks because he has to,

his body, mind and soul are under the addictive influence of alcohol and the obsession

and compulsion to drink are causes which the alcoholic has no control over.

2.) The buttons are mine and how I react is my responsibility, my choice.

Good  button, Bad button.

The bad buttons are anger, jealousy, envy, grandiosity, know-it-all ism, and just

about every negative emotion that one can think of.

These buttons control the gate, the door, the curtain, the window dressing of who I really am.

My disease of alcholism wants me to isolate, be alone, push away anyone who loves me

and to ultimately kill myself.

The bad buttons are the best defense for hinding the me that I could no longer identify.

The good buttons are attitudes of kindness and unconditional love the people who

are in control of their emotions display all day, every day.

Good buttons establish boundries that keep one from being used and abused.

The good buttons generate compassion and forgiveness, no more need to hide,

no more need to lie, cheat and steal.

Today, do not push the buttons of the sick and suffering, be a good example

and show how a faith in a Higher Power can allow one to display only the healthy

buttons, can lead one on a pathway of sobriety that is happy, joyous and free.

Today, display your God button for all to see and know that the grace of the

Spirit of the Universe is how the alcoholic/addict achieves sobriety.

Happiness is a button (attitude) of gratitude.

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ME and the Boss

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