Dear Grapevine

After several years of regular attendance at an Eleventh Step study, a simple meditation came to me that I think of as the "alcoholic's meditation." With each in-breath, I think, Welcome. With each out-breath, I think, Thank you. That leaves me fluctuating between acceptance and gratitude, which I recognize as two of the integral principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. Although my sobriety is based on faith in God, this simple meditation can work for agnostics and atheists as well, who can readily practice acceptance and gratitude without necessarily believing in God. Like so many things in AA, this meditation works when I work it. By welcoming God into my day and then thanking him for being in it, this meditation continually blesses me.