Realizing That I Am Loved
Sometimes the things that annoy me are the very things I would miss if they were gone.
And the Lord God said, “It isn’t good for man to be alone…” Genesis 2:18
Our upstairs bathroom is being worked on, so for the time being my wife, my teenage daughter, and I are all sharing one bathroom. Normally, they use the upstairs bathroom and I use the downstairs one. At first, I didn’t think sharing would be that big of a deal. Then they moved in with all their stuff.
Everywhere I looked, there was some kind of product. In the shower there were three or four kinds of shampoo, two or three different conditioners, three different bars of soap, a couple kinds of liquid soap, pouf balls, loofahs, and multiple washcloths. Apparently, you need all of these things just to take a shower. In the drawers there were four different brushes, three different combs, and all kinds of other things that had never been there before. At first, I was annoyed. Their stuff was in my way, and I had to move my stuff around to make room for theirs. So I started thinking about what recovery principles I could use to help me deal with it. Let go and let God came to mind. I thought about How important is it? And knowing this wasn’t permanent, This too shall pass was another.
Then one day, while I was taking a shower and looking at all those products, another thought struck me out of the blue: I’m not alone. Big revelation, right? All of those things in my bathroom meant there were other people here. I love it when that happens. It usually means I am about to learn something and grow. Which I did. I realized that I like not being alone. Don’t get me wrong, I value my alone time very much, but I don’t want to be alone all the time. I’m not sure how I would feel if I were. I have people in my life that I love and who love me. We are a close-knit family. Yes, we get on each other’s nerves occasionally. We have our scuffles and disagreements, but we work them out. I don’t just love my family, I really, really like them and enjoy spending time with them.
When I got out of the shower, I took a look around at all that stuff. I saw something different. I saw that I’m not alone. I saw that I have a family. I saw that I am loved. I still wouldn’t mind having my bathroom back, and I definitely look forward to it, but until then, all those bottles, brushes, soaps, and loofahs remind me of something much more important than having everything where I want it. I have people in my life who love me, and I am very grateful for that. And that is the gift of recovery for me.
Reflection: What things in my life annoy me but I would deeply miss if they were gone?
