Working My Program
My name is Catherine E. I have been in recovery and specifically
CoDA for 30 years now. I have started and led meetings in a couple of different
states, and I have sponsored people in the past. I have had co-sponsors and had
a sponsor and been mentored throughout my journey by many women.
To walk into a CoDA meeting takes great courage. It has been a
very difficult job learning to let go and to stop controlling others; to trust
in and believe that a higher power had my best interests at heart; to overcome
my abandonment issues that plagued me (some of which I still have to monitor
myself for) and to learn new tools in order to take care of myself and speak up
in relationships. It has been excruciating at times because I have been
breaking the chains of bondage in my family’s generations of codependency so
that my future and the future of my children and their children’s children
could be one filled with freedom, truth, trust, and self-love.
It has been extremely hard to face the issues of trauma that I
couldn’t face as a child and instead survived by learning coping skills that
kept me alive but now are harmful to me. I now have to deal with the feelings
my inner child could not possibly have dealt with back then. I’m glad I am
alive to do this work.
Currently, I am running a CoDA meeting once a week and a Twelve
Step Work meeting once a week and sponsoring three sponsees right now. I am
more fulfilled than I have ever been with the joy of the program in my life and
the joy of bringing the message to those who still suffer. I also get as much
joy out of sponsoring, if not more, than my sponsees get from me being their
sponsor.
My message: The work is the most important work I have ever done
and will continue to do. CoDA has saved my life, literally and figuratively. I
have set my family on a new path of freedom. I now have an amazing relationship
with my higher power that I must conscientiously practice staying connected
with every day. I have a deep sense of peace much of the time. I choose to stay
in CoDA because I know that I can occasionally have slip ups and I have a deep
desire to carry this message to help others recover. I am a grateful recovering
codependent. I hope I have been an inspiration to some with my message of
courage, strength, and hope.
But for the grace of God go I,
Catherine E. 02/16/2023
No comments:
Post a Comment