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mistakes just might be evidence that i am stuck or perhaps too stubborn to let go and move along. i often find that meetings are an echo chamber of bumper stickers and trite banalities, where slogans pass for critical thinking. that was my impression way back when and that notion was part of my **i am too smart** defense to becoming a member. i have yet to learn how to turn off my critical thinking machine in meetings, but have come to the point, where the echo chamber of redundant and inane ideas, has faded to white noise. so when someone unfamiliar, pops into the rooms, i get a moment of excitement, hoping that they have a new twist on something i have heard thousands of times before. to tell the honest truth, when someone fronts they have decades of recovery when they have less than five years clean, and proceeds to give an advice-laden lecture on a “finer” point of step work, my hope quickly fades into disappointment. the fact of the matter is, i come to meetings, to hear how my peers live their lives and uncover what may work for me. i enjoy hearing others speak of overcoming challenges, discovering a different way to look at an old problem or finding HOPE in their life when there was only despair. when one of my peers shares in the second person plural, liberally dosing their offering with: “you should” or the “you need to,” quite frankly i get put-off enough, that what they are saying fades back into the echo chamber of platitudes and clichés.
perhaps that is part of the chain of mistakes that may indicate that i am “stuck.” the fact of the matter is, i do not take unsolicited advice very well and i certainly do not enjoy being told what to do. i can use the term discerning as a substitute for judgemental, but putting lipstick on that pig, does not change the fact that i critically weigh each and every single thing i hear in meetings and decide what i need to keep, what i may need to re-examine and what i can pitch out. my mistake here, is once again thinking i know something, i have yet to learn and that will certainly keep me stuck. moving forward, i will see what i can pull out of the white noise and chaff and add to my repertoire of something new, just for today.

∞ DT ∞