Our Hand To Yours
Hurricane Love
by Joe Lair

My family has been praying daily for all the “Recovering Sisters and Brothers” caught in the horrific event that is unfolding in the South.  Please know that there are a huge number people praying daily for you way the heck up in the North.  I just left my regular meeting and we had long moment of silence for everyone in the South affected by the Hurricane. 

 We aren’t there and most of us here in the North have no idea what-so-ever it is like to be going through what you are living.  We understand maybe a little but to be there living it and trying to help out like Southerner’s do wow.  We don’t have a way to grasp on our TV’s on our computer screens on the radio what it’s like.

 None of that matters a hoot.  We love you.  We love because you’re Children of God.  We love you because of the souls you have.  We love you because of the life you lived before this event.  We love you because of the life you are living now in the midst of the event.  We love because of the Higher Power that we all love gives each of us the Grace daily to go through the day and reach the end.

 I also saw how you embraced this ol’ northerner when I lived in Baton Rouge in the early eighties.  If my state of Montana was hit by tragedy, Louisiana would be there with a lending hand.  I want you to know that my family gave today and we’ll keep giving until it’s not needed anymore.  I have a debt to pay and I want to give back.

 It’s so easy to buy into the hooey that is being spread around.  It’s so easy to buy the blame game that people want to spread.  Non-recovering people, even, we in recovery need to fix blame on things we don’t understand.  No one can predict anything like this.  There isn’t a way to prepare for something this big.  We don’t have the ability to do it. 

 We need to stop looking for something to hang blame on and turn to each other and then allow God to work through us.  We’ve been to Hell with our addiction, we know what Hell is and we don’t want to go back.  We need to grab our bootstraps and start the healing process.  Words hurt and only hinder the healing process.  Positive action with God behind it heals.

 Affixing our feelings to things not of this world only gives those things power over our life and that speeds up the momentum on the road to Hell.   We rode our addiction’s there and we don’t want to go back.  We’ve watched countless others ride their “Vehicle” of choice down that path and every Vehicle get there.

 Daily I’ve watched as people started to blame “Such and Such” or “This and That” for their predicament today.  Those of us in recovery know full well that those things have nothing to do with anything.  I know that quickly you in the South are bouncing back into your daily routine.  You’re getting up in the morning, asking your Higher Power to make you an instrument of his Peace.  You’re asking your Higher Power how best to serve those around you.  You’re asking your Higher Power how best you can become of service to another Human Being.

 That’s the message that needs to be carried to our Sisters and Brothers in the South.  Those of us that are not there need to be asking ourselves right now, how can we be of service?  How can we best show Love to you there in the South, all of you that so desperately need Love right now?”
 Many of those affected won’t even be able to read this article until months from now.  Many won’t even know that thousands of us in Recovery said prayers for them.  But there is a deeper need a need only we can fulfill right now. 

 Click the Red Cross button on the page and give.  If you don’t have a way to give online go to any of the resources that the Red Cross has set up and give there.

 Every $10.00 bill or more from those of us that give stack up quickly.  The time right now isn’t for gifts of anything other than money.  Money can provide the rudiment necessities that are so needed.  Clothes become moldy to fast.  Food spoils to fast.  With the crunch of the hurricane came the crunch on Gasoline.  It’s to expensive to ship, it’s cheaper to transfer money where it’s needed right now. 

 Please, those of us that can give, give.  Those of us that can give only a little give that little and build on it.  There are honestly thousands of Sisters and Brothers in Recovery that need our hand right now, not later.