Amends!

I think the part I love most about walking in recovery is that it just gets better day by day, month by month and year by year.  Peace rules my day as I turn to my Higher Power, My Creator, to learn from Him and put all I'm learning into practice.   

This past week someone I dearly love made an amends to me when I least expected it. Those are the best ones!  Recovery has given me so much freedom in putting the past behind me that if the amends never came, it would not have to affect our relationship IF I practiced what I learned.  I love the part about letting go of the past and pressing on that Scripture constantly tells me and recovery reinforces.  When the words came to me with a humble apology it was a soothing salve to my heart and joy deep in my soul.  I shared with the one who spoke to me that when our relationship began to be restored that all was forgiven and put behind me but their words meant the world to me. 

Hazelden (Treatment) has such great information on their website and so I've linked to their page about amends.  Their page reiterated that amends is not merely an apology but a change as well.  My special one's heart changed months back and our relationship began to walk in a new path.  When I received precious, heartfelt words from one I love, they said that they meant to say this to me before but the opportunity hadn't come up and then life got in the way. :)

It's never too late to make a true amends. Even if the person  you've wronged or who has wronged you is no longer around, you can do something in their honor in many ways.  Plant a tree, sign up to be an organ donor, give a book to another in their memory, volunteer with their favorite organization. The list is unending.  

So, seize the day friends! You've nothing to lose but precious moments that could be love filled instead of gaping holes sucking the life out of you. 

Amends Gone Awry

Blink, blink. You're not gonna believe this one. Well, maybe you are, but I'm still shaking my head in a confusing way.

Having now been involved in meetings for over one year (woo hoo) and also in some personal studies of faith, I felt God was urging me to make an amends to my ex-husband, Cliff's dad. We had a volatile, unhealthy marriage through and through. I was a very young, very unworldly girl; he was equally as young but came from a very different home than I. Being the son of dual alcoholics, Daddio was totally inept in the matters of healthy relationships. I, Miss Pollyanna, was a total enabler and co-dependent in training. I clearly remember the thought that all Daddio needed was someone to love him and treat him with kindness. Surely, he'd turn around and be a better man. Smile.

Thirty-five years later, I know I've changed and I hoped in his life he had grown too. We've been mostly cordial to each other since our divorce and I will always care. Afterall, we have two grown sons and now grands in our life. We will always have to interact and God says, be at peace with ALL men, when possible. So, this is possible. Anyway, having had some spiritual growth this past year, I felt that I needed to make amends with Daddio for some things in our marriage that were on my plate. I thought about it for weeks and bounced it off my mentor and she agreed.

Early one day this week, I wrote an email to Daddio. Here's an excerpt from my note to him:

"Last year, when Cliff was hitting the skids, I began going to some 12 step meetings and also doing a personal study with my mentor...All this to say that sometimes I still get a wave of grief over me for the hurts I caused you and the break in our marriage when ____________. I can't take it back or change anything and I know we probably briefly talked before but now I am asking you for your forgiveness. I'm not sure I ever asked for that before but God's been pressing it on me to get this thing cleared up once and for all. I hope you can find it in your heart to do that. I'd really rather have had this conversation in person but I don't have your number any longer........."

And here is Daddio's note back to me, condensed of course:

"Not sure where to begin. The baggage at times is quite large when it comes to Cliff. Forgiveness is not so much the issue but Cliff's lack of response in his letters to me concerning his attempts to improve his situation while in jail. Several times I asked him if he is........."

What in the world?!?

The remainder of his note was about Cliff and what Daddio thinks Cliff's failing to do along with a reference to the fact that the fall is here and this always seemed to be Cliff's time of year that he begins his slide. I was stunned as I re-read his reply. It was all about Cliff! I burned for a few minutes and thought about how to reply. I hastily dashed a note back asking if he even read my email. I said "this wasn't about Cliff. I'm asking for it...for me...about our marriage." Then of course, I added an addendum. "By the way"..... And mentioned a bit of Cliff's progress and that if he wanted to know things instead of assuming things, he should write Cliff directly and ask him questions.

Daddio replies "Each correspondence from you in the past has been about Cliff, Sorry. As far as Cliff goes.......

Noooooooo! Here we go again! I wanted to scream to someone to let me off this ride!! Daddio also said "If he needs to write to me let him write (like I have anything to do with that). I may not reply one for one but I'll write back."

My wings were flapping like mad! Finally I flung a retort his way again saying that he doesn't NEED to write. He would like to correspond with you, Daddio, I wrote. But if you are going to only lecture or chew him out, don't bother. Talk about life....not focusing only on what he is or isn't doing. He already spends enough time going through that over and over again.

Okay, so my amends didn't go as planned. I let myself be pulled back into a challenge, or did I? I have sort of been shrugging it off since then. Evidently the amends aren't as important to Daddio as they are to me. Or he chooses not to forgive me and that's his choice. But to not even read my email??

Ahh...I love when things remain the same.