“…principles before personalities… ”

– Life with Hope, first edition, page 99

While using, I did not care if it was a person I hated or not, if they could get me high then I was spending time with them. Once I got clean, I decided that I would do the exact opposite of what I did before. I decided if I did not like a person I wouldn’t go near them or listen to them. I found myself at a meeting where someone said something completely off the wall and I remember thinking, “Wow, how can I relate to a person like that?” I started to wonder if I belonged at all; a few told me, “Take what you need and leave the rest.”

At the next meeting, that same person said something that I truly needed to hear that day and I realized that we do not have to relate to everything about one another to learn from each other. Sometimes, a person may offend you one day and say exactly what you need to hear the next day.

Final thought: Today, I will learn to put “principles before personalities” in my recovery.