Keep It Simple.

I always believed that I had to know "why" something happened, or why I felt a certain emotion, before I could even begin to deal with the event, or my feelings. In this way did I stay hopelessly stuck - there are mysteries in life that will never be explained to my satisfaction. If I set the understanding as a prerequisite to the acceptance, I will never get beyond my present confusion.

I have one sponsee that I know I drive bonkers, replying to her every "But why?" with: "Why is irrelevant; deal with the facts of it as it stands now. Keep It Simple." At first when we'd have this exchange, she'd sigh in frustration, then fall silent. Then she started to try to rush in with my reply before I could say it, now she laughs when she hears herself say "But why?" We're making progress.

The wonder of program, is that this sponsee is an excellent and endearing reminder of my own ways of thinking before Al-Anon - because of this, when I help her, she helps me. I'll have a conversation with her, and for the rest of the day, I'll be freshly aware that I need to Keep It Simple. I'll hear my own thought patterns, and be reminded - I don't need to go there, I can simplify my life, and spend more of my precious time here on earth enjoying myself.

I don't need to get lost in convoluted mazes of my own thinking. Complication is not sophistication, and simplicity is not naivete. Keep It Simple means I deal with what is before me at this present moment, and I live here and now while I'm doing it. I don't spend years of my life drifting along on autopilot, while my head is twenty years in the past. I have come to appreciate simplicity, and to strive for it in all areas of my life.