Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   November 19                                        The language of empathy

   "...the addict would find from the start as much identification as each
     needed to convince himself that he could stay clean, by the example of
                  others who had recovered for many years."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 85

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   Many of us attended our first meeting and, not being entirely sure that NA
   was for us, found much to criticize.  Either we felt as though no one had
   suffered like we had or that we hadn't suffered enough.   But as we
   listened we started to hear something new, a wordless language with its
   roots in recognition, belief, and faith: the language of empathy.
   Desiring to belong, we kept listening.

   We find all the identification we need as we learn to understand and speak
   the language of empathy.  To understand this special language, we listen
   with our hearts.  The language of empathy uses few words; it feels more
   than it speaks.   It doesn't preach or lecture-it listens.   It can
   reach out and touch the spirit of another addict without a single spoken
   word.

   Fluency in the language of empathy comes to us through practice.  The more
   we use it with other addicts and our Higher Power, the more we understand
   this language.  It keeps us coming back.

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   Just for today:  I  will listen with my heart.   With each passing day, I
   will become more fluent in the language of empathy.