Daily Reflection

MARCH 29
TRUSTED SERVANTS
They are servants. Theirs is the sometimes thankless
privilege of doing the group's chores
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 134
In Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis describes an
encounter between his principal character and an old man
busily at work planting a tree. "What is it you are doing?"
Zorba asks. The old man replies: "You can see very well
what I'm doing, my son, I'm planting a tree." "But why
plant a tree," Zorba asks, "if you won't be able to see it bear
fruit?" And the old man answers: "I, my son, live as though
I were never going to die." The response brings a faint
smile to Zorba's lips and, as he walks away, he exclaims
with a note of irony: "How strange—I live as though I were
going to die tomorrow!"
As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I have found
that the Third Legacy is a fertile soil in which to plant the
tree of my sobriety. The fruits I harvest are wonderful:
peace, security, understanding and twenty-four hours of
eternal fulfillment; and with the soundness of mind to listen
to the voice of my conscience when, in silence, it gently
speaks to me, saying: You must let go in service. There are
others who must plant and harvest.