42nd
Michigan State Convention of A.A. - Kick-off Speaker
Introduction: by Sam R. – Delegate, Area 33
Hi, my name is Sam; I’m an alcoholic. Uh, I was just sitting here thinking, uh, I looked around this room and this is where I went, I… I attended my first state conference. Even though I’m from the Detroit area, I wasn’t quite ready for a state conference when it was our turn in 1980. I was braaand new in the fellowship. Uh, it’s nice to be back, but it’s not the first time, or it’s not the last time I was here… I’ve been to a couple of your Roundups up here and I enjoy it every time. (applause) Um, I… I wont say a lot about our speaker tonight, because uh, a lot of what I know about her has been gleaned from sitting at a handful of tables with her and, uh, since I’ve moved from that part of town some time ago, I’m… I haven’t seen her on a regular basis since, but… uh, as delegate for Southeast Michigan, it is a privilege to have her in our Area. Uh, whenever I did get to sit at a table with her, it was always my pleasure, and my learning experience. I always found out something from Theresa, so I’ll let you hear her story from Theresa S. (applause) “ Theresa… “
Beginning
of open talk: by Theresa
S.
As she’s handed the microphone… Tis mine? All mine... all mine. I mumble a little bit. Is this OK? My name is Theresa, and tonight I’m a very, very grateful recoverED alcoholic. I’m not cured; tomorrow I might get drunk. But I was taught, in the early days, that if we didn’t take a drink that day that we went to a meeting we were recovered for that day. And I don’t like to say I’m recoverING. I got a lot of things I have to work on that way, but not booze.
You know I want to welcome so many, many people who’ve come to hear me here tonight, and I feel very, very glad that I can share my message. But you know I gave a talk down to the March Round Up a couple of years ago, and I devised a little AA way of starting what I like to start my talk in. You know a lot of churches, when you go into a church, they... some get on their knees and pray and the others hold hands and the others do other things, but you know I sort of thought it would be very very nice... I wish everybody that can, would stand up please... now please give somebody a hug. (pause) Now doesn’t everybody feel just a little bit happier? I ran across something from the Surgeon General’s office not too long ago. And I’d like my friend here I’d like for you to listen to Renee, read this to you. Perhaps you’ll understand why I wanted everybody to have a hug. Renee?
Hi everybody, I’m Rena and I’m an alcoholic. Hi Renee. Can you hear me OK? OK. The Surgeon General has determined that hugging is good for your health. Hugging is practically perfect. No moving parts, no batteries to wear out, no periodic checkups, no energy consumption, high energy yield, inflation proof, no monthly payments, no insurance requirements. Non-taxable, non-fattening, non-polluting, and of course, fully returnable. Hugging is all natural, organic, naturally sweet. No pesticides, no preservatives. Has no artificial ingredients. Is 100% wholesome. The best people, time, and places to hug: anyone, anytime, and anywhere.
Thank you Renee. You know, they say when you give an AA talk, you’re supposed to tell how you were, and what happened, and how you are now. And you know sometimes I get rather frightened. I feel that I just can’t do it, but I know that the time is right for me to go ahead here, so I'm just going to dig right in right now. I do want to say, perhaps to some in here. I'd like to tell you about my story and if you knew me then don’t judge me. Judge me for now. You know I'd like to start this out by saying I just drank too much and then go on and tell what happened AA. I'm kinda nervous right now because always... and in the little hotel room, motel room or whatever it is, I left it behind accidentally: my little 24 hour book that Bill Wilson himself gave me. And I feel lost without it up here because his widow Lois (I met her a few years ago just before she died, a couple of years before she died, she was in a wheelchair, 92 years old, up in Montreal to a convention) she said, "Do you still have that book that Bill gave you over to Dr. Bob’s?" and I said “Yes, I always carry it in my purse.” She said, “This is an order from me.” This is Lois Wilson speaking. She said, “From now on I want you to put it out. If you’re giving a talk or if you’re at a closed meeting or if somebody else is talking, whatever it is, you put it out on the table. And I'm sure that Bill Wilson‘s spirit will be there to help everybody carry and understand the message.” And I believe it and I feel kinda lost but it’s back in the room there so just believe me when I say I’ve got it.
I'd l like to start off by just forgetting about the past but I can’t. I was last week to visit my son. He’s 72 and he’s in a nursing home, and I told him, I said I'm getting a little bit too old to give talks any more. And he said, “Oh no, mother. You’re never too old until you get to be100.” and he said “When you reach the 100 mark, then you can stop.” So I’ve got orders from him to give a talk tonight. But you know I'd like to begin by saying that it does my heart good to be up around here. I was here to a convention about 10 or 11 years ago and I don’t believe it was a state convention. I think it was an area convention or something like that but I thoroughly enjoyed myself then. You see, I was born and lived for 6 years in the northern part of the lower part of the Lower Peninsula. In other words, I call myself a Michigan hillbilly, because I was born in Cheboygan Michigan. And at the time that I was born, not when I came alive... I came alive 27 days and 5 months and 44 years ago. That’s when I started to live. But before that I was just part of the environment I guess. But I’ll make it kinda short there some people were saying that it’s good to only give a 35 or 30-35 minute talk but I can’t do that. I’m going to keep you here until I see everybody drooping about 11 or 12 o’clock and then this old babe’ll be so tired that you’ll have to haul me off of the...
But you know, as I say, I was born and lived for almost 6 years in Cheboygan. And my father who was 23 years old was accidentally drowned in a canoe. And his pant leg caught in a weed down in the bottom and nobody could rescue him before he died. And my mother, 5 weeks after he was buried, my mother gave birth to my baby sister, who’s in her 80’s. That's ok. You know my mother only had a 3rd grade education so she couldn’t take care of the both of us. So we left my baby sister with my Grandparents in Cheboygan. And she moved, her and I, took the train and went to Flint she couldn’t do nothing. As I talk about mother I want you to remember my mother died of acute alcoholism. She had cirrhosis liver and she died 2 years, in 1947, before I came into the program and it didn’t phase me any. I was bound and determined. I liked that Jack Daniels with the black label. I can still remember what I drank. But, you know to go back to my childhood, as I looked at our lovely dinner there tonight, I was remembering when I was about 7, maybe 8 years old I had lard on bread for my Christmas dinner. You know the kids nowadays think they have it hard but us older people went through the grind too. But I’m not saying that for sympathy. I’m just telling you that I know what it was like. I still know what it’s like to be in...not in want. I have everything I need today. When tomorrow comes, I probably’ll have it then. My mother only stayed in Flint a short time by the time I was 7 or 8 years old I sold newspapers on the street. And I can remember we used to smoke cigarettes then. They didn’t have filters on them like they have them today. And I was a smart conniving little snot, I know. And I used to pick up... I had a paper corner on the corner of Woodward Avenue and Grand River, the Majestic building. I used to have a little brown bag and I’d go pick up all the butts and then I’d sell them to the other boys for a nickel a bag of the butts and then I would go and buy myself a package of cigarettes. Some of those things that you do in such a conniving way you know, you never forget. But another thing that I did that I’m not proud of but I’d like let you know the kind of person I was. I was the best paper person in town for rolling the drunks. Now in case you people have no idea and you’re a bunch of young people in here... the majority are all so young they don’t know what you mean when you say you roll a drunk. That means you just turn ‘em over when they’re cockeyed drunk and you filter through their pocket and get their pennies and their nickels and their dimes. They never had dollar bills those days. But I could do that, oh my, and I could swear like a trooper.
That was one of the reasons that I joined AA, is my husband told me to go down with a bunch of drunks in Detroit. There was a meeting and I would learn how to drink like a lady from those drunks. But I’m getting ahead of my story. I had quite a time when I was, after I got tired of the paper girl and when I was about 12-13 years old those days the didn’t have such a thing as child laws and I remember I worked in a face powder factory out on Jefferson Avenue. And then I got a job at Fred Saunders. And at the March Round Up I noticed they had an ice cream festival and I went up all eager to buy a nice dish of ice cream, and they wanted $2.75 for a banana split that we used to make much better for 15 cents. But that’s the old days. You know they say that the older people always say that those days were the better days. No, the old days were not the better days for me. But I lived through them and I survived but I know that he had his hand on my shoulder all the time, because I didn’t know anything. I never had a stitch of religion. I didn’t know anything about that. All that I knew about this God business that you guys and gals were talking about was when they’d say to me, “Goddammit what are you doing in here? Jesus Christ, get out!” And I’m gonna take the beginning of a sentence and use that as my higher power? No way! But you see I’m getting ahead of my story. I’ll come back to that part.
I did the best I could. And I married very very young, disastrously. But I had 2 young little babies, 16 months apart. My 72-year-old was a little incubator baby but in those days, you gals all know there were no incubators in the early 20’s. And my mother, who drank a lot and I helped her... drink, we had a laundry basket and we put hot water bottles around and kept that little kid alive. He didn’t have any fingernails or toenails. He was a premature baby. But he survived and he’s living in a nursing home now. And he’s carrying the message he's been in the program for 18 years, but he’s disabled and he can’t take care of himself. But that’s another story. I can’t take care of him. I'm having an awful time taking care of me and my dog.
But to get back to my early drinking days... I don’t know if any of you are familiar with Detroit, or the Cream of Michigan restaurant that used to be on Claremont and 12th St.? I don’t know if anybody’s familiar with it, but there was a gang that used to be there. By that time I had graduated into becoming... I was a waitress. And I only had a 7th grade education. And I used to... I liked to drink. And I used to go down to that Cream of Michigan. And there was a notorious gang, Purple that used to hang out there. And one of the guys took a real shine to me. Incidentally, my name is not Theresa; my name is Thelma Schultz. Now you put that with the Purple Gang and you know who my husband was. But they made arrangements. They had... those were the rum running days and there were no bars. They were all blind pigs I can remember going into blind pigs and somebody would come in and somebody wouldn’t like the looks of them and they’d shoot ‘em and they’d be dead there. Me with my Jack Daniels, I'd say to the bartender, “Why don’t you give the house a drink and take the body outta here? It irritates me.” It was nothing to laugh at, but I thought it was a lot of fun that I was a hard cookie. And I think I was but somewhere along the line, you know that gang had a lot of things. They had an in with the police department. And if there’s any policemen in here or policewomen I don’t apologize for what I'm saying. But they had an in with the political field, they had an in with prostitution, and this man who took a shine to me decide that I'd make a damn good madam. So they got a great big mansion on Boston Blvd. And I had a nice bevy of beautiful call girls. He made very very sure that I kept my body pure, because he sort of liked me. I wasn’t a bad lookin’ chick in those days, I know. I know nowadays when sometimes people see me with my wrinkles and like that, they say “Oh, but you’re beautiful.” I know that they’re not looking at me. They see the real me that’s inside here. And that’s OK. I am beautiful in here and I don’t care who knows it. And the only reason that I think I’m beautiful inside is because people just exactly like the people in this room taught me.
I was one year and a half before I was allowed to go past the 3rd Step. They used to do it 1,2 &3 and they had a reason for it. But you see when my husband sent me down on Cass and Canfield to that meeting, I’ll never forget it: 4242 Cass Avenue, the only one downtown at that time in 1949. Before the meeting was over and they explained a little bit, the guy next to me pushed me and he said I'm gong to be your sponsor. And I said, “Well, what does that mean?” And he said “I’m going to teach you a few things.” and I thought, “Oh my god, my husband is going to kill him!” Because, you see, my husband, while he was doing a term in Jackson prison, when he got out he married me and took my two kids, teenagers, and took them and supported us, took care of us, in a good... He was a different man. He was a changed man. I’ve been a widow since 1956. And I tell ya, I would never look at another man because that man was my ideal.
He said that he heard that that bunch of drunks down there’d teach me to drink like a lady. Well when this guy poked me I thought he was going to put something in my nose and take me around to the bars and teach me how to drink like a lady. Instead, he was Archie Troubridge page 275 of the Big Book, one of the first one hundred and for a year and a half, twice a month we would go down to Akron on Ardmore Street to Dr. Bob’s. Perhaps you people have been down there at Founder’s Day or any time. And we used to sit, they used to have a side porch and we used to sit out there. And I’m going to tell you people now. I never used to say it, but the old timers knew it. And I read in the Grapevine of January 1994 the same thing on page 35 and 36 the man who brought attitude adjustment as we used to call it, for want of a better word. He brought AA to Cleveland. And you know we used to sit there and Anne, that’s Dr. bob’s wife had a bible. If you go down there now to Founders Day or any time and you go through, by the fireplace they have the bible open and a great big glass mantle over it. But we had to listen at an AA meeting, before the meeting started, to verses in scriptures from the bible from the Oxford group b/c they wanted us to be an new religious organization. But finally Dr. Bob and Bill both said they didn’t want a man made religion; they wanted something that was spiritual.
And they did not allow me for a year and a half, I guess I’m a very stupid person, but they told me the first 3 Steps, the first one was to let me know I had a physical disease, I was allergic to alcohol. One was never enough. Secondly, came to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity, and I thought there, ME with this great big ego that I had, who the hell did they think they were to call the likes of me... eh, restore me to sanity? And I know today, I was nuttier than a fruitcake, and I’m still nuttier than a fruitcake but as long as they don’t come from Northville hospital with a net, I'm safe. But you know to get back to the 3rd step, they said, and I never hear it mentioned, even by old timers, or people that’ve been in 20-30 years, I never hear them mention it. They say if you find the unwritten word in the 3rd step, then you can go to the rest of the steps. Because from 4 to 12 is a new way of life and it took me a year and a half to find that word. And that word is acceptance. Made a decision, anybody can make a decision. I can make a decision to take your hat off and change hats. You know? No big deal. Made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understood him. Well I’m gonna use that, you know, that beginning of a sentence as my God and our beloved Bill said to me one time, he said, “Schultzy, use the ashtray.” Oh, right away I rebelled... as my higher power. I rebelled I figured if he thinks I’m that nuts I'm going to search for a higher power. And I searched and I searched and I searched and today I have it.
I went to a meeting here a few weeks, oh a couple of months ago, out at Pine Lake I think it was. There by the Guest House where they have them now for the priests. And as I went through, I saw there was a bunch of women over there. Well, I instinctively knew that they were Alanon. Pardon me Alanons, but I know ya when I see ya. I don’t mean that maliciously, I just know that you haven't traveled as far down the lane as us drunks. But I saw they were there, and then on the other side, it was Lake Orion. A meeting in Lake Orion, and the GuestHouse bus was out there for the priests. They had just come in from Rochester, Minnesota and they were just here for a week at Guest House and they were going around in Michigan to see how we operated before they went back to various parts all over the United States. And I saw that there were about 2 or 3 men at each table and there was a couple of women and a young woman and an older woman, a woman about 40, and a young man there. And I went up to the young woman and I said, “Do they separate the men and the women here?” She said, “No.” I said this is my first meeting here, but I didn’t emphasize ‘here’ and she thought that it was my first meeting. She said, “Oh if this is your first meeting, come with me and I'll teach you something.” And I thought “To hell with her!” So I went over to a table and there were three gray haired men. And I figured, “Well, I’ll probably have to listen to a litany of how their Alanon wives across the hall there, that they misuse them or abuse them or treat them nice or something. But I'd rather listen to them than this girl that was going to teach me something. So I went over there and I sat there and the chairman asked anybody that was there for the first time, and at our table there were 12. We all raised our hand. We were from all over United States Miami, Rochester, New York, Brooklyn, and California and Seattle... and all over. 11 men and I was the only woman. They were all gray haired men and I thought, “Gee, I'm going to really learn something here of how they all operate.” And when we sat down, this one dear little man, he had a, one of those cute little beards, you know, and he had it trimmed so nice, and he said, “I’ll be the table leader.” He said “What’ll we talk about, the first step?” So I broke in and I said, “well, I was taught to have 1,2,and 3.” And I explained to them afterwards why they used to do it that way: because if I just knew, if they were just telling me that I had a drinking problem that fist night, I’d’ve figured, “Well, these people have a drinking problem but I don’t have a drinking problem, I just drink too much and I don’t act like a lady.” But these men, this dear little man, he said “well then, maybe you’ve been around a little while,” and he said, “maybe you’ll lead the table.” So I led the table and they were all priests. And before we left, the meeting was out for about a half-hour and finally the chairman come to this cute little man with the beard, and he said, “Who’s leading this table? The meeting’s been over for a half hour and I’ve got to lock up.” And this man, he was a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church, and he had all of the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. He said, “Young man, I'll have you understand, we’re from Guest House we have our bus out here, and you leave the keys here and we’ll be responsible. We’ll leave when we get good and ready.” I thought that was wonderful.
And I showed them something that I had learned. I learned this many many years ago. This posture, you know when I was younger I used to have to fend off physical abuse and mental abuse and other kinds of abuses. This way, you know. And I learned early in AA put my hand up here and my hand here. That’s my creative heavenly Father has his hand on my head. And my higher power that I call “JC”, and you know we’re not allowed to talk about religion, but a lot of you know who I’m talking about. He’s hugging me, and I feel safe. I go down to heart plaza I go anyplace and I feel safe. In fact, I feel as safe as I do on my own street in Plymouth, Michigan. But to get back to the steps, I had quite a time, those first 3 steps I finally made, but you know, from 4 to 12 I’ve discovered I can only say it myself. As far as I'm concerned, I have a Ph... what do you call it, Ph.D.? What is it? Ph.D. In the AA school of living because I’ve learned so much. since I’ve been in the program. when I came into the program I had a 7th grade education.
And my husband died very very suddenly in 1956 seven years after. He died a very pitiful death. he was a big man and he got a cold and then he got bronchial pneumonia and they took him the hospital with a thing on his chart, “Allergic to penicillin” and within 4 and a half hours he was dead from an overdose to penicillin. But I ask God to forgive them and I had to forgive them but I haven’t forgotten it. But that’s OK, you know, nowadays you young people, and little older too, you can all blame the computer. You don’t have to take anything at all about... But you know, that was an ordeal for me from 4 to 12. we did it 4,5 and 6 and then 7 alone. And I asked why. pardon me while I take a little snort. That’s not black label!
But you know, I often wondered, and I still wonder. I've seen some... the various stages of environment that we all come from some come from ... we were talking about that some people say “a low class bottom”. I don’t think there’s any low class bottom I remember when my husband died. I was sitting at the table and I was writing out the Mass cards. I’d been sober 7 years my husband was a social drinker yet. and I thought that stinkin’ thinkin’ you know that some alcoholics occasionally get, I can go in our ice box there’s choice cigars in there and I'm going to go and I'm going to pitch one. I’m going to take the telephone off of the wall. in 1956 they had ‘em on the wall. And I’m going to pull the blinds down and I’m really going to have myself a good time. But then I said “Oh God I don’t want to. Help me.” And the telephone rang. I wen tot the kitchen and it was old Tom Murphy. I don’t know if any of you ever remember fingers Murphy. Father Quern, from Holy Trinity Church, called him a living saint and I believe he was because he helped so many people. He said “My god Theresa are you alright?” And I started to cry. I said, “Yes, I’m alright now.” I said, “Well, how’d you happen to think of me?” and he said, “Well you know...” he lived in a little retirement village. And he said, you know it costs money to call from Detroit to Plymouth, but he said “I just had to call you”. He said “I was watching the Army Navy football game and your face came on the screen.” Now that’s how fellowship really and truly, I’ve discovered, works. There’re some people that I can barely tolerate, and then I know that they must be glad when I get away from them too. But at the same time... I don’t know. there’s something about AA people, and the Alanons too and the Alateens. There’s something different. I don't’ know how many of you ever knew Jerry Kent. he used to say a little thing I forget the name of it. and in it, it called us peculiar people and some people took offense to that. He could say it by memory and he was around 70, I guess. And he could memorize it. ”Power Beyond Estimate" was the name of the little 4 pages, and it called us peculiar people. And I think that we’re different from those civilians out there. And there may be some civilians in here, and I'm not taking you inventory. I’m just saying that I think because my life revolves around AA people, I know I’ve had one terrible life and it still... you know, when you get to be my age you have your ups and downs. But I get up in the morning and I say, "Oh, isn’t it wonderful to be alive!" and I live by a little crick that’s called Tonquish Crick. They say it’s named after Chief Tonquish. And I take my little fox terrier dog down there and she hunts squirrels. and we just have a whale of a time, summer and winter. And you know it’s getting lately this past year I haven’t been able to take her and it kind of worries me that I’m not going to be able to take her maybe as much as I used to. Maybe I can hire some of the kids around the neighborhood to take her.
But you know there’s more to life than what I learned in what we call the underworld the young people nowadays call “street”. There was a lot of things going on then that ordinary people, especially out in the suburbs like out this far... they didn’t realize those things were going on in the big cities. But I do know that the radio and the television and the papers have brought it to our mind now. We see a lot of it. But I was inn the thick of it and it wasn’t for me. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know any other way. I didn’t know what a good or a bad moral was. Archie Troubridge had to teach me that and I learned from him you know, the name of his, the chapter that he wrote in the Big Book is called “The Man Who Conquered Fear” and he did and that’s what I came in with but I never let anybody... I put on a proud exterior I'll be damned if I'm going to let anybody know how I really feel and today I don’t care. If they like me OK, and if they like what I say OK and if they don’t, well they can walk away.
I do believe that anybody... I don’t understand how nowadays in the past 10, 15 years so many ideas of, they call them relapse or slips. I don't’ think there’s anything like that. I think the only thing that I would consider now, for me, to have a slip after 44 and a half years... I believe that if I were walking down the street and I slipped on a banana peel and there was a bar there and the door was open, and I slid in on my back and I was right under a big barrel of Jack Daniels that was dripping I'd get drunk.
You know it does me good. I hear form the 7 priests that were around there last fall in Lake Orion. 7 of them I still write. I communicate with them and they use this they say, not only for their AA meetings... but they use them when they are counseling or sort of counseling or in the confessional. They use that and they say that it helps them so much and I tell you it just does me good when can just I say that one thing has been channeled from him down through me. I have no idea how I could ever show my gratitude except by staying sober. I do know that there is a lot between 4,5 & 6, and then they told me don’t go any farther than 4,5, 6, and then you can do 7 alone. and I asked why and Archie said, and this isn’t Roundly, and I worked at Sacred Heart as a counselor, a nurse counselor, and I know we never taught anything down there. I was the first one to bring it down to Sacred Heart.
But we were taught a lot of things that they’ve sort of forgotten nowadays. It’s a rush rush rush thing. they said when you know the difference between shortcomings and character defects, then you can go to the 7th step. and I had one heck of a time with that because, I guess I'm not bright. Because this program, although I never had a slip, because there was no banana peels around, I guess. But, I do know that sometimes my memory nowadays slips a little bit. I read in one of the little clippings the other day of a thing that kinda reminded me.. this old biddy. It seems like this man was sitting there, real old man, and he was sitting and he was sort of sad and lonely looking, and the policeman on the beach said "What’s the matter, can I help you? Do you need anything?” and the man looked up at him and said “No, I don’t need anything” he said, “I’ve got a wonderful home and I’ve got a brand new wife, and I know she’s cooking dinner for me, but do you know what? I can’t remember where I parked the car.” ...at home. That’s ok. At my age if you do as well as me, you’ll be doing alright.
Sometimes I talk too long but I've got my eye on the clock there, and I know that some of you people... Out of curiosity as a northern Michigan hillbilly myself I'd like to know how many there are from the Upper Peninsula. one! two... oh my I thought they’d be from the Upper... Oh maybe they don’t drink up there! I’m going to close. I do know that if you’ve come a long way from Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo or Detroit that it’s been a long night and look at, it’s 5 minutes after 9. And I'm going to tell ya a little story about this and then I'm going to read it. I was asked to give he first Matt Talbot women’s retreat talk at St Paul’s retreat house on 96th and Merriman I guess. Down there in Detroit. And I didn’t know... I knew there were going to be a lot of, pardon me girls, Alanons down there, and a lot of strict strict religious people that were in the program but they were still religious. And I didn’t want to offend them with my past because I’m me today, and if you can’t take me today and leave my past back there, I don’t want nothing to do with ya. but I sat there about 4:00 in the morning at home, and my neighbor had given me a great big bouquet of roses, and the petals were dropping and from Him to me to my pen came this little poem. And Father Brennan who was the retreat master down there, liked it so that he had asked me if it was alright he said “Will you copywrite it?” I said “No. It was given to me by God and anybody that wants it can have it.” so he had it made on parchment paper where the various priests from all over the, not only just the United States, but the priests and nuns that would go there for retreat. He thought that much about this tini little prayer of mine. and then, 3 or 4 years ago, Jack Boland and his little Chruch of Today thing had this and they put anonymous underneath it. and one of my girlfriends who just died two weeks ago she wrote the Church of Today and told them, “It’s not anonymous.” Theresa Schultz wrote it.
It's only a rosebud, a flower of God’s design.
But I cannot unfold the petals with these clumsy hands of mine.
The secret of unfolding flowers is not known to such as I.
The flower God opens so sweetly, in my hands would fade and die .
So if I can’t unfold a rosebud, flower of God’s design,
Why do I think that I have the wisdom to unfold this life of mine?
So I am learning to trust Him each moment of every day,
And I look to Him for guidance each and every step of the way.
The pathway that lies before me, my heavenly Father knows,
So I'll trust Him to unfold my movements and moments, just as He unfolds the rose.
Thank you
very much.
-End of transcript.
Open Talk
transcribed by- Virginia C. – January, 2000