Oct. 31, 2012 - Just for Today

Just for Today
Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012

"I spend a great deal of time passing on what I learned to others who want and need it badly. I do it for four reasons:
1. Sense of duty.
2. It is a pleasure.
3. Because in so doing I am paying my debt to the man who took time to pass it on to me.
4. Because every time I do it I take out a little more insurance for myself against a possible slip." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "Personal Stories, Pioneers of AA", Ch 1 ("Doctor Bob's Nightmare"), pp 180-81.

Just for today, admitting that my motive to quit drinking was self-serving and hardly altruistic, I am required now to be responsible for the gift of sobriety I am receiving in the Program. That responsibility is no clearer in any other than the 12th Step, the one that gives us our marching orders to carry the message to people who need and want it. A dividend like sobriety that we have earned through blood, sweat and tears brings with it a responsibility to it, and we appreciate and treasure that dividend when we share it with someone else, and it works as well for them. As a drinking alcoholic, I "shared" my problems by blaming anyone and anything but myself, and it overwhelmed me; as a soberholic, so must I also share it and, hopefully, sobriety will become an even stronger condition than the attraction to alcohol. And our common journey continues. Just for today. - Chris M., 2012