Thursday, September 26, 2013

Sept. 26, 2013 - Step by Step

Step by Step
Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013

"God willing, we members of AA may never again have to deal with drinking, but we have to deal with sobriety every day. How do we do it? By learning - through practicing the Twelve Steps and through sharing at meetings - how to cope with the problems that we looked to booze to solve, back in our drinking days." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Lost Nearly All," Ch 13 ("AA Taught Him to Handle Sobriety"), p 560.

Today, God's will and the 12 Steps will steer me from dealing with drinking again because my problem now is not drinking but in living sober - living no longer in the problem but being a willing participant in the answer. In drinking, I experienced the answers that drinking had for me - fear, anger, disgust, regret, loneliness, pain, resentment. In sobriety, the answers aren't as clear because I either have lived too long in alcoholism or lived most of my life without sobriety. The key to living in the answer instead of the problem is, indeed, the 12 Steps. And if they sometimes may lead me to uncertain and even scary places because they are not familiar, I know they cannot be as frightening as the certainty of where drinking again will take me. Today, I choose - because now I have a choice - to live in the solution and not in the problem. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013

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