Step by Step
Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013
"What alcoholic can live with rejection? How devastating, too, are the subsequent feelings of inadequacy and self-pity. There's only one answer - liquid comfort. The unwillingness to admit failure requires even further friendly intake. It becomes vital, also, that others not know of our defeats nor suspect our loss of confidence." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Stopped in Time," Ch 3 ("Those Golden Years"), p 331.
Today, I can understand now that a drinking alcoholic cannot accept or live with rejection - but a recovering alcoholic can. By the grace of the Program's wisdom, I see now that what is "rejected" is not necessarily my entire being but only what I have said or done. And when I was ill-equipped as a drinking alcoholic to learn, the Steps of AA alert me when I am wrong, to promptly admit it and how not to respond verbally with emotion but with logic. Few are the feelings of absolute rejection. I am sober now, though, and I can see with the vision AA has provided that I do not have to perceive a "no" to be a total rejection of my entire being but only in what I have said or done. In the end, I am a member of the Fellowship of AA, and the Program rejects no one. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013
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