Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016
"If we have been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down a lot. We have listed and analyzed our resentments. We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. We have commenced to see their terrible destructiveness. We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our enemies, for we look on them as sick people. We have listed the people we have hurt by our conduct, and are willing to straighten out the past if we can." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 5 ("How It Works"), p 70.
Today, the promise to move past our resentments and other feelings that hurt ourselves and others is equivalent to a spiritual awakening. An intimidating or daunting achievement on the surface, such an overhaul is actually pretty simple. But the first rule is to want it, and the desire becomes a hunger if we accept completely and honestly the First Step - " ...admitted we were powerless ..." Without that surrender, the task of rebuilding is likely built on an unsteady foundation, and the foundation may cave into a relapse. But if we understand that there is no reason to fight anymore and immerse ourselves in the First Step, the Second Step of coming to believe that a power greater than ourselves may come easier. With that, we have made stronger the foundation on which we can rebuild our lives. And if we see someday that the person we become in sobriety nowhere resembles who and what we were in our drinking days, we might understand that the rebirth of ourselves is a natural benefit of honestly working the program. So is the miracle of AA. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2016
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