Step by Step
Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023
“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, a drinking alcoholic cannot accept or live with rejection — but a recovering alcoholic can. With the Program, I see now that what is “rejected” is not my entire being but only what I have said or done. And when I was ill-equipped as a drinking alcoholic to know better, the 12 Steps alert me when I am wrong, to promptly admit it and how not to respond with hurtful and self-destruction emotion but with logic. Few are the feelings of absolute rejection. I am sober now, though, and I can see with the vision recovery has provided that I do not have to perceive a “no” to be a rejection of my total being but only of what I have said or done. In the end, I am a member of AA, and the Program rejects no one. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2023
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