Who wishes to be rigorously honest and tolerant? Who wants to confess his faults to another and make restitution for harm done? Who cares anything about a Higher Power, let alone meditation and prayer? Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry A.A.'s message to the next sufferer? No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn't care for this prospect - unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 24
I am an alcoholic. If I drink I will die. My, what power, energy, and emotion this simple statement generates in me! But it's really all I need to know for today. Am I willing to stay alive today? Am I willing to stay sober today? Am I willing to ask for help and am I willing to be a help to another suffering alcoholic today? Have I discovered the fatal nature of my situation? What must I do, today, to stay sober?
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* We eventually realize that just as the pains of alcoholism had to come before sobriety, emotional turmoil comes before serenity. *
And what a reminder of who we use to be. Self-Centered to the Extreme.
Then with the Miracles that happen with the steps, the changes that go on inside us,
We actually have changed our whole nature. We do not give to a Suffering Alcoholic because we have to, to stay sober, our giving of ourselves is because we want to give back, because there is joy is giving what was so freely given to us.
Thanks Jen, much appreciated by this Alcoholic!
Hoping you have a good nights sleep, and a much better day tomorrow.
