04.20.05

Today I am grateful for unlimited resources.

We recovered alcoholics are not so much brothers in virtue as we are brothers in our defects, and in our common strivings to overcome them. --AS BILL SEES IT, p. 167

The identification that one alcoholic has with another is mysterious, spiritual -- almost incomprehensible. But it is there. I "feel" it. Today I feel that I can help people and that they can help me.

It is a new and exciting feeling for me to care for someone; to care what they are feeling, hoping for, praying for; to know their sadness, joy, horror, sorrow, grief; to want to share those feelings so that someone can have relief I never knew how to do this -- or how to try. I never even cared. The Fellowship of A.A., and God, are teaching me how to care about others.
©Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.©

All of us who share these Steps have broken away from old patterns. We have chosen to leave liquor and pills alone. We may have chosen to leave unhealthy relationships. And we are daily choosing to move beyond our shortcomings. But not every day is a successful one. Our shortcomings have become ingrained. Years of pouting, or lying, or feeling fearful, or overeating, or procrastinating beckon to us; the habit invites itself.

We can find strength from the program and one another to let go of the behavior that stands in the way of today's happiness. And we can find in one another a better, healthier behavior to imitate.