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Sobrietyspell


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Daily Reflections ~ Facing Ourselves
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. . . . and Fear says, You dare not look!
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 49









 

 

How often I avoided a task in my drinking days, just because it appeared so large! Is it any wonder even if I have been sober for some time, that I will act that same way when faced with what appears to be a monumental job, such as a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself? What I discover after I have arrived at the other sidewhen my inventory is completedis that the illusion was greater than the reality. The fear of facing myself kept me at a standstill and, until I became willing to put pencil to paper, I was arresting my growth based on an intangible.

YESTERDAYS BAGGAGE

For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching becomes a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 88

I have more than enough to handle today, without dragging along yesterdays baggage too. I must balance todays books, if I am to have a chance tomorrow. So I ask myself if I have erred and how I can avoid repeating that particular behavior. Did I hurt anyone, did I help anyone, and why? Some of today is bound to spill over into tomorrow, but most of it need not if I make an honest daily inventory.


A NECESSARY PRUNING

. . . . we know that the pains of drinking had to come before sobriety, and emotional turmoil before serenity. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 94

I love spending time in my garden feeding and pruning my beautiful flowers. One day, as I was busily snipping away, a neighbor stopped by. She commented, Oh! Your plants are so beautiful, it seems such a shame to cut them back. I replied, I know how you feel, but the excess must be removed so they can grow stronger and healthier. Later I thought that perhaps my plants feel pain, but God and I know its part of the plan and Ive seen the results. I was quickly reminded of my precious A.A. program and how we all grow through pain. I ask God to prune me when its time, so I can grow.

SERENITY AFTER THE STORM

Someone who knew what he was talking about once remarked that pain was the touchstone of all spiritual progress. How heartily we A.A.s can agree with him. . . . TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p p. 93-94

When on the roller coaster of emotional turmoil, I remember that growth is often painful. My evolution in the A.A. program has taught me that I must experience the inner change, however painful, that eventually guides me from selfishness to selflessness. If I am to have serenity, I must STEP my way past emotional turmoil and its subsequent hangover, and be grateful for continuing spiritual progress.

(Let  it be a God or Higher Power of your own understanding)



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Progress not perfection.. & Practice makes Progress!
jonijoni1


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Thanks so much, Danielle. I needed this tonight. Especially:
"and emotional turmoil before serenity". I am absolutely in some turmoil right now. I am getting toward 2 years again, where I have fallen down twice. And with it, I am taking on some of the mental and emotional crap (luggage) that plagues me around this time, this season, and I am desperately digging my heels in, determined to make it through this time. We do go through turmoil very much during sobriety, not only before sobriety. But the difference is that I have a wealth of support and tools out there to use.

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~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do
that which you have no ability to do.
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