Sounds like the makings of a decent first step leading into step 2. Of course you can generalize the first step into beig powerless over most things outside of yourself....and therefore gain even more peace of mind through surrendering. Though the most important thing is to surrender to the disease of alcoholism.

It is also important to remember that a course of action gives us tools and ways of keeping alcoholism in remission. You can't beat it, but you, me, and the rest of us can live happy and productive lives with it :)

I love The Program begins with an admission of Powerlessness but ultimately gets us to a place with an alliance with "There is one who has all power, may you find him now", and it tells us where to find this power:

We found the Great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found. It was so with us.

With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves.

and not only that, we are told: Much to our relief, we discovered we did not need to consider another's conception of God.

So we get to choose our own concept of this Power Greater then ourselves that we find within, and then when we get to step 3:

As we felt new power flow in, as -we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter.

We were reborn.

WHOA!!!!!!

OK, that is POWER!!!!!

peace of mind?? freedom from fear??? face life successfully???

for a drunk? for a terrified person who can't stop drinking and can't run his own life?

that....is POWER

and Later on we are told: "You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail."

In Other Words:

We have recovered and have been given -the Power- to help others.

or even to drive them away

we must be careful to never show intolerance for alcohol as an institution, that drinkers won't stand for such stupidity

So we can help alcoholics, or we can drive them away from AA, that is great power, and we all know what Uncle Ben says about great power.....

Acceptance of people places and things is a lot different then powerless over people, places and things

I can help people, I can hurt people, I can welcome people, I can drive people away

If I am active I make people sick:

" Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic."

"The alcoholic is like a tornado roaring his way through the lives of others. Hearts are broken. Sweet relationships are dead. Affections have been uprooted. Selfish and inconsiderate habits have kept the home in turmoil. We feel a man is unthinking when he says that sobriety is enough."

If I am well I can help alcoholics:

You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail."

We have recovered and have been given -the Power- to help others.

I am not powerless over people places and things, I need to accept them, but I need to understand I can also affect them, and while I will always be powerless over alcohol, and my life will be unmanageable by me, I am set, because:

We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well. Established on such a footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our own little plans and designs. More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life. As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn.

Alcohol also loses it's "power" over me

For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.

And that is very powerful stuff

and that is why step one was a surrender to me....surrender means: To go to the winning side, the winning side is not powerless, the winning side is infinite in it's power in this case

Step one = The Problem
Steps 2 - 12 = The Solution

We are only powerless over things which we give our power to, the steps are a way in which we take our power back



-- Edited by LinBaba on Friday 3rd of December 2010 07:29:07 PM

Hey Thirsty, I love your state! Nothing better than hiking the woods of Maine, kayaking her coasts and fishing her gulf. The whole darn state is a cure for alcoholism in my book...How's that for a "geographical cure"??

Anyway, welcome!