Someone who knew what he was talking about once remarked that pain was the touchstone of all spiritual progress. How heartily we AA's can agree with him...... 12&12 pp 93-94
When on the roller coaster of emotional turmoil, I remember that growth is often painful. My evolution in the AA 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.
__________________
* We eventually realize that just as the pains of alcoholism had to come before sobriety, emotional turmoil comes before serenity. *