Dec. 12, 2014 - Step by Step

The Serenity Prayer 

Step by Step

Friday, Dec. 12, 2014 

"What alcoholic can live with rejection? How devastating, too, are the subsequent feelings of inadequacy and self-pity. There's only one answer - liquid comfort. The unwillingness to admit failure requires even further friendly intake. It becomes vital, also, that others not know of our defeats nor suspect our loss of confidence." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, "They Stopped in Time," Ch 3 ("Those Golden Years"), p 331. 

Today, I understand that a drinking alcoholic cannot accept or live with rejection - but a recovering alcoholic can. With the Program's wisdom, I see now that what is "rejected" is not my entire being but only what I have said or done. And when I was ill-equipped as a drinking alcoholic to learn, the steps of AA alert me when I am wrong, to promptly admit it and how not to respond verbally with emotion but with logic. Few are the feelings of absolute rejection. I am sober now, though, and I can see with the vision AA has provided that I do not have to perceive a "no" to be a total rejection of my whole being but only in what I have said or done. In the end, I am a member of AA, and the Program rejects no one. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2014