Nov. 23, 2023 - Readings in Recovery: Step by Step

 

Step by Step

Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023

Today patience: Loosening my grip on a character defect that can be as crippling as any other — impatience. Whether I am new to recovery or have worked it for countless 24 Hours, may I understand in expecting too much too soon that recovery requires growth — and growth is not a one-time “event” but an ever-evolving dynamic. If today I am tempted to drink or shoot up, I will pray for patience. I have the 12 Steps to overcome a potential relapse and my own history to know where impatience has taken me before. And let me know that temptation will pass, as all things do. But it will not pass if I feed it. If people in my life do not live up to what I expect or in the time I think they should, let me use patience to ask myself if I am unfairly asking something of someone else and, if so, grant me patience to “allow” others to do it in their own time. If something looms for me three weeks in the future, let me not fret today or any other today for the next three weeks for I risk igniting other potentially crippling emotions, including anger, resentment and a blow-up like a pressure cooker left unattended. Today, let me recognize that impatience can be as deadly as any other defect and that I need to respect life evolving on its time schedule, not mine. And our common journey continues. Step by step. — Chris M., 2023

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