 |
| The Serenity Prayer |
Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014
" ...(T)he man with the grown-up brain and the childish emotions - vanity, self-interest, false pride, jealousy, longing for social approval, to name a few - become a prime candidate for alcohol. ...(T)hat is the definition of alcoholism: a state of being in which the emotions have failed to grow to the stature of the intellect. ...(T)here are some alcoholics who seem terribly, terribly grown-up, but ...they are trying to make themselves think they are grown-up, and the strain of their effort is what is causing them to drink - a sense of inadequacy, a childish vanity to be the most popular, the most sought after, the mostest of the most. And all this, of course, is, in the popular modern jargon, 'compensation' for immaturity'." - Alcoholics Anonymous, "They Lost Nearly All," Ch 11 ("He Who Loses His Life"), pp 534-35.
Today: " ...emotions have failed to grow to the stature of the intellect." Somewhere along the line, something impeded my emotional development that lent itself vulnerable to a false "stimulus" - alcohol. Accepting that my alcoholism is partly an emotional disease, I also must accept that abstinence by itself is not enough to obtain sobriety. And this is when I must look to the First and Second Steps - to accept my powerlessness and open myself to the possibility of a higher power that might show me the way. Such is the basis of recovery; without surrender to these two basic but essential steps, the emotions that contributed to my flawed character likely will not heal. Today, I pray for the healing to begin. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment