Step by Step
Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021
“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, a drinking alcoholic cannot accept or live with rejection – but a recovering alcoholic can. With the Program, 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 know better, the 12 Steps alert me when I am wrong, to promptly admit it and how not to respond without 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 rejection of my total 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., 2021
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