Daily Reflection

AUGUST 11
REMOVING "THE GROUND GLASS"
The moral inventory is a cool examination of the damages
that occurred to us during life and a sincere effort to look
at them in a true perspective. This has the effect of taking
the ground glass out of us, the emotional substance that
still cuts and inhibits.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 140
My Eighth Step list used to drag me into a whirlpool of
resentment. After four years of sobriety, I was blocked by
denial connected with an ongoing abusive relationship. The
argument between fear and pride eased as the words of the
Step moved from my head to my heart. For the first time in
years I opened my box of paints and poured out an honest
rage, an explosion of reds and blacks and yellows. As I
looked at the drawing, tears of joy and relief flowed down
my cheeks. In my disease, I had given up my art, a selfinflicted
punishment far greater than any imposed from
outside. In my recovery, I learned that the pain of my
defects is the very substance God uses to cleanse my
character and to set me free.