DECEMBER 26
ACCEPTING SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Furthermore, how shall we come to terms with seeming
failure or success? Can we now accept and adjust to either
without despair or pride? Can we accept poverty, sickness,
loneliness, and bereavement with courage and serenity?
Can we steadfastly content ourselves with the humbler, yet
sometimes more durable, satisfactions when the brighter,
more glittering achievements are denied us?
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 112
After I found A.A. and stopped drinking, it took a while
before I understood why the First Step contained two parts:
my powerlessness over alcohol, and my life's
unmanageability. In the same way, I believed for a long
time that, in order to be in tune with the Twelve Steps, it
was enough for me "to carry this message to alcoholics."
That was rushing things. I was forgetting that there were a
total of Twelve Steps and that the Twelfth Step also had
more than one part. Eventually I learned that it was
necessary for me to "practice these principles" in all areas
of my life. In working all the Steps thoroughly, I not only
stay sober and help someone else to achieve sobriety, but
also I transform my difficulty with living into a joy of
living.
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