Step #12 – What Can I Do? (part 3)

Steps to the Spirit

In this episode , I would like to talk about the phrase we tried to carry this message to others. I tried to remember that these original 12 steppers were pretty much just putting 1 foot in front of the other each day. They knew that, in most cases, they began their journey to recovery as a result of someone else sharing with them what it used to be like, what happened, and what it was like now. They knew it was important to try to help others and all they knew was to help them in the same way in which they themselves were helped.

This is how it all began. There was no book. There were no posters of this 12 steps hanging on the meeting walls. Heck, there weren’t even any meetings, at least not like we know them today. It was all about passing it on and mostly was the it was, well, “it was God, and hope, and love, and a chance to once again live the life without the insanity.

Some of you who are reading this and/or listening to my podcasts no special gifts we have been given. Today it may not be the same as when a couple of folks went to the bedside of one who was still suffering to offer them hope, but things are different, as well as the same. In some cities or towns it is hard to walk more than a few blocks without discovering another place where there is a meeting that night. New editions of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, are widely distributed. Other literature about addiction and recovery is abundant. We see stories about recovery on TV. All in all, it would be hard to claim ignorance as a reason to continue to drink, to drugs, for any of the other myriads6 of addiction.

Of course, we can, in no way, either relax or rest on our laurels. It seems that as much work is done there seems to be more to do.