Control

[MajestyJo]

Dear Graced,

Thank you for sharing. Step Three was my favorite Step until I found Step Eleven. We have a Step Ten, Eleven and Twelve Meeting in our area. It is not on a bus route so unless I am offered a ride I don't get to go. They do a meditation with candles and music, and then read portions of text and discuss what is read from these three maintenance steps.

For me, these three steps and the 3rd and 5th Traditions are the root of my program, without these, especially Step Eleven, I don't have that conscious contact. I was shocked when I went to one of those meetings once and heard a woman share who had twenty years in the fellowship say, "In our busy lives, it is hard to take time for meditation!" My thought was, how did you stay sober, but more importantly, do you have sobriety?" For me, there isn't one without the other.

I like your concept of G-d. It is like my interruption of the first step in I am powerless over alcohol-, it was written like that because the book would be much thicker if I listed all my addictions. As someone said, the dash between the two phrases, connects them, and the second half is the meaning of the first half.

G-d for me means he is too big to explain and much greater than any concept or description that I could ever give.

all I have control of, yet it is self-delusion to think that allows me to slip back into the role, more from habit than anything else. Thanks to the program, I am empowered to change that when I find myself acting out in my disease.

As they say, if you have to control it, it is already out of control. If I am God-centered, there is no need to control me if I go with the flow and am living "in the spirit." I certainly need an attitude adjustment every once in a while, that is why I go to meetings when I can.