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Each morning puts a man on trail and each evening passes judgment. —Ray L. Smith— In many ways, the Tenth Step is very natural. We continue to take a personal inventory. And when we’re wrong, we promptly admit it. At the end of each day we ask ourselves, “How did my day go?” As we […]
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I wish you the courage to be warm when the world would prefer you to be cool. —Robert A. Ward— Our program and the Steps have warmed us from the inside out. Just as a bonfire warms those who stand around it, the Steps take away the chill we have felt for so long. At […]
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An excuse is worst and more terrible than a lie.—Alexander Pope— Excuses. They’re lies. We use excuses to hide from ourselves. Maybe we don’t want to be honest about our anger. So we say someone else made us angry. Maybe we don’t want to admit how mean we can be. So we pretend we have […]
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Nobody gives you freedom. —Malcolm X— We were not free. We were prisoners of our illness. What our illness wanted, we give it our dignity, our self-respect, even our families. Our prison walls were made of denial, false pride, and self-will run riot. Now we know that brick walls don’t have to stop us. We […]
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Love thy neighbor as thyself, but choose your neighbor.—Louise Beal— In our program, we learn a lot about loving ourselves. Then we start to see how this helps us love our neighbors. We learn to love ourselves honestly, seeing our strengths and our weaknesses. We learn to see others honestly. We learn how much to […]
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It’s not dying faith that’s so hard, it’s living up to it.—William Makepeace Thackeray— We may ask, “Do I have to do an Eighth or Ninth Step?” “Do I really need a sponsor?” “Hmm…can I get by without going to so many meetings?” Having faith means putting our questions aside. So…what do we do? We […]
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Life is what happens to us while we’re making other plans. —Thomas LaMance— What happened to our years of drinking and using other drugs? They seemed to pass so quickly with so little to show for them. We had plans, but we didn’t get where we wanted to go. There was always “tomorrow.” What a […]
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Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.—Anonymous— Nobody’s always wrong. Nobody’s all bad. And that includes us. Sometimes, we really get down on ourselves. When we do Step Four, we sometimes see only our faults. When we make our Step Ten checkup, we see only our mistakes. We can’t afford to do this. […]
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We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.—Eric Hoffer— When we’re not honest with others, we’re not being honest with ourselves. In recovery, we’re taught how to heal our hearts. We admit we’re wrong, and we do it quickly. We let our spirit have the loudest voice. This way, lies lose power over us. We […]
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A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will. —Seventeenth century proverb— We addicts used to be stubborn. Once we got an idea in our heads, we wouldn’t change it. We didn’t listen to others ideas. We almost seemed to say, “Don’t tell me the facts. I’ve already made up my mind.” But lately […]