Endigar 656 ~ First, the Foundation
From the Daily Reflections of January 2;
Is sobriety all that we can expect of a spiritual awakening? No, sobriety is only a bare beginning. (As Bill Sees It, page 8)
Practicing the A.A. program is like building a house. First I had to pour a big, thick concrete slab on which to erect the house; that, to me, was the equivalent of stopping drinking. But it’s pretty uncomfortable living on a concrete slab, unprotected and exposed to the heat, cold, wind and rain. So I built a room on the slab by starting to practice the program. The first room was rickety because I wasn’t used to the work. But as time passed, as I practiced the program, I learned to build better rooms. The more I practiced, and the more I built, the more comfortable, and happy, was the home I now have to live in.
END OF QUOTE
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So what is that big, thick concrete slab that allows me to erect a house, or a heart able to carry recovery? It is the bare beginning, a spiritual awakening that allows me enough sanity to stay sober. Yet not drinking or hurting other people is a starting goal and never the finished product. There is no doubt that no other progress can be made without this beginning, but obtaining sobriety is a catalyst for the final goal and not the finished product itself.
My big, thick concrete slab is to realize I have been living my life on my knees before a power greater than myself and that merciless mistress of my fate was alcohol. I have been living with an abusive spiritual dominant that has left me battered in an unmanageable life. The program teaches me to take my habit of surrendering and turn it toward a Higher Power that truly has my best interests at heart. I will abandon my alcoholic skill of self-deception and learn the sanity of my GOMU’s to embrace truth. This is what I will erect my recovery structure on.
Daily Reprieve 
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