Endigar 897
Courage to Change of Jun 3:
In order to keep family and friends from interfering with their drinking, alcoholics sometimes create diversions by accusing or provoking. At such a time, we who have been affected by someone else’s drinking tend to react, to argue, and to defend ourselves. As a result, nobody has to look at the alcoholism, for we are too busy focusing on the particular point being argued — any topic will do. And unfortunately, what we defend against we make real.
When we take Step One, we admit that we are powerless over this disease. We do not have the strength necessary to fight it. Defending ourselves by engaging in arguments with actively drinking or otherwise irrational people is as fruitless as donning armor to protect ourselves from a nuclear explosion. Only a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.
Today’s Reminder
I am responsible for taking the actions necessary to keep myself safe. But when my safety is not at risk, I can take time to make choices about my responses. I don’t have to react instantly to provocation, and I am not obligated to justify myself to anyone. By turning to my Higher Power for protection, rather than my wits or my will, I avail myself of the best possible defense.
“Once we learned to see our situation as it really was, we understood why it was necessary for us to turn to a Power greater than ourselves.”
~ Al-Anon’s Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions
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I found in my own life that spiritual proclamations with no meat hooks are worthless. The saying to “Let Go, and Let God,” means nothing if it isn’t offered in a room with 12 Steps hanging on the wall. If you cannot find a way to digest a spiritual assertion into a pragmatic expression, discard it. Spirituality without boots on the ground is recreational religion.
Also, the notion that my wits and will are mutually exclusive in seeking connection with God is not helpful. The will of the aversive control I experience from alcohol, directly or indirectly, is the enslaving impulse in my life. It was active in me to enforce the negative contract I had with addiction and its intimate agents. I have found that to overcome that aversive control, I need distance, detachment, and some time to work on myself, so that I can establish a system of counter-control in my own life. I have discovered that it is important for me to know myself, to learn to better process my emotions, and to build my personal freedom by increasing the gap between stimulus and response. Connecting with the Higher Power gives me an archetype to emulate, because there is no one more professional at “loving detachment” than the God of my understanding.
Finally, it was important for me to see the iron clad link between sanity and honesty. The eyes of a sane man can see things as they are. The clearer that vision was in my life, the greater the possibility of having some sanity in my head and in my home. That is why the first principle in the program is a commitment to truthful appraisal of the dysfunction of my world, and the unmanageability of my mind in isolation.
Be prospered as you transform into the highest version of Yourself.
Daily Reprieve 
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