The Twelve Steps

Yesterday during our weekly Sunday afternoon together, Scarlett asked me when I was going to write about the Twelve Steps. Other than a mention of Step One in my very first entry, I've consciously avoided them because I don't feel qualified to discuss them. I'm not in an organized group such as Al-Anon or Codpendent's Anonymous, and any ideas I could share about the Steps would be strictly based on my personal experience and opinions.

I studied the Steps a little deeper last night and discovered the beauty of them is that they are so simple, so basic, that even I could write about them. We are each free to find our own version of what it means to "work" a Step.

I'm a pretty firm believer that we all have "something" we do too much; something that causes us pain. For me it's worrying and trying to control others, for you it may be shopping or overeating. The Twelve Steps were originally designed for recovery from alcoholism, but they work for any addiction or obsession. They are used by many recovery groups from alcoholism to food addiction to codependence to sex addiction. Any compulsion or addiction that has negatively affected one's life or caused one to feel out of control.

Also, you can move about the Steps. You don't have to take them in order. Today you may find yourself working Step Three; tomorrow Step Nine.

I will dedicate the next twelve journal entries to the Steps. Again.....this is strictly an interpretation of them according to Mary and Mary's personal journey. Maybe you can adjust them to fit something in your life. Just substitute the word "alcohol" in Step One with your "thing". We codependents insert the word "others".

Here we go!

The Twelve Steps of Alcoholic's Anonymous

1. We admitted we were powerless over "alcohol" - that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.