A new woman shared this morning about having a tough time with visiting family as she was in the midst of working her Third Step. I like the axiom that whenever you're struggling with a Step you should go back through the immediately preceding Steps until you get to the source of the problem which - in my experience - is almost always Step One. If I'm still powerless over some aspect of my life I'm going to struggle with the nuances of turning over my will.
Will: To want or choose; a determination to do something; to try to cause something to happen by using the power of your mind.
Our wills our a god-given gift/curse that makes life worth living/horrible and can be used in wonderful/destructive ways.
Re: Family? Family is hard. Family that drinks is especially hard. Trying to convince drinking family members that they should mirror your pious, sanctimonious life of sobriety with only a few months under your belt is a fool's errand and doomed to failure, almost certainly. A newcomer who isn't drinking is probably someone who quit drinking before, if only for a short while, so family members are rolling their eyes at this pronouncements of the beauty of the sober life. My family installed some of my buttons so they know where they are and how to push them and what happens when they're pushed. My defects, so well-hidden and artfully managed, ooze to the surface and determine my behavior.
It doesn't always work out with family. Sometimes a sober life isn't going to fit into the family dynamic. Sorry about that. When I drank I was a train wreck but I was a predictable train wreck and could easily be mollified by the presence of alcohol and a bathroom to take whatever drug I was currently taking.
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