Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

by Alcoholics Anonymous

Here we turn outward toward our fellow alcoholics who are still in distress.

He finds himself in possession of a degree of honesty, tolerance, unselfishness, peace of mind, and love of which he had thought himself

quite incapable.

we who were atheist or agnostic discovered that our own group, or A.A. as a whole, would suffice as a higher power.

From great numbers of such experiences, we could predict that the doubter who still claimed that he hadn’t got the “spiritual angle,” and who still considered his well-loved A.A. group the higher power, would presently love God and call Him by name.

Bullshit

Can we bring the same spirit of love and tolerance into our sometimes deranged family lives that we bring to our A.A. group?

I need to work on this.

The best-intentioned of us can fall for the “two-step” illusion. Sooner or later the pink cloud stage wears off and things go disappointingly dull. We begin to think that A.A. doesn’t pay off after all. We become puzzled and discouraged.

I feel that this is where heather is. Do I need to get a different sponsor? One who proactively tries to find solutions for themselves?

we have some members who never seem to get on their feet moneywise, and still others who encounter heavy financial reverses.

Only by this means can we

improve our chances for really happy and useful living.

Either we had tried to play God and dominate those about us, or we had insisted on being over dependent upon them.

We had refused to learn the very hard lesson that overdependence upon people is unsuccessful because all people are fallible, and even the best of them will sometimes let us down, especially when our demands for attention become unreasonable.

Am I being too codependent with heather. Should I stop worry about her and just focus on myself? She’s good at helping me sort through emotions.