In Step 9, I felt the palpable presence of the sacred each time I made a ‘face-to-face’ amends. The structure of the language that the protocol suggests acts as a secular spell, summoning ethereal witness. As if a gently burning circle or an impromptu chapel appears on uttering these apparently quite unremarkable words: ‘As you know, I am an addict. Part of the process of my recovery from addiction is that I must make amends to those I have wronged. I have wronged you and I owe you an amends.’ This simple sentence is the entry point to your face-to-face amends and somehow its words form an
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