“Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” The principle of Step 5 is integrity – an unimpaired condition; soundness; adherence to a code of moral, artistic, or other values; the quality or state of being complete or individual. What a principle! I don’t know about you, but this vocabulary was never […]

“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” Am I entirely ready to have God remove all of my defects of character, not just a few? Not always. Some of them are like a security blanket. They are a smelly blanket of comfort and familiarity. The smell keeps people away, forcing me to put my blanket […]

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” In step 7 of the 12×12 it says that ” humility, as a word, is often misunderstood”. When asked, what is the opposite of humility; my first guess would be Pride. Who could argue that? It was in my 22nd year of sobriety, when I had a phone call from my first wife’s […]

“Made a List of all people I had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.” MY BUCKET LIST I’ve heard the term “bucket list” and understand it to be a list of thing that I want to accomplish before I transion from this earthly body. The 8th step was my personal “bucket list”, which consisted of people, […]

“Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” The step that separates the sober man from the hopeless drunk… Having hit my absolute bottom after relapsing for the umpteenth time in early 2002, I finally sobered up for good in a tiny desert town with the priceless help of a […]

“Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” My father was a great believer in the Socratic maxim that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” He was convinced that the quest for genuine self-knowledge, though it often reveals unpleasant truths, is still the only workable foundation for a valuable life. I never asked him […]