A couple of things have been running around in my mind lately. One is a quote from the BB, which frequently comes back to me, and the other is about the 7th step. In fact I had a dream last night, in which the 7th step played a big part.
The two might be closely tied together. The passage from the BB is, if we rest on our laurels in this spiritual program of action, we’re soon headed for trouble. You’d think that after all these years, I would have learned this lesson well. But, I have this drifty head and can find myself off base frequently. Fortunately for me, I attend meetings on a fairly regular basis and something or other will penetrate my head and pull me back on track. Also, I get enough calls which will get my attention. I get reminded that this is a program of action and that complacency is the enemy of action.
What kind of action? Like I said, the dream woke me up to the fact that there is always a lot of work to do with this 7th step. When I get into one of those places, where I’m lying on the leaves daydreaming, I find that my shortcomings will pop up without any difficulty. Before I know it, I am scrambling around, trying like crazy to get my character defects back under control. Usually I will see the symptoms of this in a sudden fit of temper, followed by an instant resentment. From there, I will find myself sliding down into all kinds of problematic thinking.
Then, when I discover, once again, that these things are far out of my control, the old fox hole prayers begin. Get me out of this one.
Then the old suggestions I heard many years ago come back. When all else fails, follow directions. And the directions? They’re in the BB and the voices of others. If I will but pause and pray and open up to others (a prayer in itself), all the mental turmoil begins to calm down and I can find myself back on the beam in no time. Amazing how this works.
Then, from the fourth Tradition, comes a message from the Middleton Group: Rule #62: “Don’t take yourself too damn seriously”. Good advice for me.