One of the great gifts of this program is others. Without others just like myself, I might lose this program and thus my sobriety. I need others. They help me to stay sober. They share with me and I share with them. Or, I should.
We talked about our primary purpose today and character defects. That first is all about me staying sober and trying to help another alcoholic achieve sobriety. The second is almost the same. It too is about sharing. Me sharing with others and them sharing with me.
What I mean by that is, when I’m not sure what’s going on with me, I can go to others and talk to them about what’s bothering me. And usually it’s one or more of my character defects. Through talking with other sober alcoholics, my experience has shown me they are able to spot what it is I’m dealing with.
One of our members today brought up my worst problems. He talked about what Bill had written in the BB about selfishness and self centeredness. He said that we must be done with them or they will kill us. And yet, even after all this time in here, they still keep popping up in my life.
Like a lot of character defects, which I have learned to recognize and deal with them, many of them return in disguise. I really don’t know that I’m into them until it’s almost too late. That’s where I’m able to talk to others and have them point out to me what’s wrong.
But that being self centered and then selfish, in order to protect my ego, that does keep returning. I find myself thinking it’s all about me. I often get in my own way and then find myself caught up in my pride and denying what it is I’m thinking or doing. That’s definitely when I need help.
I know that it’s up to me to pray to my higher power and ask for help with this, but then it’s up to me to do something about it. Go to someone else and share. Often I find that the person I’m talking to suffers from the same things. That helps to know that I’m not alone. But it also helps tear down my facade and get me back into the sunlight of the spirit.
It’s all about staying sober a day at a time. But that requires my being willing to pick up the tools in this program and use them. One of them is talking and sharing with others.