Promises

Tomorrow I will go to a women's conference. Topic... The promises.

In the interest of not breaking anonymity, I'll just say, yes I do attend 12 step meetings. Those who know me well, know which program I follow.

I have printed The Promises below. It's partly for a selfish reason... so I can see them in print and consider how far I've come in the last 16 years, consider why some promises are slow to be fulfilled. The last line sums it up well. Tomorrow will be good for me. I've been slacking lately, becoming complacent, not working it. There. I have admitted it. That is the first step after all.


The Promises (from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.