[nandm]

Day 1

Keeping an open mind.

"Nothing is troublesome that we do williingly." Thomas Jefferson

This Step, tends to produce instant denial in most of us. "Restore us to sanity?" we cry. "Are you insinuating that we're crazy?"

Not crazy, perhaps, in the sense that we're certifiable. But we're certainly being asked to look at our behavior, and to see that it has been neither rational nor healthy, and that our own best efforts seem to have failed miserably.

The phrase, "a Power greater than ourselves" may also cause our hackles to rise. Many of us suspect that we're about to be tossed into an "ism" that smacks of religious doctrine. Religion, per se, is not a component of the Twelve Steps, although the process may actually strengthen the belief systems of many of us who do follow a formal religious path.

The founders of A.A. developed the steps on which this program is based. Their book, Alcoholics Anonymous. which everyone siimply calls the Big Book, clearly emphasizes that although their methods have proven successful for hundreds (now millions) of people, the steps the propose are only meant to be helpful suggestions. All they truely hope to do is to show others precisely how they can recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.

When we look at all the missteps we've taken in the past, it's a blessed relief to know that it is possible for us to change our entrie direction today.

Today's step: I suspend my old beliefs in order to be open to new ones.

Step By Step, daily meditations for living the Twelve Steps. By Muriel Zink