The Courage To Make Amends

"Courage is to feel the daily daggers of relentless steel and keep on living." Douglas Malloch

Someone once said that we come into this world like a clean sheet of paper, and that everyone we meet scribbles on us. This may well account for the part of us that feels victimized by circumstances beyond our control.

As we pursue Step Eight and write our own findings on paper, we become more and more aware of our own culpability. And yet, we also begin to realize that when we face up to our problems we can evoke skills and talents we didn't know we had. When we go deep inside ourselves, we find that we do posses the courage to face those to whom we have done harm. We also know, that having aligned ourselves with a power greater than ourselves, we have an ever-present support system to bolster our resolve.

As we progress, we can define more and more clearly how we were drawn into our dependency. With hindsight, we can identify the attitudes and actions that catapulted us into this downhill run. We can track how one act led to the next. One lie led to the next. One disaster led to the next. Until, at last, we were forced to realize that we were caught in a web of such tenacity that it was impossible to find a way out by ourselves.

The old adage "forewarned is forearmed" now becomes a vital tool in preventing us from falling back into old habit patterns.

Today's Step: With the support of the group and my Higher Power, I face my amends with courage.