There Can Be No Peace
This one catches my interest. From pgs. 43-44 in the 12&12;
“We have also seen men and women who go power-mad, who devote themselves to attempting to rule their fellows. These people often throw to the winds every chance for legitimate security and a happy family life. Whenever a human being becomes a battleground for the instincts, there can be no peace.”
A battleground… a human being. I can go back a number of years and remember, positively, that, on the sound suggestion of wiser folks in recovery, I was able to avoid putting my children in the middle of “our” divorce. Children in the middle are a battleground. I love my children. I don’t want them to be a battleground. Heck, I don’t even like how that sounds.
Today, I am a battleground. In the middle between good sense, maturity, responsibility, recovery and anger, anger, anger, anger. What steps do you think I ought to practice? How about Three and Eleven?
The 12&12 goes on to say: “Every time a person imposes his instincts unreasonably upon others, unhappiness follows.”
I’m not happy with a “special” part of my life. I’m not in control nor am I attempting to control. I am trying to “adapt and overcome” to coin a phrase.
“In these ways we are set in conflict not only with ourselves, but with other people who have instincts too.” How true, how true… it is a definite conflict that feels like the only solution will come from the God I understand and the other party will not understand. That is a shame. One I don’t have to bear, thankfully.
“We have drunk to drown feelings of fear, frustration, and depression. We have drunk to escape the guilt of passions, and then have drunk again to make more passions possible.”
Gratitude! This is not true - for today and, if I awaken tomorrow, we’ll repeat today as closely as possible.
Tags: 11th-step, 3rd-step, 4th-step, alcoholics-anonymous, Recovery, serenityRelated Stories
POSTED IN: The Eleventh Step, The Fourth Step, The Third Step
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