Step 12: Living It
This step for me has always been so important to me. When I made my call to AA for help, they were at my door in 15 minutes.As a newcomer in the program I would be sitting around the AA club room when I would hear the phone ring and see these people run out the door like they were going to a fire, this always impressed me. After I was sober for a while my sponsor {Jack} would take me on 12 step calls. I would just sit there and listen to these old timers do there thing.
As we know it doesn't make much sence to try and get through to a person while they were drunk, all though there were times when they would bring the person to the AA club room and feed him orange juice and honey to get him over the shakes, and maybe on the start to a new life.
When I started doing 12 step calls on my own, although I try not to go alone, I started getting too involved and was letting myself get hurt because nobody I was 12 stepping was getting sober, I thought "what am I doing wrong?" My sponsor sat me down and had a long talk with me, #1 I was trying to save the world, #2 like Port said, we carry the message not the body.
Dry Drunk?
I even had a couple of people that I 12-stepped go back out and die. Thank God, I had a great sponsor who set me straight, I can't sober up the whole world, all I can do is carry the message, the rest is up to them. One of the most important part of a 12 step call is the follow-up. It doesn't hurt to call the person in a few days to see if they might want to go to a meeting with you, I find that it shows that you are for real.The other part of this step is in my every day life. I don't walk around with a sign on my head saying that I am an alcoholic, but then I am not afraid to tell someone. The manner that the 12 steps has taught me to live my life is also 12 step work.
I have heard this word used in AA alot and that is the (dry drunk) you are either drunk or you are not.I belive if a person does not work the 12 steps to the best of there ability that their life will still be unmanageable and that they will not be able to carry the message. But to say that a person is on a dry drunk just isn't fair, he/she is sober it just takes some longer than others to find that we have to live the 12 steps to be happy and carry the message. Weather I am making a 12 step call or talking to my next door neighbor, I am a proud member of A.A.
I guess what I am trying to say it that we have to live it before we can give it.
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More about Step 12
Step 12: Service
"For those in recovery programs, practicing Step 12 is simply "how it works."Saved My Life
"What he said to me that evening saved my life. That was REAL 12 step work."Do No Harm
"In short don't rescue the alcoholic it harms him/her in the long run."It Works Online, Too
"I have found so many opportunities online to meet and greet newcomers, to do service work, and to listen and learn from others."
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