CLEANING HOUSE

 CLEANING HOUSE

 

Somehow, being alone with God

doesn't seem as embarrassing

as facing up to another person.

Until we actually sit down and talk aloud

about what we have so long hidden,

our willingness to clean house

is still largely theoretical.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p 60

 

It wasn't unusual for me to talk to God,

and myself, about my character defects.

But to sit down, face to face,

and openly discuss these intimacies

with another person was much more difficult.

I recognized in the experience, however,

a similar relief to the one I had experienced

when I first admitted I was an alcoholic.

I began to appreciate

the spiritual significance of the program

and that this Step was

just an introduction to what was yet to come

in the remaining seven Steps.

 

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Group and World-Wide Community

 

The moment Twelfth Step work forms a group,

a discovery is made – that most individuals

cannot recover unless there is a group.

Realization dawns on each member

that he is but a small part of a great whole;

that no personal sacrifice is too great

for preservation of the Fellowship.

He learns that the clamor of desires

and ambitions within him must be silenced

whenever these could damage the group.

It becomes plain that the group

must survive or the individual will not.

 

“The Lone member at sea, the A.A. at war in a far land–

these members know that

they belong to A.A.’s world-wide community,

that theirs is only a physical separation,

that their fellows may be as near as the next port of call.

Ever so importantly, they are certain that God’s grace is

just as much with them on the high seas

or the lonely outpost as it is with them at home.”