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Moderation


 
A friend in Program says:

We've all heard the adage,

The only thing that I've ever pursued in moderation is spiritual growth.

It is noteworthy for many of us that the pace and energy of our program seemed to diminish once we finish Step 9 for the first time. How enthusiastic we've been up to that point! How determined we were to complete our Step 4 and 5! How we fretted about the difference between "shortcomings" and "defects of character" in Steps 6 and 7! And how energetic we were in making our amends!

And then things just seemed to slow down. Perhaps we felt that we'd got through the "meat" of the program, and we could now take it easy. Certainly there were not many people in Program who seemed to be applying the same energy to the last three Steps.

For most of us in recovery, this was enough. But for a certain number of us, there was an increasing suspicion as the years went by that this was not enough -- that Steps 10, 11 and 12 required every bit as much energy as we'd shown in the first nine Steps. "Moderation" might be all very well as a guiding principle, but we saw that it had started to become complacency. Reluctantly, we began to examine and practice the last three Steps with more vigor -- and found that we had indeed entered the world of the Spirit.

"The spiritual life is never one of achievement:
it is always one of letting go."

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