If we have been in recovery a long time, we have discovered two kinds of community in Program. There is the larger, 12-Step community that we belong to, our membership of which we annnounce each time we identify ourselves in a meeting. But each of us has found a smaller community too within that Fellowship -- a community of people we relate to closely, who seem to approach Program in the same way we do, to whom we can turn when things go well or badly.

Perhaps at no point in our recovery will we need this smaller community more than when we decide to practice Steps 10, 11 and 12 meaningfully. We find that our acquaintances in the larger Fellowship tend to focus more on Steps 4 thru 9 and see Steps 10, 11 and 12 almost as repetition of those earlier Steps. If we are to practice those last three Steps with effort and concentration, we will need to find that smaller community which has a similar dedication. For we cannot work the Steps alone without great difficulty, and we find that we relate less and less to those in Program whose focus is still Steps 4 thru 9.

That smaller community is there, though we may need to look hard to find it. It may not even be in a 12-Step program, for a strong commitment to a spiritual existence has been found for thousands of years in all walks of life. Wherever it is, we can be assured that when we determinedly practice these Steps, we will find the community we need.