Step 12 is a tall order. It begins with the assumption that we have had a spiritual awakening, and it then recommends that we carry the message we have found to others and that we practice these principles in all our affairs.

There's a great deal of discussion in our meetings about the meaning of some of the words in this Step, let alone how to do it. What is meant by a spiritual awakening? Is that different from a spiritual experience, and if so, how? What's the "message"? And what are the principles?

We can sit and talk about these matters until we're blue in the face, but if the definitive answers haven't been found in the sixty or so years since the emergence of 12-Step fellowships it's probably reasonable to assume they're never going to be found. And anyway, Step 12 is a call to action; and to perform the action, we have to become willing to perform the action.

Now, it's fairly easy to become willing to carry the message to others. We do it in meetings; we do it one-on-one; we do it by visiting the prisons or by talking to non-Program groups like schools or doctors. However, becoming willing to practice these principles in all our affairs is a different matter. Are we really willing to do that? Or are we willing merely to chip away at it?

It's a key question. Probably no one in the history of Program has become happily willing to practice these principles in all their affairs. But it's quite possible to become grudgingly willing -- in much the same way as we admitted in Step 1 that we were addicts of whatever kind, even though we may have hated the idea. In other words, our willingness to practice these principles in all affairs may well come about because our practice of Steps 10 and 11 has progressively shown us that we simply have no choice -- that unless we accept deep down that we must do this, there will always be some corner of our lives that we keep to ourselves, under the assumption that we can manage it all on our own. And it's those little corners that have caused all the trouble we have had in our recovery.