More about Step 5?

[Dallas]

I recently started a new meeting on Wednesday nights. So far, it’s usually Me and Nobody, waiting for Somebody to straggle in. It’s in the perfect type location that I’ve come to love... which is where many of my dumpster diving future friends hang out. And, when the weather warms up it gets pretty active. They have honestly been some of the best meetings that I’ve ever attended!

The format of the meeting currently, is: to read out loud, the full chapter on each of the Steps and Traditions, out of the 12 & 12, and then open the meeting up for discussion after the reading. (Yes. Only one Step at a time... each week).

Tonight, it was Step 5.

I often get targeted for criticism, about my “old-fashioned flavor of AA ideasâ€

[Rusty Zipper]

eve's Mr BB... was at a step 2 meets tanight.... always gives me the Gradgitudes...lol...anyway...you said two mouthfulls... so i only put in one cent tanight...old timer say PC ### ya, he call me PC too, ha! #### be as honest with this step as can be.... cuz if ya not.... some day, and that day "Will" come... it gunna Bite you in the ass.... nighters...xo PC

[JR]

We are only as sick as our secrets. I haven't heard that saying in awhile, but it is so true. Those things we keep to ourselves and never show the light of day are the things which inhibit our spiritual growth. Confession is a very old spiritual practice and it simply cannot be done without another human being.

Our defects of character must be the topic of open discussion with someone who understands that enlarging on our spiritual life is a requirement of sobriety. If we fail to enlarge on our spiritual life, we may not stay sober. Another alcoholic is the only one who will understand (it takes one to know one).

All of AA's steps must be practiced "IN SOBRIETY"; we never graduate from a single one of them. The 12X12 in particular isn't talking to a practicing alcoholic, the entire book is addressed to those already sober who wish to broaden and deepen their understanding of the steps and traditions. All the steps are talking to me, the sober alcoholic, regardless of length of sobriety. I must practice all of AA's steps and the associated principles on a daily basis to enjoy continued sobriety.

Love Each Day,

Jr