April 19

Our Literature tells us that timing is essential in the Ninth Step. After completing our Eighth Step list, we go over this list with our Sponsors. We cross out, wherever possible on that list, where we would injure them or others.

We also make sure that it's not too soon to make that Amends. Our Literature tells us that it can do more harm than good if those people are still angry at us.

Once we establish the actual Amends we are about to make, we actually set out to look for these people, places and things. We proceed without any expectations on the results. We don't project outcomes.

We clean our side of the streets because we have to. Cleaning up the wreckage of our using and changing, is a big part of our Recovery. The Process started with our Higher Power Forgiving us in the Seventh Step.

Since we are not Greater than our Higher Power, we Forgive others and ourselves in Step Eight. These previous Steps prepare us for whatever happens in our Amends process. Projecting what may happen can become a stumbling block.

Fear is a lack of Trust. We must remember that the Higher Power that got us Clean in the First Step is still with us. We take the action because we have to and leave the results up to The God Of Our Understanding.

We experience on a deeper level the Promise of Freedom. We are finding a New Way To Live and this gives us and others Hope. Since Amends means to change, we're careful not to cause more harm.

We also stop practicing the defects that caused these harms in the first place. We are never even, there are those that will never experience our Amends. The change in our attitudes and behaviors will be our indirect Amends.

This Journey of our Recovery is a Lifelong Process.