March 16

For many us taking the Fourth Step was frightening, we feared what we might have to find out about ourselves. This Step mentions a fearless inventory, not a fearful one. That was the purpose of the first Three Steps; to gain the Faith that the Higher Power we met in those Steps would be with us now, and Guide us in this endeavor. The word moral confused many of us.

We thought surely there would be nothing moral about our characters in our using past. This is not a question of us being good or bad; it's a question of behavior patterns that no longer are useful in this Way of Life. There are also qualities we wish to enhance because no one of us is all good or all bad.

Like the grocer our Literature mentions, separating the rotten fruit from the good fruit and throwing out the bad fruit. Our bad fruits were the result of nonspiritual principles we needed for active addiction. They were our survival skills, and many of them saved our Lives, for that moment. In Narcotics Anonymous we are doing more than existing and surviving.

We are finally Living a life beyond our wildest dreams. Part of this process is us looking at ourselves with a Recovery mirror. We look at ourselves with Compassion and Understanding.

We learn how to separate ourselves from our diseased self. We start to become Accountable in this Step; we look at our side of the street and pick up the broom.

We write our resentments, our fears and misconduct. We write how these defects affected us; and those around us. We write about the time before we used drugs, and about the people we were; and would have become, if it weren't for the progression of the disease.

The information that's revealed to us in this Step prepares us for the following Steps. We start to Awaken to a Life filled with New Possibilities.