Tháng 11 ngày 13

We as addicts thought we needed to be perfect in everything we did. Since we thought we would fail, sometimes we didn't even try. We looked at mistakes as failings, so we never learned from them.

We continued repeating the same mistakes over and over. We became extremist, it was either black or white, there was never any gray area in our lives.

Fear dominated our lives, once again. Lack of Faith became our default in all our work. Our Gray Book defines insanity as, "poisoning one's self for no apparent reason. " The Basic Text reminds us that making the same mistakes over and over; and expecting different results, was a form of insanity.

In Narcotics Anonymous, we learn from our mistakes; we learn that Sanity meant we could make new mistakes. As we progress in Living the Steps, we Accept ourselves as we really are. We also Accept what we're lacking and work on that.

We accept ourselves and others as just being human. We Accept ourselves with all our flaws, we learn to Accept others with all their faults. Our Gray Book says, "We are trying to achieve adequacy, not perfection." God Forgives us in Step Seven, as we Humbly ask for our shortcomings to be removed.

We Forgive others and ourselves, for all the harm we caused in Step Eight. We extend the same Forgiveness we ask for ourselves, from our Higher Power, to others. We learn to be Patient with ourselves.

We give ourselves and others a break.

In This Moment: We will not strive for perfection. "Adequacy can be achieved, but perfection cannot." We will allow ourselves and others to be human.