Absolutely love this opportunity to enhance my spiritual fitness (“Alcoholics Anonymous”, authors: Recovered 100, www.aa.org, “Alcoholics Anonymous” text pgs 1-103, 151-164, 417:1 as well as pgs. 567-8), incorporating life-serving principles including:
1. acceptance (pg. 48, 417:1),
2. anonymity (pgs xiii:3 {designate self simply as “member of Alcoholics Anonymous.”, 562 {11th and 12th traditionS}, 565 {11th tradition}, 566 {12th tradition = “... the PRINCIPLE of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance.” Anonymity reminds us to: place principleS before personalities, practice a genuine humility.....!
3. balance (AA 12/12, steps 4, 10, 11, 12, {13 different citations}),
4. beauty (12&12 Step Eleven, p.100
Let us become willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words {the 1912 Prayer of Peace} are the carriers.
AA, text, We Agnostics, p.50, “We missed the reality and the beauty of the forest because we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees.”
5. community (V4U pgs. 152, 156, 158, 161, 163 {2x}, pg. 131 {Family}, pg. 137 {Employers}, Dr. Opinion pg. xxvii, 12/12 pgs 43 & 50 (Step 4), pgs. 110 & 124 (step 12), pg. 186 (tradition 12)
6. courage (S 4, pgs 64:1-71:0),
7. equanimity (pgs. 14, 68, 84),
8. faith (S 3, pgs 60:3 - 64:0),
9. honesty (Step 1, pgs 1-44, 58, 65, 73, 140, 145),
10. hope (Step 2, pgs 44-60:2),
11. humility (Step 7, pgs 76:2, AA 12/12 pgs 70-76, AA pgs 13, 73, etceteras, “the spiritual FOUNDATION” of EVERY step, living a recovered life),
12. integrity (S 5, pgs 72:1-75),
13. justice (S 9, pgs 76:3-84:1),
14. love (Step 8, pg 76:3),
15. perserverance (Step 10, pgs 84:2-85:2),
16. prayer (pgs 59, 85, 87):
The Serenity (pgs 14, 68, 84) prayer,
The 3rd Step (give your will and life over to Power Greater than Self) prayer (pg 63:2), “God, I offer myself to Thee-
To build with me
and to do with me as Thou wilt.
Relieve me of the bondage of self,
that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties,
that victory over them may bear witness
to those I would help of Thy Power,
Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.
May I do Thy will always!”
The 7th Step (Humbly ask Creator to remove our shortcomings) prayer (pg 76:2), “My Creator,
I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad.
I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here,
to do your bidding. Thy will, not mine be done, Amen”
The 1912 Prayer of Peace (pg 99, the AA 12/12) {Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Creator, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying (to self) that one is raised to eternal life.} One of St. Francis (1182-1226) closest companions (Giles of Assisi 1190 – 1262), prayed: “Blessed is one who loves and does not therefore desire to be loved;
Blessed is one who fears and does not therefore desire to be feared;
Blessed is one who serves and does not therefore desire to be served;
Blessed is one who behaves well toward others and does not desire that others behave well toward them;
And because these are great things, the foolish do not rise to them.”
17. promises (pgs 5, 38, 83-84, 151-164 and many more throughout EVERY step, many of the pages 1-164 and beyond),
18. recovered” life = the living problem is addressed, the symptomS (alcoholism, anger, anorexia, bulimia, debting, depression {self will regarding the present moment}, discontentedness, fear (self will regarding the future), irritability, overeating food, resentments {self will regarding past}, restlessness, self-pity {self will regarding the present moment}, sex related inappropriate compulsivities, spending issues and other compulsivities) are removed (many pages in the AA text authored by the recovered 100, including pgs 17:1, 20:1, 29:1, 45:0, 90:3, 113:1, 132:2, 146:2, 165, 2001 edition title page, Forward to 1st edition, paragraph 1, as well as Forward to Second Edition, xvii:1 and xxv.
19. responsibility (pgs 77-82),
20. service (Step 12, pgs 89-103),
21. spiritual awareness (Step 11, pgs 85:3 to 88, pgs 567-8),
22. spiritual fitness, a daily reprieve (pg 85),
23. willingness (Step 6, pg 76:1, AA 12/12 pgs 63-69, AA pgs 12, 13, 46, 118, 124, 163),
into every aspect of this life I am blessed to live, currently. While I constantly AIM for spiritual perfection, nothing less, I can only claim spiritual progress, occasionally. www.gratefulness.org, ahimsa
