Wisdom Of The Rooms - 2021

[bluidkiti]

January 4

Quote of the Week

"If nothing changes, nothing changes."

In early recovery I heard someone say that, “If you get a horse thief sober, all you have is a sober horse thief.” I learned that the Twelve Step program is a program of recovery because it is a program of change. Just getting sober isn’t enough. I have known many people who came into the program and stopped drinking but either delayed or didn’t work the Steps. They soon found that they still had all the old problems, feelings, and circumstances they had while drinking. Besides not drinking, not much else had changed.

“The same man will drink again.” This was another saying I heard when I was new, and it reveals yet another danger of not working the Steps and of not changing. Driven and haunted by the pain of the old self, it is a short distance to the temporary relief and old solution of drinking. Once again, if nothing changes (besides not picking up a drink), nothing changes, and the same man will soon drink again.

“The only thing we have to change is everything.” The miracle of the program comes as we work the Steps, abandon our old ideas, and discard our old self. The Big Book tells us that we become reborn as a result of working the Steps, and it is this new self that is capable of living a new life that is happy, joyous, and free. The good news is that this total change is much easier than it sounds, and it is a natural result of working the program. And ultimately, everything changes as we change.