...we could feel time, touch reality, and recognize spiritual values long lost to many of us.
Basic Text, p. 88
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In our active addiction, we were prepared to compromise everything we believed in just to get our hands on more drugs. Whether we stole from our families and friends, sold ourselves, or lied to our employers, we were ignoring the values that mattered most to us. Each time we compromised another dearly held belief, another chunk of the mortar holding our characters together fell away. By the time many of us came to our first meeting, nothing was left but the ruin of our former selves.
We will locate our lost values as we carry out our first honest self-examination. But in order to rebuild our characters, well find it necessary to maintain those values, no matter how great the temptation to shove them aside. We will need to be honest, even when we think we could fool everyone by lying. If we ignore our values, well discover that the biggest fibs weve told have been the ones weve told ourselves.
We dont want to start the demolition of our spirits again after all the work weve put into their restoration. Its essential that we stand for something, or we risk falling for anything. Whatever we find important to us, we honor.
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Just for today: I stand for something. My strength is the result of living my values.
I like that it says, "to maintain those values". That's the future that I'm talkin' about! The challenge of maintaining and developing the values of my positive moral inventory might go something like this:
In early recovery, I start with the basics and rudiments.
I advance to a mid-level understanding and practice.
I contemplate and experience my values at the aesthetic levels.
Whatever I do in life, I advance. But I have to tap into resources that promote the increase. If the maintenance and building of my values isn't happening, I expand the horizon. And I keep at it. I must get out of the 1st level mentality and move on up.
I know I stand for an addict who found recovery when I thought there was no where to except downhill, I found a way to recovery and climb the ladder to a real way of life.
