Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   December 22                                              A new way to live

   "When at the end of the road we find that we can no longer function as a
        human being, either with or without drugs, we all face the same
      dilemma....  Either go on as best we can to the bitter ends-jails,
             institutions, or death-or find a new way to live."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 87

                           ----=----

   What was the worst aspect of active addiction?   For many of us, it
   wasn't the chance that we might die some day of our disease.  The worst
   part was the living death we experienced every day, the never-ending
   meaninglessness of life.  We felt like walking ghosts, not living, loving
   parts of the world around us.

   In recovery, we've come to believe that we're here for a reason:  to
   love ourselves and to love others.   In working the Twelve Steps, we have
   learned to accept ourselves.    With that self-acceptance has  come
   self-respect.  We have seen that everything we do has an effect on others;
   we are a part of the lives of those around us, and they of ours.   We've
   begun to trust other people and to acknowledge our responsibility to them.

   In recovery, we've come back to life.   We maintain our new lives by
   contributing to the welfare of others and seeking each day to do that
   better-that's where the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Steps come in.
   The days of living like a ghost are past, but only so long as we actively
   seek to be healthy, loving, contributing parts of our own lives and the
   lives of others around us.

                           ----=----

   Just for today:  I have found a new way to live.   Today, I will seek to
   serve others with love and to love myself.