Mar 01: Daily Inventory

Daily Inventory

For today’s topic, I have chosen the powerful words about prayer and meditation in Step 10 of Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pp. 89-90. These paragraphs point to the need for daily inventories which they call an accurate self-appraisal and how self-examination is necessary to stop judging other folks.

The section asks if these practices are not “joy killers.” The answer is not really, that once the habit of a self-appraisal becomes grooved, it is “interesting and profitable and the time it takes won’t be missed.”

Though this is only the 3rd and not the 10th month of the year, Step 10 has always been the key step in my sober life, so I am showcasing the information for this meeting. I am sober more than 30 years, but I still get caught up in what other people are doing and thinking: even though AA tells me I don’t have to please everyone, I still want to. And all the literature tells me that in some fashion I must do God’s will, and I will probably know it is His will if I have ease and comfort.

On page 90, it tells us “it is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us.” It asks “is there no exception to this?” And the answer is our so-called “justifiable anger is better left to those qualified to handle it.”

The spot check inventory is aimed at or daily ups and downs, especially when people or events can throw us off balance. And the book underscores the development of self-restraint since “when we speak or act hastily our ability to be fair-minded evaporates on the spot.”

Recently I moved into an assisted living facility because there were many issues at the apartment house where I had lived for the last four years. As fate would have it, I face new and more difficult challenges here: I am trying to be reasonable every time something difficult happens, and I am growing constantly. Not only does my age make it harder to change and do it with good humor, but my lifetime featuring the freedom and happiness I am used to makes me balk at letting others make decisions for me. I am not the spiritually sound person I would like to be, but I try to apply these principles on an ongoing basis.

Now, I would like to hear from you about how you utilize the principles outlined here to seek solutions to the unhappiness caused by people, places, and things in your life. For me the program works both in face-to-face and online meetings, and the words, in my humble opinion, are straight from GOD. Ladies, the floor is now open for sharing.