I also know that being
sober isn't enough. Not drinking is probably the easiest part. I don't think my
life would have changed much if I had only stopped drinking. What made the
difference was getting involved with my spirituality, picking up the pipe and
our traditional ways.
Walking
Elk
We
have learned that whatever the human frailties of various faiths may be, those
faiths have given purpose and direction to millions. People of faith have a
logical idea of what life is all about. Actually, we used to have no reasonable
conception whatever. We used to amuse ourselves by cynically dissecting
spiritual beliefs and practices when we might have observed that many
spiritually-minded persons of all races, colors, and creeds were demonstrating
a degree of stability, happiness and usefulness which we should have sought
ourselves.
Instead,
we looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes used their
shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation. We talked of intolerance, while
we were intolerant ourselves. We missed the reality and the beauty of the
forest because we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees. We never
gave the spiritual side of life a fair hearing.
Big Book pgs. 49 & 50
The
spiritual life is not a theory. We have
to live it.
Big
Book pg. 83