"And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol." From the Big Book
We find this line on page 84 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. And, as we accrue time in the program, reading the literature, going to meetings, and talking to our sponsors, we come to understand on a deep level what the book conveys about ceasing fighting.
In my opinion there's nothing gained when we're fighting. But when I was out drinking and doing whatever else I ingested, it seemed as if I were fighting the entire world. Even though they existed mostly in my distorted mind I could always come up with an adversary.
I had many. My wife. My employer. My parole officer. The man. The system. I could always conjure up someone or something to fight with. Now, mind you, many of my adversaries didn't even know I was upset at them. And most - had they known - wouldn't have cared anyway.
However, in my alcoholic brain I was the center of the universe and didn't these assholes know who I was? See, this is the dilemma for us alcoholics. Our ego says we're real important. We think everyone's against us. We think they hate us. But it's kind of like looking in a mirror; because we see the reflection of the one we're really angry at - the one responsible for all our problems. Our disease, though, has us in its grip and likes that we're so very angry that we fight everything. Our disease provides us with the rationale to keep destroying ourselves with the poisons we use.
Yet in the sunlight of recovery we find that our anger begins to dissolve, to melt away. We may not know why, but bit-by-bit we begin to feel better about ourselves and the new friends we meet who are on the same journey.
And we eventually discover that our life flows more smoothly because we no longer fight anything or anybody.
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