"Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps,  we tried to carry 
this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

	The joy of living is the theme of A.A.'s Twelfth Step, and action is its key word. 
Here we turn outward toward our fellow alcoholics who are still in distress.  Here we
experience the kind of giving that asks no rewards.  Here we begin to practice all Twelve
Steps of the program in our daily lives so that we and those about us may find emotional
sobriety.  When the Twelfth Step is seen in its full implication, it is really talking about the
kind of love that has no price tag on it.
	Our Twelfth Step also says that as a result of practicing all the Steps, we have each
found something called a spiritual awakening.  To new A.A.'s this often seems like a very
dubious and improbable state of affairs.  "What do you mean when you talk about a
'spiritual awakening'?" they ask.
	Maybe there are as many definitions of spiritual awakening as there are people who
have had them.  But certainly each genuine one has something in common with all the
others.  And these things which they have in common are not too hard to understand. 
When a woman or a man has a spiritual awakening, the most important meaning of it is
that they have now become able to do, feel, and believe that which they could not do
before on their unaided strength and resources alone.  They have been granted a gift which
amounts to a new state of consciousness and being.  They have been set on a path which
tells them they are really going somewhere, that life is not a dead end, not something to be
endured or mastered.  In a very real sense they have been transformed, because they have
laid hold of a source of strength which, in one way or another, they had hitherto denied
themselves.  They find themselves in possession of a degree of honesty, tolerance,
unselfishness, peace of mind, and love of which they had thought themselves quite
incapable.  What they have received is a free gift, and yet usually, at least in some small
part, they have made themselves ready to receive it.
	A.A.'s manner of making ready to receive this gift lies in the practice of the Twelve
Steps in our program.  So let's consider briefly what we have been trying to do up to this
point:
	Step One showed us an amazing paradox:  We found that we were totally unable
to be rid of the alcohol obsession until we first admitted that we were powerless over it. 
In Step Two we saw that since we could not restore ourselves to sanity, some Higher
Power must necessarily do so if we were to survive.  Consequently, in Step Three we
turned our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.  For the time
being, we who were atheist or agnostic discovered that our own group, or A.A. as a
whole, would suffice as a higher power.  Beginning with Step Four, we commenced to
search out the things in ourselves which had brought us to physical, moral, and spiritual
bankruptcy.  We made a searching and fearless moral inventory.  Looking at Step Five, we
decided that an inventory, taken alone, wouldn't be enough.  We knew we would have to
quit the deadly business of living alone with our conflicts, and in honesty confide these to
God and another human being.  At Step Six, many of us balked -- for the practical reason
that we did not wish to have all our defects of character removed, because we still loved
some of them too much.  Yet we knew we had to make a settlement with the fundamental
principle of Step Six.  So we decided that while we still had some flaws of character that
we could not yet relinquish, we ought nevertheless to quit our stubborn, rebellious
hanging on to them.  We said to ourselves, "This I cannot do today, perhaps, but I can
stop crying out "No, never!' "  Then, in Step Seven, we humbly asked God to remove our
shortcomings such as God could or would under the conditions of the day we asked.  In
Step Eight, we continued our housecleaning, for we saw that we were not only in conflict
with ourselves, but also with people and situations in the world in which we lived.  We
had to begin to make our peace, and so we listed the people we had harmed and became
willing to set things right.  We followed this up in Step Nine by making direct amends to
those concerned, except when it would injure them or other people.  By this time, at Step
Ten, we had begun to get a basis for daily living, and we keenly realized that we would
need to continue taking personal inventory, and that when we were in the wrong we ought
to admit it promptly.  In Step Eleven we saw that if a Higher Power had restored us to
sanity and had enabled us to live with some peace of mind in a sorely troubled world, then
such  a Higher Power was worth knowing better, by as direct contact as possible.  The
persistent use of meditation and prayer, we found, did open the channel so that where
there had been a trickle, there now was a river which led to sure power and safe guidance 
as we were increasingly better able to understand God.
	So, practicing these Steps, we had a spiritual awakening about which finally there
was no question.  Looking at those who were only beginning and still doubted themselves,
the rest of us were able to see the change setting in.  From great numbers of such
experiences, we could predict that the doubters who still claimed that they hadn't got the
"spiritual angle," and who still considered their well-loved A.A. group the higher power,
would presently love God and call God by name.
	Now, what about the rest of the Twelfth Step?  The wonderful energy it releases
and the eager action by which it carries our message to the next suffering alcoholic and
which finally translates the Twelve Steps into action upon all our affairs is the payoff, the
magnificent reality, of Alcoholics Anonymous.
	Even the newest of newcomers find undreamed rewards as they try to help their
sisters and brothers, the ones who are even blinder than they.  This is indeed the kind of
giving that actually demands nothing.  They do not expect their fellow sufferers to pay
them, or even to love them.  And then they discover that by the divine paradox of this kind
of giving they have found their own reward, whether the newer ones have yet received
anything or not.  Their own character may still be gravely defective, but they somehow
know that God has enabled them to make a mighty beginning, and they sense that they
stand at the edge of new mysteries, joys, and experiences of which they had never even
dreamed.
	Practically every A.A. member declares that no satisfaction has been deeper and no
joy greater than in a Twelfth Step job well done.  To watch the eyes of women and men
open with wonder as they move from darkness into light, to see their lives quickly fill with
new purpose and meaning, to see whole families reassembled, to see the alcoholic outcast
received back into the community in full citizenship, and above all to watch these people
awaken to the presence of a loving God in their lives -- these things are the substance of
what we receive as we carry A.A.'s message to the next alcoholic.
	Nor is this the only kind of Twelfth Step work.  We sit in A.A. meetings and listen,
not only to receive something ourselves, but to give the reassurance and support which
our presence can bring.  If our turn comes to speak at a meeting, we again try to carry
A.A.'s message.  Whether our audience is one or many, it is still Twelfth Step work. 
There are many opportunities even for those of us who feel unable to speak at meetings or
who are so situated that we cannot do much face-to-face Twelfth Step work.  We can be
the ones who take on the unspectacular but important tasks that make good Twelfth Step
work possible, perhaps arranging for the coffee and cake after the meetings, where so
many skeptical, suspicious newcomers have found confidence and comfort in the laughter
and talk.  This is Twelfth Step work in the very best sense of the word.  "Freely ye have
received;  freely give . . ." is the core of this part of Step Twelve.
	We may often pass through Twelfth Step experiences where we will seem to be
temporarily off the beam.  These will appear as big setbacks at the time, but will be seen
later as stepping-stones to better things.  For example, we may set our hearts on getting a
particular person sobered up, and after doing all we can for months, we see them relapse. 
Perhaps this will happen in a succession of cases, and we may be deeply discouraged as to
our ability to carry A.A.'s message.  Or we may encounter the reverse situation, in which
we are highly elated because we seem to have been successful.  Here the temptation is to
become rather possessive of these newcomers.   Perhaps we try to give them advice about
their affairs which we aren't really competent to give or ought not give at all.  Then we are
hurt and confused when the advice is rejected, or when it is accepted and brings still
greater confusion.  By a great deal of ardent Twelfth Step work we sometimes carry the
message to so many alcoholics that they place us in a position of trust.  They make us, let
us say, the group's chairperson.  Here again we are presented with the temptation to
over-manage things, and sometimes this results in rebuffs and other consequences which
are hard to take.
	But in the longer run we clearly realize that these are only the pains of growing up,
and nothing but good can come from them if we turn more and more to the entire Twelve
Steps for the answers.
	Now comes the biggest question yet.  What about the practice of these principles
in all our affairs?  Can we love the whole pattern of living as eagerly as we do the small
segment of it we discover when we try to help other alcoholics  achieve sobriety?  Can we
bring the same spirit of love and tolerance into our sometimes deranged family lives that
we bring to our A.A. group?  Can we have the same kind of confidence and faith in these
people who have been infected and sometimes crippled by our own illness that we have in
our sponsors?  Can we actually carry the A.A. spirit into our daily work?  Can we meet
our newly recognized responsibilities to the world at large?  And can we bring new
purpose and devotion to the religion of our choice?  Can we find a new joy of living in
trying to do something about all these things?
	Furthermore, how shall we come to terms with seeming failure or success?  Can
we now accept and adjust to either without despair or pride?  Can we accept poverty,
sickness, loneliness, and bereavement with courage and serenity?  Can we steadfastly
content ourselves with the humbler, yet sometimes more durable, satisfactions when the
brighter, more glittering achievements are denied us?
	The A.A. answer to these questions about living is "Yes, all of these things are
possible."  We know this because we see monotony, pain, and even calamity turned to
good use by those who keep on trying to practice A.A.'s Twelve Steps.  And if these are
facts of life for the many alcoholics who have recovered in A.A., they can become the
facts of life for many more.
	Of course all A.A.'s, even the best, fall far short of such achievements as a
consistent thing.  Without necessarily taking that first drink, we often get quite far off the
beam.  Our troubles sometimes begin with indifference.  We are sober and happy in our
A.A. work.  Things go well at home and office.  We naturally congratulate ourselves on
what later proves to be a far too easy and superficial point of view.  We temporarily cease
to grow because we feel satisfied that there is no need for all of A.A.'s Twelve Steps for
us.  We are doing fine on a few of them.  Maybe we are doing fine on only two of them,
the First Step and that part of the Twelfth where we "carry the message."  In A.A. slang,
that blissful state is known as "two-stepping."  And it can go on for years.
	The best-intentioned of us can fall for the "two-step" illusion.  Sooner or later the
pink cloud stage wears off and things go disappointingly dull.  We begin to think that A.A.
doesn't pay off after all.  We become puzzled and discouraged.
	Then perhaps life, as it has a way of doing, suddenly hands us a great big lump that
we can't begin to swallow, let alone digest.  We fail to get a worked-for promotion.  We
lose that good job.  Maybe there are serious domestic or romantic difficulties, or perhaps
someone we thought God was looking after becomes a military casualty.
	What then?  Have we alcoholics in A.A. got, or can we get, the resources to meet
these calamities which come to so many?  These were problems of life which we could
never face up to.  Can we now, with the help of God as we understand God, handle them
as well  and as bravely as our non-alcoholic friends often do?  Can we transform these
calamities into assets, sources of growth and comfort to ourselves and those about us? 
Well, we surely have a chance if we switch from "two-stepping" to "twelve-stepping," if
we are willing to receive that grace of God which can sustain and strengthen us in any
catastrophe.
	Our basic troubles are the same as everyone else's, but when an honest effort is
made "to practice these principles in all our affairs," well-grounded A.A.'s seem to have
the ability, by God's grace, to take these troubles in stride and turn them into
demonstrations of faith.  We have seen A.A.'s suffer lingering and fatal illness with little
complaint, and often in good cheer.  We have sometimes seen families broken apart by
misunderstanding, tensions, or actual infidelity, who are reunited by the A.A. way of life.
	Though the earning power of most A.A.'s is relatively high, we have some
members who never seem to get on their feet moneywise, and still others who encounter
heavy financial reverses.  Ordinarily we see these situations met with fortitude and faith.
	Like most people, we have found that we can take our big lumps as they come. 
But also like others, we often discover a greater challenge in the lesser and more
continuous problems of life.  Our answer is in still more spiritual development.  Only by
this means can we improve our chances for really happy and useful living.  And as we
grow spiritually, we find that our old attitudes toward our instincts need to undergo
drastic revisions.  Our desires for emotional security and wealth, for personal prestige and
power, for romance, and for family satisfactions -- all these have to be tempered and
redirected.  We have learned that the satisfaction of instincts cannot be the sole end and
aim of our lives.  If we place instincts first, we have got the cart before the horse;  we shall
be pulled backward into disillusionment.  But when we are willing to place spiritual
growth first -- then and only then do we have a real chance.
	After we come into A.A., if we go on growing, our attitudes and actions toward
security -- emotional security and financial security -- commence to change profoundly. 
Our demand for emotional security, for our own way, had constantly thrown us into
unworkable relations with other people.  Though we were sometimes quite unconscious of
this, the result always had been the same.  Either we had tried to play God and dominate
those about us, or we had insisted on being over-dependent upon them.  Where people
had temporarily let us run their lives as though they were still children, we had felt very
happy and secure ourselves.  But when they finally resisted or ran away, we were bitterly
hurt and disappointed.  We blamed them, being quite unable to see that our unreasonable
demands had been the cause.
	When we had taken the opposite tack and had insisted, like infants ourselves, that
people protect and take care of us or that the world owed us a living, then the result had
been equally unfortunate.  This often caused the people we had loved most to push us
aside or perhaps desert us entirely.  Our disillusionment had been hard to bear.  We
couldn't imagine people acting that way toward us.  We had failed to see that though adult
in years we were still behaving childishly, trying to turn everybody -- friends, wives,
husbands, even the world itself -- into protective parents.  We had refused to learn the
very hard lesson that overdependence upon people is unsuccessful because all people are
fallible, and even the best of them will sometimes let us down, especially when our
demands for attention become unreasonable.
	As we made spiritual progress, we saw through these fallacies.  It became clear
that if we ever were to feel emotionally secure among grown-up people, we would have to
put our lives on a give-and-take basis;  we would have to develop the sense of being in
partnership or kinship with all those around us.  We saw that we would need to give
constantly of ourselves without demands for repayment.  When we persistently did this we
gradually found that people were attracted to us as never before.  And even if they failed
us, we could be understanding and not too seriously affected.
	When we developed still more, we discovered the best possible source of
emotional stability, in fact, to be God.  We found that dependence upon God's perfect
justice, forgiveness, and love was healthy, and that it would work where nothing else
would.  If we really depended upon God, we couldn't very well play God to our fellows
nor would we feel the urge wholly to rely on human protection and care.  These were the
new attitudes that finally brought many of us an inner strength and peace that could not be
deeply shaken by the shortcomings of others or by any calamity not of our own making.
	This new outlook was, we learned, something especially necessary to us
alcoholics.  For alcoholism had been a lonely business, even though we had been
surrounded by people who loved us.  But when self-will had driven everybody away and
our isolation had become complete, it caused us to play the big shot in cheap barrooms
and then fare forth alone on the street to depend upon the charity of passersby.  We were
still trying to find emotional security by being dominating or dependent upon others.  Even
when our fortunes had not ebbed that much and we nevertheless found ourselves alone in
the world, we still vainly tried to be secure by some unhealthy kind of domination or
dependence.  For those of us who were like that, A.A. had a very special meaning. 
Through it we begin to learn right relations with people who understand us;  we don't have
to be alone any more.
	Most couples in A.A. have very happy homes.  To a surprising extent, A.A. has
offset the damage to family life brought about by years of alcoholism.  But just like all
other societies, we do have sex and relationship problems, and sometimes they are
distressingly acute.  Permanent breakups and separations from established relationships
and marriages, however, are unusual in A.A.  Our main problem is not how we are to stay
together;  it is how to be happier together by eliminating the severe emotional twists that
have so often stemmed from alcoholism.
	Nearly every sound human being experiences, at some time in life, a compelling
desire to find a mate with whom the fullest possible union can be made -- spiritual, mental,
emotional, and physical.  This mighty urge is the root of great human accomplishments, a
creative energy that deeply influences our lives.  God fashioned us that way.  So our
question will be this:  How, by ignorance, compulsion, and self-will, do we misuse this gift
for our own destruction?  We A.A.'s cannot pretend to offer full answers to age-old
perplexities, but our own experience does provide certain answers that work for us.
	When alcoholism strikes, very unnatural situations may develop which work
against  marriage, partnership, and compatible union.  If one partner is affected, the other
must become the sole responsible person, often the only income earner.  As matters get
worse, the alcoholic becomes a sick and irresponsible child who needs to be looked after
and extricated from endless scrapes and impasses.  Very gradually, and usually without
any realization of the fact, the spouse is forced to become the parent of an erring child. 
And if the sober partner has a strong desire to play a caretaker's role to begin with, the
situation is aggravated.  Obviously not much partnership can exist under these conditions. 
The spouse usually goes on doing the best they know how, but meanwhile the alcoholic
alternately loves and hates this unwarranted care.  A pattern is thereby established that
may take a lot of undoing later on.  Nevertheless, under the influence of A.A.'s Twelve
Steps, these situations are often set right.note(3)*  
	When the distortion has been great, however, a long period of patient striving may
be necessary.  After one partner joins A.A., the other may become discontented, even
highly resentful that Alcoholics Anonymous has done the very thing that all their years of
devotion had failed to do.  Some recovering alcoholics may become so wrapped up in
A.A. and their new friends that they are inconsiderately away from home more than when
they drank.  Seeing their mates' unhappiness, they recommend A.A.'s Twelve Steps and try
to teach them how to live.  The partners of this kind of newcomer naturally feel that for
years they have made a far better job of living than the alcoholic has.  Both of them blame
each other and ask when their relationship is ever going to be happy again.  They may
even begin to suspect it had never been any good in the first place.
	Compatibility, of course, can be so impossibly damaged that a separation may be
necessary.  But those cases are the unusual ones.  Most alcoholics, realizing what their
spouses have endured, and now fully understanding how much they themselves did to
damage every person in the family, nearly always take up their full responsibilities with a
willingness to repair what they can and to accept what they can't.  They persistently try all
of A.A.'s Twelve Steps in the home, often with fine results.  At this point they firmly but
lovingly commence to behave like a partner instead of like a bad child.  And above all they
are finally convinced that reckless romancing is not a way of life for them.
	A.A. has many single alcoholics who wish to form new lifelong commitments  and
are in a position to do so.  Some pair with fellow A.A.'s.  How do they come out?  On the
whole these matches  are very good ones.  Their common suffering as drinkers, their
common interest in A.A. and spiritual things, often enhance such unions.  It is only where
"young lovers meet on A.A. campus," and love follows at first sight, that difficulties may
develop.  The prospective partners need to be solid A.A.'s and long enough acquainted to
know that their compatibility at spiritual, mental, and emotional levels is a fact and not
wishful thinking.  They need to be as sure as possible that no deep-lying emotional
handicap in either will be likely to rise up under later pressures to cripple them.  The
considerations are equally true and important for the A.A.'s who form partnerships
"outside" A.A.  With clear understanding and right, grown-up attitudes, very happy results
do follow.
	And what can be said of many A.A. members who, for a variety of reasons, cannot
have or do not want a family life?  At first many of these feel lonely, hurt, and left out as
they witness so much domestic happiness about them.  If they cannot have this kind of
happiness, can A.A. offer them satisfactions of similar worth and durability?  Yes --
whenever they try hard to seek them out.  Surrounded by so many A.A. friends, these
so-called loners tell us they no longer feel alone.  In partnership with others -- women and
men -- they can devote themselves to any number of ideas, people, and constructive
projects.  Free of marital responsibilities, they can participate in enterprises which would
be denied to family women and men.  We daily see such members render prodigies of
service, and receive great joys in return.
	Where the possession of money and material things was concerned, our outlook
underwent the same revolutionary change.  With a few exceptions, all of us had been
spendthrifts.  We threw money about in every direction with the purpose of pleasing
ourselves and impressing other people.  In our drinking time, we acted as if the money
supply was inexhaustible, though between binges we'd sometimes go to the other extreme
and become almost miserly.  Without realizing it we were just accumulating funds for the
next spree.  Money was the symbol of pleasure and self-importance.  When our drinking
had become much worse, money was only an urgent requirement which could supply us
with the next drink and the temporary comfort of oblivion it brought.
	Upon entering A.A., these attitudes were sharply reversed, often going much too
far in the opposite direction.  The spectacle of years of waste threw us into panic.  There
simply wouldn't be time, we thought, to rebuild our shattered fortunes.  How could we
ever take care of those awful debts, possess a decent home, educate the kids, and set
something by for old age?  Financial importance was no longer our principal aim;  we now
clamored for material security.  Even when we were well reestablished in our business,
these terrible fears often continued to haunt us.  This made us misers and penny pinchers
all over again.  Complete financial security we must have -- or else.  We forgot that most
alcoholics in A.A. have an earning power considerably above average;  we forgot the
immense goodwill of our fellow A.A.'s who were only too eager to help us to better jobs
when we deserved them;  we forgot the actual or potential financial insecurity of every
human being in the world.  And, worst of all, we forgot God.  In money matters we had
faith only in ourselves, and not too much of that.
	This all meant, of course, that we were still far off balance.  When a job still looked
like a mere means of getting money rather than an opportunity for service, when the
acquisition of money for financial independence looked more important than a right
dependence upon God, we were still the victims of unreasonable fears.  And these were
fears which would make a serene and useful existence, at any financial level, quite
impossible.
	But as time passed we found that with the help of A.A.'s Twelve Steps we could
lose those fears, no matter what our material prospects were.  We could cheerfully
perform humble labor without worrying about tomorrow.  If our circumstances happened
to be good, we no longer dreaded a change for the worse, for we had learned that these
troubles could be turned into great values.  It did not matter too much what our material
condition was, but it did matter what our spiritual condition was.  Money gradually
became our servant and not our master.  It became a means of exchanging love and
service with those about us.  When, with God's help, we calmly accepted our lot, then we
found we could live at peace with ourselves and show others who still suffered the same
fears that they could get over them, too.  We found that freedom from fear was more
important than freedom from want.
	Let's here take note of our improved outlook upon the problems of personal
importance, power, ambition, and leadership.  These were reefs upon which many of us
came to shipwreck during our drinking careers.
	Practically every kid dreams of becoming a President or a great leader.  They want
to be a number one person.  As they get older and see the impossibility of this, they can
smile good-naturedly at their childhood dreams.  In later life they find that real happiness
is not to be found in just trying to be a number one person, or even a first-rater in the
heartbreaking struggle for money, romance, or self-importance.  They learn that they can
be content as long as they play well whatever cards life deals them.  They're still ambitious,
but not absurdly so, because they can now see and accept actual reality.  They're willing to
stay right size.
	But not so with alcoholics.  When A.A. was quite young, a number of eminent
psychologists and doctors made an exhaustive study of a good-sized group of so-called
problem drinkers.  The doctors weren't trying to find how different we were from one
another;  they sought to find whatever personality traits, if any, this group of alcoholics
had in common.  They finally came up with a conclusion that shocked the A.A. members
of that time.  These distinguished scientists had the nerve to say that most of the alcoholics
under investigation were still childish, emotionally sensitive, and grandiose.
	How we alcoholics did resent that verdict!  We would not believe that our adult
dreams were often truly childish.  And considering the rough deal life had given us, we felt
it perfectly natural that we were sensitive.  As to our grandiose behavior, we insisted that
we had been possessed of nothing but a high and legitimate ambition to win the battle of
life.
	In the years since, however, most of us have come to agree with those doctors. 
We have had a much keener look at ourselves and those about us.  We have seen that we
were prodded by unreasonable fears or anxieties into making a life business of winning
fame, money, and what we thought was leadership.  So false pride became the reverse side
of that ruinous coin marked "Fear."  We simply had to be number one people to cover up
our deep-lying inferiorities.  In fitful successes we boasted of greater feats to be done;  in
defeat we were bitter.  If we didn't have much of any worldly success we became
depressed and cowed.  Then people said we were of the "inferior" type.  But now we see
ourselves as ships off the same old block.  At heart we had all been  abnormally fearful.  It
mattered little whether we had sat on the shore of life drinking ourselves into forgetfulness
or had plunged in recklessly and willfully beyond our depth and ability.  The result was the
same--all of us had nearly perished in a sea of alcohol.
	But today, in well-matured A.A.'s, these distorted drives have been restored to
something like their true purpose and direction.  We no longer strive to dominate or rule
those about us in order to gain self-importance.  We no longer seek fame and honor in
order to be praised.  When by devoted service to family, friends, business, or community
we attract widespread affection and are sometimes singled out for posts of greater
responsibility and trust, we try to be humbly grateful and exert ourselves the more in a
spirit of love and service.  True leadership, we find, depends upon able example and not
upon vain displays of power or glory.
	Still more wonderful is the feeling that we do not have to be specially distinguished
among our fellows in order to be useful and profoundly happy.  Not many of us can be
leaders of prominence, nor do we wish to be.  Service, gladly rendered, obligations
squarely met, troubles well accepted or solved with God's help, the knowledge that at
home or in the world outside we are partners in a common effort, the well-understood fact
that in God's sight all human beings are important, the proof that love freely given surely
brings a full return, the certainty that we are no longer isolated and alone in
self-constructed prisons, the surety that we need no longer be square pegs in round holes
but can fit and belong in God's scheme of things -- these are the permanent and legitimate
satisfactions of right living for which no amount of pomp and circumstance, no heap of
material possessions, could possibly be substitutes.  True ambition is not what we thought
it was.  True ambition is the deep desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace
of God.
	These little studies of A.A.'s Twelve Steps now come to a close.  We have been
considering so many problems that it may appear that A.A. consists mainly of racking
dilemmas and troubleshooting.  To a certain extent, that is true.  We have been talking
about problems because we are problem people who have found a way up and out, and
who wish to share our knowledge of that way with all who can use it.  For it is only by
accepting and solving our problems that we can begin to get right with ourselves and with
the world about us, and with the One who presides over us all.  Understanding is the key
to right principles and attitudes, and right action is the key to good living;  therefore the
joy of good living is the theme of A.A.'s Twelfth Step.
	With each passing day of our lives, may every one of us sense more deeply the 
inner meaning of A.A.'s simple prayer:

God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
Courage to change the things we can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

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note(3)* In adapted form, the Steps are also used by Al-Anon Family Groups. Not a part of A.A., this worldwide fellowship consists of spouses and other relatives or friends of alcoholics (in A.A. or still drinking). Its headquarters address is Box 862, Midtown Station, New York, NY 10018-0862. (return to text)