As a sponsor, I have listened to 5th steps. As a sponsee I have given them. And each and every time there is something so incredible that happens that it defies even writing about. It begins when we look over our inventory and then at ourselves in the mirror and acknowledge that "yes, we've done all those things .... and they were wrong." It continues when we get down on our knees and admit to God as we understand Him, that this is us ... these are the things that have occurred in our lifetime .... these are our wrongdoings. And we are so full of shame and remorse and pain.

And then we take all this pain and shame and remorse to another human being and we sit there and we let it come forth and we pour out the truth and we find ourselves crying so hard we can hardly talk and then see the person who is listening to us crying just as hard. And no hug ever meant as much. And we feel as though the arms encircling us are truly the arms of our Higher Power.

Then, my friends, there is not a single doubt ..... we have taken the Fifth Step. That awesome Fifth Step that catapults us into that place we have never been. That place where, when we go there, life is never the same again. That place that puts us almost half-way to the place we're making our journey of recovery to ....... and where, when we get there ..... our lives will never be the same again.