"Recovery takes patience and persistence. We are naturally impatient to reach the end without delay and skip the hard work of the program." BRB p. xxx

Whenever we think we should be doing more in recovery, doing better, or going faster, it could be our disease talking to us. We might think we're behind, we'll never be good enough, or we'll never get through the Steps. Such thinking can lead us to overexertion, or by contrast make us feel like giving up instead of keeping a balanced, steady approach to working our program with actions coming from love.

There's a great slogan in 12 Step programs: "Just show up." This means simply to be present, here and now only, and do the next right thing in front of us. It means to be at peace with our actions instead of pushing, forcing, expecting, or "futurizing." It gives us permission to be human, be relaxed, and just show up for ourselves. This is how we develop perseverance and balance, one day at a time.

On this day I give myself permission to suit-up and just show up for myself to the best of my ability.