Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   March 16                                                         Inventory

     "The purpose of a searching and fearless moral inventory is to sort
    through the confusion and the contradiction of our lives so that we can
                         find out who we really are."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 27

                           ----=----

   Using addicts are a confused and confusing bunch of people.  It's hard
   to tell from one minute to the next what they're going to do or who
   they're going to be.  Usually, the addict is just as surprised as anyone
   else.

   When we used, our behavior was dictated by the needs of our addiction.
   Many of us still identify our personalities closely with the behavior we
   practiced while using, leading us to feel shame and despair.  Today, we
   don't have to be the people we once were, shaped by our addiction;
   recovery has allowed us to change.

   We can use the Fourth Step inventory to see past the needs of the old
   using life and find out who we want to be today.   Writing about our
   behavior and noticing how we feel about that behavior helps us understand
   who we want to be.   Our inventory helps us see beyond the demands of
   active addiction, beyond our desire to be loved and accepted-we find out
   who we are at the root.   We begin to understand what's appropriate for
   us, and what we want our lives to be like.   This is the beginning of
   becoming who we really are.

                           ----=----

   Just for today:  If I want to find out who I am, I'll look at who I've
   been and who I want to be.