Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   July 15                                              Relations with others

   "We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make
                             amends to them all."

                                                                   Step Eight

                           ----=----

   All human  beings struggle  with self-centeredness.     The  chronic
   self-centeredness that lies at the very core of addiction makes that
   struggle doubly difficult for people like us.  Many of us have lived as if
   we believed we were the last people on earth, utterly blind to the effect
   our behavior has had on those around us.

   The Eighth Step is the process our program has given us to honestly
   examine our past relationships.  We take a look at the writing we did on
   our Fourth Step to identify the effects our actions had on the people in
   our lives.  When we recognize harm done to some of those people, we become
   willing to take responsibility for our actions by making amends to them.

   The variety of people we encounter in our day and the quality of our
   relations with them determines, to a great extent, the quality of our very
   lives. Love, humor, excitement, caring-the things that make life worth
   living derive much of their meaning from being shared with others.
   Understanding this, we want to  discover the true nature of  our
   relationships with other people and mend whatever breaks we may find in
   those relations.  We want to work the Eighth Step.

                           ----=----

   Just for today:  I want to fully enjoy the companionship of my fellows.  I
   will examine my relationships with the people in my life.  Where I  find
   I've harmed others, I will seek the willingness to make amends to them.