Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   June 29                                             Keeping recovery fresh

   "Complacency is the enemy of members with substantial clean time.  If we
          remain complacent for long, the recovery process ceases."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 84

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   After the first couple of years in recovery, most of us start to feel like
   there are no more big deals.   If we've been diligent in working the
   steps, the past is largely resolved and we have a solid foundation on
   which to build our future.  We've learned to take life pretty much as it
   comes.  Familiarity with the steps allows us to resolve problems almost as
   quickly as they arise.

   Once we discover this level of comfort, we may tend to treat it as a
   "rest stop" on the recovery path.  Doing so, however, discounts the
   nature of our disease.   Addiction is patient, subtle, progressive, and
   incurable.  It's also fatal-we can die from this disease, unless we
   continue to treat it.  And the treatment for addiction is a vital, ongoing
   program of recovery.

   The Twelve Steps are a process, a path we take to stay a step ahead of our
   disease.   Meetings, sponsorship, service, and the steps always remain
   essential to ongoing recovery.    Though we may practice our program
   somewhat differently with five years clean than with five months, this
   doesn't mean the program has changed or become less important, only that
   our practical understanding has changed and grown.  To keep our recovery
   fresh and vital, we need to stay alert for opportunities to practice our
   program.

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   Just for today:  As I keep growing in my recovery, I will search for new
   ways to practice my program.