A different take on Step Twelve:

Pardon the strangeness, but today I am completing some final paperwork for a friend of mine who died early Saturday morning and so I am thinking about him.

Anyway, on to Step 12:


Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to {other addicts, alcoholics, others} and to practice these principles in all our affairs

The interesting thing is that the Steps are written in past tense. I have been to alot of meetings where much is made of this, and I have heard lots of different takes on it. Mainly I think it is because the writer(s) of the Big Book, Bill W., et al., are telling us what worked for them. They even say that in parts of the Big Book.

The Step is awesome.

First, it promises us a SPIRITUAL AWAKENING. When I first started in my program, Al-Anon, I was very skeptical about that part. But I was also convinced that my life was unmanageable, and I was at my rock bottom. I was losing my mind. Now, I see and feel more of a spiritual entity in my life.

Case in point:
I had just started working on my friend's paperwork not 45 minutes ago, and I opened the Pandora Radio website, which I listen to at work (if I am not listening to iTunes), and opened Beatles radio, a station I have customized for myself. The VERY FIRST song that came on, WITHOUT BUFFERING, was "In My Life" by the Beatles. I love this song, and want it played at my memorial service.

Here's the lyrics:

There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life, I'll love you more

Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life, I'll love you more

Before working the Steps, I would have dismissed this, or not even noticed it. Now I just see it as a gift, a song that I needed hear and feel in my heart. Thanks, HP.

Here's what the Big Book has to say about the 12th Step:

Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when other fail. Remember they are very ill.

Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends - this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives.
-A.A. Big Book p.89

And from Chapter 7:

RACTICAL EXPERIENCE shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our TWELFTH SUGGESTION: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when other fail. Remember they are very ill.

Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends--this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives.

The entirety of Chapter 7 is dedicated to Step 12.
Step 12 is how we shine for others so they will think there may be hope for the future.

We show some Step 12 whenever we help a newcomer or lead a meeting where newcomers are present.

Even sharing your book at a meeting with a smile can be the welcoming hand that someone needs to see these Steps are to heaven and out of hell.