My One Step Program

My one step program:

I am sober, right now, this very moment — and I have been for a number of years, just how long, to be exact, I no longer recall. That’s enough for me. My Twelve Step Program has been reduced through my affinity for simplicity, or some may even say, laziness. Both are probably true. Such being the case, and only for my own offering, I have found a single step (and in truth, no step is found at all) to be the most profound — relax. For me, the essence of all Twelve Steps is found here, relaxing my need to be sober, surrendering the illusion of power, a deep relaxation into whatever this very moment may contain — warts and all.

And it may contain alcohol.

Or drugs.

But so far it hasn’t.

It doesn’t always hold peace, or joy, or comfort.

It doesn’t have too.

And that alone has set me free — I don’t get (or have) to choose sobriety, or to suffer, or to be happy. I don’t even choose to relax. This moment happens all on its own. The best that I can do is to relax, to see that the world is all happening on its own accord, without my help and certainly better without my interference.

Relax.

Even the breath has a rhythm of its own.