I'M PART OF THE WHOLE

When you feel that you are part of the whole, you've grasped one of the deepest truths of this program. The Big Book tells us on page 84 that we are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness — a freedom that comes from letting go of the illusion that we can do this alone. [Page 84] And on page 89, it says that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. [Page 89] That's the whole point: my sobriety is tied to yours. I cannot be well unless I help you be well. The book closes with a beautiful invitation on page 164: 'Thus we grow. And so can you. Though you be but one man with this book in your hand, we stand ready to help you.' [Page 164] That 'we' is the whole. I am a part of that 'we.' And as long as I remember that — as long as I reach out to the still-suffering alcoholic — I stay sober and the whole stays strong.