Step 2: The glue that holds my recovery together

Step 2: Came to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.

We've been studying Step 2 this month at my Debtors Anonymous meetings. Three things stand out for me in Step Two of D.A.'s Twelve Steps. 

First, thanks to A.A., this is a gentle program. Everything in the program is a suggestion. There are no rules. The only "rule" is that I don't incur unsecured debt, one day at a time. That's kind of like the rule that suggests you put on a parachute before you jump out of an airplane. It's a suggestion that could save your life. I want to live, so I don't debt. 

Second, I don't have to believe in a higher power all at once, like turning on a light switch. It's okay to sneak up on god as I understand it. It's okay to gradually realize that a higher power has been with me all along. It's okay to change my conception of a higher power as I learn and grow. It's okay to wake up some days and refuse to believe (although from my experience, that usually leads to a day fraught with self-centered fear). I have the choice, though. Any higher power that is not another human will work, as long as it has the power to do for me what I cannot: remove the obsession to debt.

Third, all I need is an open mind. That's what the authors of A.A.'s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions wrote many years ago. I've come to believe having an open mind is good advice. That means, I try not to condemn new ideas before I've had a chance to do some research and think about them. I do my best to see it from the viewpoint of others who believe the idea. Then I decide if the idea has merit, if I should oppose it, or if it is not my business or concern (most ideas fall into this category). 

More to be revealed!

Yours in recovery,
Hope

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"Hope Newlyfound" is an alias for an anonymous member of the program of Debtors Anonymous with twenty years of freedom from incurring unsecured debt (which means no credit cards, credit lines, bouncing checks, paying bills late, and borrowing from friends and family.)

Information about D.A. can be found at the Debtors Anonymous world service website, and locally in the Pacific Northwest at the Oregon intergroup website and the Seattle/Puget sound intergroup website.