Freedom to choose
“Enforced morality lacks the power that comes to us when we choose to live a
spiritual life.”
Basic Text, p.44
In our active addiction, many of us lived our lives by default. We were unwilling or
unable to make choices about how we wanted to act, what we preferred to do, or
even where we would live. We allowed the drugs or other people to make our most
basic decisions for us. Freedom from active addiction means, among other things,
the freedom to make those choices for ourselves.
Freedom of choice is a wonderful gift, but it’s also a great responsibility. Choice
allows us to find out who we are and what we believe in. However, in exercising it,
we’re called on to weigh our own choices and accept the consequences. This leads
some of us to seek out someone who will make our choices for us-our sponsor, our
home group, our NA friends-just as our disease made our choices for us when we
were using. That’s not recovery.
Seeking others’ experience is one thing; abdicating personal responsibility is
something else. If we don’t use the gift of freedom we’ve been given, if we refuse to
accept the responsibilities that go along with it, we’ll lose that gift and our lives will
be diminished. We are responsible for our own recovery and our own choices.
Difficult as it may seem; we must make those choices for ourselves and become
willing to accept the consequences.
Just for today: I am grateful for the freedom to live as I choose. Today, I will accept
responsibility for my recovery, make my own choices, and accept the consequences.