We Admitted
The first step of every twelve-step recovery program is the hardest, and so the most important of them all.
This is because what comes after builds on what came before. Skipping around doesn’t work.
I think the first word is the most important of all the words of the first step. It’s also the first word in the US Constitution. It is a power word.
WE
We admitted.
Not together at first did we admit anything. We individually admitted something that turns out to be what we have in common. This becomes our common bond for fellowship. Not fellowship in general but a very specific one for the specific event we choose to sit through. And it lasts at least for the duration of that meeting. This is why the introductory information is read at the beginning of every meeting. Every gathering is a choice by every person attending to stay or leave.
It is always a choice.
Every day is a choice.
And it’s always just one day at a time.
Step One
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon