Step 8: made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Undoubtedly, there are people I have harmed in small or big ways over such a long life. I ask for forgiveness not by sanctioning my behavior, but by releasing it.

Here we make the list.

In Step 9 we actually go to the person and ask for forgiveness. Where have my resentments harmed another human being?

This process throws off the victim mentality and pushes forward to taking responsibility for everything in my life.

In this step, we become willing to make amends. We recognize where we broke the laws in order to get what we want in every aspect of our lives.

My job is to see where I behaved badly, then and now, and to make right all of the previous wrong directions I unconsciously took.

As I learn to give, I learn to forgive. As we say in our A Course In Miracles group, all challenges are forgiveness opportunities. We cast off the burdens and wounds of the past to receive the wisdom of this moment.

We are in a connective web that includes every other person and species great and small. Carl Jung said the cure for alcoholism and drug addiction is to “replace spirits with Spirit.” We addicts need a spiritual perspective to cast off shame and guilt, to stand in an aura of forgiveness, and humbly surrender to the mystery.

We petition our higher selves, reach out to him or her and know the rest of our lives are encompassed with possibility. OM