An Annual Tenth Step

The Earth spun on its axis three hundred and sixty-six times and completed its orbit around the sun this leap-year. That was fifty-two weeks, eight-thousand seven-hundred and eighty-four hours, total. Most of us celebrate this cycle every year as the seasons pass and we have marked it as a special day on our calendar. Because of this notation most of us become reflective… looking inward and considering where we have passed… traumas and triumphs… and for me it is a good thing. We call them holidays and this says it best… it is a Holy Day in the best sense of the word. I believe that it is of great benefit to mark a day like this as a special occasion to reflect. This doesn’t diminish the fact that every day is a good day to reflect but to mark a day out of the year to do so is a powerful gift to give and receive.

     Just as I mark the day of my birth and the first full day of the spiritual awakening in which I received the gift of sobriety, I am hyper-aware of my own debt to the Heart of Compassion that put my feet where they are today. Just as I set aside a few moments to review each day in the Tenth Step, I can reflect in like manner the manner in which I have lived the past year, staying in the moment, and leaving no stone unturned as I reflect. Have I used words in fear or anger… bullied my way through difficult emotions… for those I have not been willing to forgive or humble myself before this day? Can I go to the New Year with the resentments that haunted me throughout this past year? Can I tell those I have harmed that I was wrong and wish to make whatever amends are necessary? Can I do so even if I’m not sure what I did that caused the damage? I pray I can and will because of the love, with no strings attached, that I have been blessed with over the years.

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