Bill L. from Dunellen, NJ and Mike L. from West Orange, NJ reading Into Action (pages 76 84) at a Big Book step workshop in West Orange, NJ

Hi everyone, my name is Mike. I am an alcoholic.

We we ended last week with the 5th step. Matter of fact, we spent the entire evening on the 5th step and we ended with the last paragraph on the bottom of page 75.

And I'll just review that. Cassettes. A nice, nice way to propel right into step 6,

says returning home after a fifth step.

Bottom of 75

we find a place where we can be quiet for an hour, carefully reviewing what we have done and notice it says an hour. And when when a big book gives me a time, time reference, I, I heat to it. I personally what I do is I take out my timer and I set it for 60 minutes, not 55, not 65, but 60 minutes. And, and I answer the questions here and I combine that with, with meditation

and I still do that to this day. The, the 1st, 5th step I did, I, I skimped over this part. I, I missed it somehow. I don't know if I ignored it or if it wasn't pointed out to me or what have you, but I didn't do it and I paid the price for it.

I'll just talk about this now since we're going to talk about six and seven anyway. My first time through the steps at about six months over I, I literally remember telling someone that,

well, I'm just going to stay on six and seven for a while because I'm really not willing to look at 8:00 and 9:00, you know, and at least I could be that honest, but it was, it was a real detriment to, to my spiritual growth. But I, I literally remember telling the person that I'm going to use six and seven as as a roadblock because I just don't 8-9 frightens me. And, and what I know that to be about today is

I lost my connection with the first step.

I know that today and possibly when we get to 9, I, I can, I can show you something. I can hook us all all back to the first step. It's really powerful. So anyway, I do this for an hour and I review what I did in my fifth step and in the preceding steps I thank God from the bottom of my heart that I know God better.

I turned to the page which contains the 12 steps and that's page 59. I carefully read the 1st 5 proposals and with each one I ask if I have admitted anything. So what that looks like is I turn to page 59 and I look at the first step and I read it and at times I I've read it out loud

and I say we admit it, we're powerless over alcohol dash that our lives have become unmanageable. And I take a look at the work that I did with the first step. I take a look at

the allergic reaction at my body has the to alcohol. I take a look at my mental obsession when it the mental obsession that precedes the first drink. And I take a look at my spiritual malady today as I am today.

And I review that

and I asked myself the I asked myself these questions. Have I admitted anything? So with this first step, have I admitted anything from my first step? Is there any lurking notion that somehow someday I might be able to drink like other people? And I consider that fact and I and, and I take a look at it

and it goes on to say, for we're building an arch through which we shall walk a freeman or woman at last. And it goes on to ask more questions. Is my work solid so far?

Are the stones properly in place? And again, last week we looked at the idea of the foundation, the cornerstone and the keystone, which are nothing more than the first three steps.

But it wasn't until probably about a year or two ago I learned about another stone that

that I'm able to look at today. And it's talked about in the in the 7th chapter in our 12th step, and it talks about the foundation stone. And what that foundation stone is, is a reference to the 12th step.

But what I can do with that is, is take a look at how I've been 12 step because this is a stone that is in my foundation and my foundation is comprised of multiple foundation stones. So I take a look at how I was 12 step. I take a look at the guidance and sponsors I have in my life today. And I take a look at how I'm 12, stepping others,

you know, and that's just another stone I get to look at to see if all my stones are properly in place.

I didn't do that for the first few years I went through this work,

it says have I skimped on the cement put into the foundation and have I tried to make mortar without sand? And I think we pretty much covered that last week

now on the top of page 76. And again, this is all anything that I'm going to be talking about to do with with six and seven,

the basis of it happens immediately after a fifth step. It happens after I take this quiet hour of review and then

I'm going to hopefully show you guys how to not only take the 6th and 7th step

after you've completed your fist that, but how I use 6:00 and 7:00 today

along with my morning prayer meditation and my evening review. You know, six and seven are not steps that we just take one time.

They're ongoing things.

They're logically interwoven with the 10th and the 11th step.

So it says on the top of 76 if I can answer to my satisfaction. I then look at step 6. If I can answer, what if I can answer the questions on the bottom of 75 to my to my satisfaction? Not anybody elses. I got an interim. I got to admit to my innermost self where I'm at today.

So if if I answer all these questions in the affirmative, I move on to step 6 if I can. If if I'm missing something here, if I forgot to go over something with my sponsor, the person I'm sharing my fifth step with, I give them a call or I see them face to face and I tell them what I missed. Or if I'm having a problem with with the first step, I get clear on that and I do more work with that. Or if I have

piece of inventory that needs to be written, I do that

and then I move on to six and seven immediately.

I don't know if it's said too much today, but it was

it was eight or nine years ago when I first came into the fellowship, this business of God work a step a year. And I tell you if if I would have worked if I work a step a year today,

first of all, I wouldn't even be on a men's yet. But it, it, if I,

if I spend that type of procrastination with six and seven, I'm going to get sicker than I was then before I start it right in inventory.

So I, I put, I, I pay close attention to the to the, the time warnings in the book.

So if we can answer to our satisfaction, we then look at Step 6

top of 7060.

We have emphasized willingness as being indispensable. All right. So that's going to be a guiding principle in the sixth step, willingness.

Now, if I, if I've done an honest and thorough inventory, if I've done an honest and thorough fist step, and I've admitted the exact nature of my wrongs, defects, shortcomings, what have you to another person or persons,

chances are I'm going to be willing to have these things cast out. I'm going to be willing to have a power greater than myself. Remove these blocks from me.

I can't remember ever doing a fish step where where I said

except, except maybe for that first one I told you guys about, but I I can't after that. I can't remember doing a fifth step

and saying, no, I'm going to hold on to these things for a while. You know,

to really to really assets. Well, these things are really working for me. If that was the case there, there wouldn't have been a need to to go through the 4th and 5th steps.

You know, So my experience is when I get through with a fist step and I take that hour review, that is prime time to do six and seven. And I pass this on the people that I work with, you know, don't wait. Do it right away because Bill often says this barefoot Bill, he often says that

if I wait a week or two after a fifth step to do any work with, with six or seven,

the inventory that I just wrote won't look that bad. The 5th step that I just took won't be that powerful, you know, and my ego will start grabbing hold of these things and saying, well, you weren't that bad. You don't have to really do this. And lo and behold, I'm not doing six and seven. Lo and behold, I'm not making my amends. And lo and behold, I'm creating harms out in the universe that I just got done writing about on inventory.

So willingness is indispensable. Now it asks a couple questions.

Are we now ready? There's another guiding principle in the sixth step. So, so far we have willingness and am I ready? Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable? That's the first question. The second question is, can he now take them all

everyone?

I had a third question to that in addition to

am I now ready to let God remove all the things that I've just admitted objectionable and can He now take them all, everyone? I had a third one. Will God take them all, everyone for me, as I am just having read this horrific inventory to someone else,

another man says in another way, with all this mud on my face,

am am I ready to let God take all the defects of character? But more importantly for me today, do I believe that He will?

Then it goes on to say, if we still cling to something, we will not let go. We ask God to help us be willing

again. There's that willingness again.

So let's say I have a list of

25 character defects and just pulling a number out of the air,

and let's say twenty of those I have complete willingness to be rid of.

But five of them I'm still jerking around a little bit. I'm still holding on to.

I can still move on. I can still move on to the 7th step with those twenty and just continue to pray for the willingness for those five.

Now I've had this experience. I believe I did this a couple years ago

because I, I heard another man who had, who had the same experience and, and I figure, you know, I'm a big boy now and I, I might as well try it.

I on that particular inventory a couple years ago, I had a couple defects that I was not willing to be rid of.

And I said, Mike, you're a big boy now, quit jerking around. You know, why are you holding on to these things? So I sat with them. I believe it was a week that I sat with them and I didn't do the 7th step. And I continued to pray for the willingness and I continued to pray for the willingness and I continued to pray for the willingness. And I tell you what it made for. It made for a pretty interesting week.

And by the time I I got, by the time that week was over, believe me, I was willing.

Because when I am not willing, I continue to act out in the same old behaviors and I continue to create harms. And I don't want, I don't want to do that today.

So

often I get willing via prayer,

but sometimes I get willing by repeating the same the same negative behaviors over and over again. See, I believe that there's a couple ways we can grow an Alcoholics Anonymous, a couple of ways. One of the ways we can grow is by faith and by prayer.

That's kind of the that takes a little more work and, and takes a little more positive effort, but I believe that to be the easier, softer way. The 2nd way that that we can grow is by repeating the same negative behaviors over and over again and that creates pain. So I can either grow by faith and by prayer,

or quite often I've grown out of pain. And then because of that pain, because of that pain, I get the courage

to move on.

So we have the willingness, we have the readiness,

we're ready to. We're ready to let God remove all these things from us.

We've answered yes, that He can take them all, everyone,

and we've answered that he can take them all, everyone for me as I am.

So now we're ready to move on to step 7. And it says when ready, we say something like this. If you have the, if you have the handout packet from last week, hopefully you brought that back. If not, there's a couple extras there on the table. If you look at page 8,

there's a list of several defects,

seven of which are the seven deadly sins, twenty of which are are from one of our early members of a a Clarence Snyder, who is actually sponsored by Doctor Bob. And then there's some more on here,

Shirley, from some inventories that I've done.

If you find this helpful, you can use this for your six step list. A lot of people like like a list, like to write out a list or or or go through this list or a similar one.

And, and you can use, you can use this list in your six step prayer to ask God to help you be willing

if you flip it over and look at page 9,

this is something that can be used for the 7th step or if I think Bill brought them last week. I don't have any. But if you have any of the cards that that Bill brought last week for for this 7th step, this is very similar.

The left side has has a list of our defects and the right side has a list of our assets, so to speak.

If one of my defects is jealousy, I can ask God to remove the defect of jealousy and have them replace it with trust.

If you flip over to the next page, page 10, there are several variations of the seven step prayer. The first one is the one of course, I have a big book that we're going to read and take together. The next one is a prayer that Doctor Bob used for the 7th step.

And the third one is a prayer that Clarence Snyder used for the 7th step.

Let me just

I'll read the 7th step prayer

we can. However you guys want to do this, we can,

we can say the prayer together, we can join hands, we can stand our seats or what have you. And then

what I'll do is the experience that I shared with you about about 6:00 and 7:00

is not a current experience that I have today, particularly this, this point about asking God to remove the defect and

asking Him to replace it with the opposite.

I'll just talk about this now and then we'll get into the prayer. My current experience with the six step and the 7th step is that

my experience and my belief is that there is a place within me that

is pure,

that is perfection, that is directly connected with God, if not God itself.

It is the being, if you will, that I was before I appeared in this human life form that you look at today.

It's that part of me that I go to now.

During prayer and meditation.

I had an experience. I guess it was a year, a year and a half ago,

Kathy and I had had went to a meeting where I originally got sober and freehold, which is in Central Jersey for anyone who's not familiar. And I don't know why this meeting was any different from any other meeting, but there was a baby there who was probably just a couple months old. And

for some reason, I was drawn to this baby. And I looked at this baby who was on top of the table in a car seat. And I was just kind of, I don't know if I would say meditating on the baby, but I was just very interested in in this, in this child for some reason. And the thought occurred to me that you know what? This child, this baby is

about as close to perfection as you can possibly get.

And I kind of went back a little bit. I kind of went back to when that baby was first born, you know, before any imprinting from our society before.

Doctor Earl Marsh, who who was an early member of AAI, believe his story was in the second edition. He talks about how when we're born, we have a direct pipeline to God. Matter of fact, his famous talk was called the Pipeline talk. If you ever get, get a hold of it, it's an excellent talk.

We talked about how as we as we're getting older and, and, and we're growing up as a child, that that pipeline becomes a little shattered and that connection that we have to God becomes a little broken. And it comes from imprinting that that's that's put upon us from this society.

In my case, it it came from use and abuse of alcohol.

It came from self Willow Run Riot and harming others. And slowly over a period of time, that direct connect connection, that pipeline that I had became blocked off.

But I'm able to go back to that pipeline, if you will, today. And I'm able to go back to that being that is within me. And I believe, as the big book says, every man, woman and child is the fundamental idea of God. So I look at that today as my base foundation

and anything that I've put on top of that defects, a character, shortcomings, alcohol, anything is just a block is just a cover up to that direct connection with God.

So I began to take a look at the at this tool that for so long I had used for the 7th step about asking God to remove the defect and and then asking God to replace it with the opposite. And if you noticed on this sheet and this is the way it was taught to me,

it says

or it used to say I guess I took it off. It used to say humbly ass him to remove our shortcomings and nature of pours of Actom a vacuum. So ask God to replace the the defects with the assets. My experience today is that there is no vacuum with inside of me.

The being that I described to you is all these things and these things are just labels, but all these things on the right column of this, of this sheet is this this pure being within me or this godliness, if you will. You know, it's full of compassion, it's full of courage, it's full of love. I've often heard said that there's really only two, two emotions that we can experience

and that's fear and love and anything else is just a branch off, so to speak, of those of those two emotions.

So I no longer need to fill a vacuum, so to speak, because I know that is my, I call it my true nature. I know my true nature. Are all these defects and, and, or all these assets, excuse me. And any defects are, are not real. Any defects that that I experience are not the real me and they can easily be cast out.

That's my current experience with with six and seven,

But for the first few years, I needed to use something like this because I needed to, to know what assets were. I'd lived my life so long based on self will self will run riot and, and, and I was experiencing and living out these defects of character. I didn't know any assets. So something like this was very helpful for me to to discover

the opposite of resentment and anger is forgiveness.

The opposite of fear is courage. And when I'm experiencing fear today, in addition to asking God to remove that fear and direct my attention to what God would have me be, I can also ask to have it replaced with courage.

But I know that today, I know that courage is a a fundamental part of my being. It's there and it shows up once the defect is removed, once the block is gone,

that asset, so to speak, fills it. It's there. It's no longer blocked off. Just like with us and God.

So when ready we say something like this. And this has become known as the 7th step prayer. It says my creator, I am now willing. There's that word willing again that you should have all of me. And there's the word all good and bad.

I always found it interesting that

when I say this prayer, I'm not, I'm not just asking God to have all my defects, not to just have all the bad within me, but all my good too. Because my experience is, excuse me, quite often. I don't know the difference from good or bad

or quite often I've had this experience where I think something is bad and it actually turns out to be good, or I think something's a defect and it actually turns out to be something positive, or which I think I suffer from

this way more often, I think something's an asset and it actually turns out to be a defect. I I, I tend to think that I suffer from that one more more often than than the other way around.

But it goes on to say, I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows.

It says every single defected character. Again, that's another way to say all. And notice it says

every single defect, the character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you, which means God and my fellows. It doesn't say remove my defects of character so I can be a better person, I can do what I want to do. No, the reason we do the 12 steps is so that I can be of utmost service to God and my fellow man.

It says grant me strength as I go out from here to do your bidding. And it ends with an Amen. Now I had a question one time and when I asked it, I asked it of myself and of God. And immediately I got the answer,

if at the end of the seven step prayer I'm asking for strength to go out from here and do God's bidding, then what is God's bidding? And I asked that question and the answer I got was

God's bidding for you, Mike, is steps 8:00 and 9:00.

So I'm asking for strength as I go from this point

to A to a new part of our journey, which is steps 8:00 and 9:00.

It says after that we have then completed step 7.

An elder who

do I have a deep affection and respect for was the first person to point this out. I had never seen it before until until he pointed out. But he said at the end of the third step prayer there is no Amen. At the end of the 7th step prayer, there is an Amen.

Now, I don't know if that's coincidental or what, but it made real sense to me when I heard Don say that. Is it possible that when we take this third step prayer, everything between the third step prayer and the 7th step prayer is just all one part of one big prayer? And the middle work that we're doing between 3:00 and 7:00

were kept safe and protected.

And then we kind of put some closure on, on this one big prayer at the end of the 7th step prayer by saying the Amen, which means nothing more than so be it.

And that made a lot of sense to me. And that brought a whole new light to the work that I that I did between 3:00 and 7:00.

So he says we have then completed step 7. How do you guys want to say the prayer?

Has has anyone here done fifth steps through through through this work group here? And when you did, did you do six and seven afterwards for anyone who

OK after tomorrow? OK,

what we can do, we can say the seven step prayer together now as a group, if you guys would like that. And then after you do your first step, be sure to to do six and seven right afterwards. And, and when I hear when I hear a fifth step from someone, I make sure they do that. And I like to say the seven step prayer with them just as we did with with the third step.

So however you guys want to do it.

My Creator,

And now that you should have all of me, good and bad, I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength as I go out from here to do your opinion. Amen.

OK. Thanks guys.

I'm just going to briefly cover step 8 because there's not.

There's really not a lot to go over with Step 8, although I will point out that

step 8 does say,

let me just correct myself. I said there's really not a lot to go over with with step 8. There's really not, but there is a lot with step 8, if that makes sense.

And it depends on my willingness to make the amend. Step eight has made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. In the original manuscript it said became willing to make complete amends to them all.

So that's interesting.

I think the most overlooked word. Any H step is all made a list of all persons we had harmed and then it says we're to make amends to them all.

When Bill Wilson wrote this, do you think he meant all

so that so that, that's something that that I like to point out. I'm not just going to make the amends that that I want to do.

I'll share this. I I've had, I've had instances and I've heard stories where sponsors will tell the person that, well, you don't have to, to make that amend for such and such a reason. And I, I've actually had that told to me. And yet something within me said Mike, you really need to to make right that wrong.

And but at first I listened to

that human power, so to speak. And as we know, no human power could relieve our alcoholism. But I I listen to the advice that that was given to me and I didn't make that amend. And later on down the line I found out that there was some work that needed to be done with that amend. So if I can offer you anything with the 8th step, Ioffer you that

go with your gut intuition. Go with what you feel deep down inside regardless of what anyone else says.

It says now we need more action without which we find that faith without works is dead. This is the middle of 7076 says let's look at steps 8:00 and 9:00. We have a list of again the word all persons we have harm into whom we are willing to make amends. And it says we made it when we took inventory, right? So what are remarkable thing that I get my eight step list from my 4th step

which

kind of puts me in a little bit of a hard spot if I burn my inventory.

I suggest to you that if you feel moved to burn your inventory, please make your eight step list before you do that.

Please get the information that you need for six and seven from your inventory before you do that. OK, God forbid I I go,

I go through 8-9 based on memory. I'm in deep trouble and I think that's why we have a written inventory.

We subjected ourselves to a drastic self appraisal. We did that in 4-5, six and seven. Now we go out to our fellows and repair the damage done in the past. We attempt to sweep away the debris which has accumulated out of our effort to live on self will and run the show ourselves.

Now he's going to hook us back to the 8th step. If we haven't the will to do this. If we haven't the will to make

amends, we ask until it comes, he's going to give us another warning. Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol and, and I remind people that I work with of that.

Well, I don't want to make that amend. That person did me more harm than I did that pay the money back. Are you kidding me? I'm not going to pay the money back so I I can hook them back to. Well, remember you agreed at the beginning

that you would go to any lengths.

Page 13 of the packet is is just a guide for your eight step list.

Some people prefer to use index cards and if you want after a meeting we we can discuss how that's done. I, I've done that,

but on this particular sheet, the first column you, you just put a little plus or minus and

and that means are you willing and or unwilling to, to make amend to the second column is whom did I hurt?

And again, all those names can be taken from your

can be taken from your inventory. And also you can sit quiet in meditation and, and ask God to reveal to you any additional names that weren't on your inventory or didn't come out of your 5th step. And you can add those to the list just very briefly right out the harm that, that, that you caused the harm that you're aware of. I've seen too many people, including myself at times,

try to make amends to people and they have no idea why they're making the amends. They're not clear on the harm that that they caused that person. If I've written a thorough inventory, I'm clear on the heart, especially in that 4th column.

Now the 4th column of this sheet is.

Is something that we use after we have made the approach to the person and

I didn't bring a sheet on this.

If you would, if you're taking notes, write out these these questions.

This is what I do to make an amend.

After I've had an initial contact with the apparition with the person and the book is going to go on to to call that the approach

I I make an appointment with that person

and these are the questions that I ask or the statements that I make.

1

This is the harm

that I'm aware of that I've caused you.

You can put this in in your own words if you care to.

Yeah. This is the harm that I'm aware of, or this is the harm that I'm clear on that I've called you.

Two,

have I harmed you in any way that I'm not aware of?

It's quite often I'll go to a person and and I'll make the first statement to them and they'll go, buddy, you don't have a clue what you did to me. Remember a lot of us were blackout drinkers or

if you're anything like me, sometimes I can live a life without alcohol and a blackout and just going through my life self will run riot and harm people.

So today I like to ask that question. Is there any way that I'm that I've harmed you, that I'm not aware of?

Three

Do you need to tell me

how this makes you feel

or how it's affected you?

Do you need to tell me how this has affected you? How my harm has affected you.

At that point, I shut up and listen.

This now gives the other person an opportunity to get free.

How dare I just go to a person and say, listen, I

cheat it with your wife. I stole your money. I wrecked your car.

Forgive me

now, I I need to give the other person an opportunity to get off their chest. Whatever, whatever they need to get off their chest.

One time I heard someone use the the analogy of a lock on someone's heart, you know, and the harm that I've caused, that person has created a lock on that person's heart. And I may be the only other person on the face of the planet that holds the key to unlock that.

So not only is amends away for me to get free,

but it also helps the other person get free too.

Now as we're going to find out if the other person doesn't want to accept them and if they just want to throw me out of the office or something, that's fine. I can still be free because I did my part.

The fourth question I ask

is there any way we can get the books to balance?

In other words,

how can I make amends to you?

And I'll explain that in a second.

If I've stolen money from that person, I mean, it's nice to say, well, I apologize for taking your money, but there's also something else that that needs to be done. And chances all that, when I asked that 4th question, the other person is going to say, well you can pay me my money back.

Wouldn't you yourself suggest that? Yeah, I mean, quite often people will say, well, you know, don't worry about it. That happened a long time ago.

It's water over to Dan, and I make clear to the people that I make amends to that I need to make amends if it's money and they don't accept it. I mean, I'm not going to argue with a person that that doesn't want to take money, but I need to find a way how I can get that money out into the universe because guess what? It's not my money.

Friend of mine taught me that, Mike, That's not your money. You, you took that. You took their money.

So I need to find a way to get that money back out into the universe. And we can do that very easily through through charities or, or you know, or what have you. I know a gentleman that that did a a workshops, did weekends and, and stuff like this for years and

all came out of his own pocket, you know, as as a way to, to make amends to, to make a financial amends.

I've talked enough for this evening.

I promised Kathy to to let her go through the 9th step.

Since we only have a few minutes left before before we open up the meeting and and Kathy won't be here next week. If you take a look at the handout pages 11:00 and 12:00,

these are just excerpts from

from the Big Book on pages 76 through 83

important points regarding amends and restitution.

If we went through those pages line by line, and I strongly suggest you do that,

we find out how to make amends to people, we hate it.

We find out how to make amends to people and institutions we owe money,

amends to incidents of criminal offenses, amends when other people are involved, domestic troubles

long as we can never fully write

and the sheet gives gives points on how to make amends and all those different type of situations. And then at the, at the bottom of the second side of that sheet are night step prayers from the big book.

I'll point them out 'cause they're, they're really important, really important. I I miss them for a couple years.

From page 79, paragraph one, it says, reminding ourselves that we have decided to go to any lengths to find it a spiritual experience. We ask God that we be given the strength and direction to do the right thing, no matter what the personal consequence may be.

That can be a prayer. Dear God, please give me the strength and direction to do the right thing.

If we have obtained permission from other people who might be affected by us making this amendment and have consulted with others,

ask God to help in the drastic step is indicated. We must not shrink. That's from page 81st paragraph. That's a simple prayer. It just says ask God for help. Then from page 82, and this is

this is in the case of relationships or domestic problems, it says each may pray about it having the other ones happiness uppermost in mind.

And the next one says so we clean house with the family asking each morning and meditation that our Creator show us the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness and love. And that's from page 83, paragraph one.

Umm, that's probably the most important night step prayer that I know of. And when I'm amends, when I'm in amends, I use that prayer as part of my morning prayer and meditation. Dear God, please show me the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness and love. That's actually a prayer that that I can use on a daily basis and in, in some form or another. I still use that prayer today.

The Big Book is suggesting that we use this prayer in relationship to our spouse and and our family.

And I like to suggest that we can ask God to show us the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness and love and all our activities all throughout the day in each situation we encounter.

I don't really see the need for us to to go line by line, paragraph by paragraph through the directions.

I'm sure we can do that on our own. If there's any questions, we we can

we can tackle that during the discussion part of the meeting.

There's one thing that that's not covered in here. It is covered, but it's not described. And that's that's a grave site amend. And I personally not had the opportunity to do that, but I know Kathy has. So if she feels moved to do that, maybe maybe she'll share with us on that. But I'm just going to turn the to however much time Kathy needs to

describe some of her experiences with the with the night step.

Hi everybody, alcoholic.

I've had some interesting experiences with the 9th step of my own and people that I've worked with,

I think to be talked about the most current one is the one that Mike had just talked about, which was a graveside to men's. In all honesty, it wasn't intended as an as an amends.

I have a friend of mine that

passed away

15 years ago and she's buried down in Texas

When I got sober and I did my my 4th step, particularly my first fourth step, I she had already passed and I had done an amends to our written a letter and I read it and I burned it. And you know, for the most part I was fine with it. But this past weekend we had the opportunity to go down to Texas, and I was very much knew that it was