The Steps of Reparation
Listen to Your Lookout
When you’re finally done apologizing and making amends, you probably don’t want to have to do that again. You won’t want to make that mistake one more time. You’ll want to keep those problems away. So, listen to your lookout. He’ll tell you if they ever start coming around.
When the wheels start to come off, everyone is prone to develop their own kind of problem and make their own kind of mistakes. Some use substances, or gamble, or have sex with everyone, or can’t stop shopping: others get controlling. Still others get depressed or anxious or angry or just withdraw into themselves. Some have a combination of several kinds of problems and mistakes. Everyone’s got their thing. Your own type of problem and mistake is yours because it’s the very thing that sneaks up in your blind spots. It fits you like a glove. When it fools anyone into thinking it’s a good thing, it fools you first.
It takes hard work to eradicate problems and eternal vigilance to keep them away. Relapse can be expected. When we’re talking about addiction, it takes an average of seven…
