Then My Rights Try To Move In
August 17, 2006 by Mark
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Once again, thanks to prairiegirl66, I’ve discovered “Online Recovery.”
Katiebear (subscription req’d) has offered us a “Personal Bill of Rights.” There are some very interesting thoughts in this bill of rights. I want to like them all, practice each of them. Then I remember that I take things to the extreme, even if I’m sober. On one hand, I can take something like “I have the right not to be responsible for others’ behavior, actions, feelings or problems” and feel completely comfortable with it.
On another hand, I can take “I have the right to expect honest from others” to levels that will cause me great deals of emotional instability.
Which is when I find that someone, thankfully, was wise enough to include this on page 420 of the Big Book;
“Perhaps the best thing of all for me is to remember that my serenity is inversely proportional to my expectations.”
“I can watch my serenity level rise when I discard my expectations. But then my ‘rights’ try to move in, and they too can force my serenity down. I have to discard my ‘rights,’ as well as my expectations, by asking myself, How important is it really?”
I sure do love this stuff! 
