In DA we all come from different backgrounds and professions, but we focus on our common problem of debting, overspending and under earning.

Our disease is no respecter of persons, and neither is our recovery. It is fitting that our first Tradition makes it clear we must “hang together or hang separately”, so to speak.

Tradition 1. “Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon D.A. unity.”

What benefits the group comes first because we need each other in order to recover.  Without the group, there is no recovery for anyone.

Do I put aside my personal differences with other members, for the greater good of DA unity?

Meditation for today:

No one is an island unto themselves. We have more in common with each other then we are comfortable admitting. If we could only trust that our feelings are universal, we would have more compassion for each other.

Affirmation for today:

I can find common ground with anyone, without surrendering my principles. It may take effort, but I will identify my feelings that are in common with other people, and in so doing, know I am not alone.

Prayer for today:
I pray to try to understand what is bothering the person I am in conflict with, so that I can reconcile with them.

Recommended Reading: 

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions is the definitive book of how alcoholics recover both individually and as a group.  The message applies directly to debtors too.  Written in 1952 by Bill W., the co-founder of AA, it takes us through the entire recovery process, from the very First Step (admitting powerlessness)  to the Twelfth Step (carrying the message to others who still suffer), and from the First Tradition (“Our common welfare comes first”) to the Twelfth Tradition (reminding us to place “principles before personalities”).  It is as relevant today as it was in 1952.

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