The essence of all growth is a willingness to make a change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 115
By the time I had reached Step Three I had been freed of my dependence on alcohol, but bitter experience has shown me that continuous sobriety requires continuous effort. Every now and then I pause to take a good look at my progress. More and more of my garden is weeded each time I look, but each time I also find new weeds sprouting where I thought I had made my final pass with the blade. As I head back to get the newly sprouted weed (it’s easier when they are young), I take a moment to admire how lush the growing vegetables and flowers are, and my labors are rewarded. My sobriety grows and bears fruit.
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The only opportunity to “weed” out the ego’s fearfully driven,controlling thoughts before they lead to misery, is at the moment they appear in my mind. For this I must be paying attention in what we call the here and now, seeing the lie of those thought/feelings, allowing them to effortlessly fade away. There is no “reward”, because I/ME/SELF doesn’t “do” the “weeding”. My part is simply paying complete attention to each moment, choicelessly aware of what there is, and what is there.