August 4
A Full Calendar
There is a particular satisfaction in being busy with good things. We have somewhere to go, people who expect us, and evidence that we are contributing. A crowded calendar can feel like a sound spiritual life. Then someone close to us asks for a little time, and we hear ourselves explaining how impossible that is. Every commitment seems too worthy to question.
Usefulness includes judgment about what we can honestly carry. Step Twelve reaches into our homes and ordinary responsibilities as well as our A.A. activity. The number of meetings on a calendar cannot settle whether we are practicing patience with the people who live beside it. Prayer may bring a less flattering question than whether we are doing enough: whether all this activity leaves room for the responsibilities that receive less applause and cannot be handed to another volunteer.
What responsibility has become easy to overlook because my other commitments sound so good?
An honest limit can make room for neglected care.
For the A.A. nerds: Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Step Twelve.