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for those who find the steps a little hard to take...

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I found the steps hard to take at first. Luckily I was desperate enought to go to any lengths. If they had told me to stand on my head in the middle of a busy intersection and I'd stay sober, I would have done it. That's how badly I hurt.

The higher power thing is still an issue for me. Sometimes I think that my higher power is simply my concience....do the next right thing, etc. I mean really, if you replace God in the steps with conscience, it still works, if I believe that my conscience is the unbiased pure side of me that has the power to direct my thinking. It's when I doubt myself and my conscience that a supernatural "something" is easier to rely on. But...there's no kind of proof that that exists, so it's a constant struggle for me, since I'm very scientifically oriented. Sometimes I want irrefutable proof that there is a "power greater than myself" so my conscience just makes more sense. Honestly I don't know what I believe half the time, so it changes constantly. For me, that's the beauty of the steps. It isn't set in stone. Just because it's written in black and white doesn't mean I have to follow it exactly. It can bend and change according to my needs and feelings. And it's kept me sober for going on 14 months now. Sober and HAPPY. I'm definetely not one to shove the program down anyone's throat though, that's for sure. I can recommend it and that's as far as I'll go. If someone is sober and happy by doing it another way, GREAT!!!! The point is, that however you do it, you CAN do it.