The Eleventh Step

Why we returned to it

We came back to the Eleventh Step because the March workshop did not exhaust it, and because the practice it describes is the one people most often say they have let slip. Pages 85 to 88 reward a second reading in a way a book review does not.

The shape of the morning stayed the same — panel, questions, lunch, breakouts, guided meditation — with more of the middle given over to the smaller sessions, where most of the honest talk happens.

The passage in brief

The text is careful not to be vague. It suggests a nightly inventory that asks whether we were resentful, selfish, dishonest, or afraid; whether we owe an apology; whether we were thinking of ourselves or of what we could pack into the stream of life. It suggests a morning that begins by asking for direction. And it suggests that when we cannot decide, we relax, stop struggling, and ask.

It also concedes that we are inexperienced at this, that we will not be inspired at all times, and that presuming otherwise leads to absurd actions and ideas. That honesty is why the passage holds up.

How the morning ran

• 9:00 AMDoors open — coffee and donuts
• 10:00 AMOpening prayer and introduction
• 10:15 AMPanel discussion
• 11:30 AMPanel interaction and questions
• 11:45 AMLunch
• 12:00 PMBreakout sessions
• 12:40 PMGuided meditation
• 1:00 PMClosing and fellowship

What we took away

• It is a discipline, not an experience. The text describes something done daily, not something felt occasionally.
• Ask for others, not only yourself. The passage is direct: we may ask for ourselves if others will be helped, but never for our own selfish ends.
• Then act. The section closes by insisting prayer is not the end of it — there is action and more action.