“What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.” (Chapter 6, Big Book)
I have at times felt disappointment, discouragement, and despair on waking up in the morning (yet again) with a pall of gloom and ill augurs. The charge: Recovery does not work! The spiritual life does not work!
Nonsense.
A bath on Tuesday does precisely what it is supposed to do but will not guarantee fragrance on Wednesday morning.
Clear the snow. Mow the lawn. Water the plants. Sweep the leaves.
Clearing, mowing, watering, sweeping work, but the cycle, being a cycle, goes round and round.
There is the daily cycle and there are larger cycles.
The programme works, but its purpose is not to eliminate the need for the programme.