Step Nine: The Mending Process

During my first month in Alcoholics Anonymous I did what so many have done before me--I decided, without benefit of sponsor or sanity, to immediately make amends. For years I had been attending church every time the doors opened, hoping something would help me (it never occurred to me to quit drinking). In my prayer group was a woman who irritated the bejabbers out of me. How I tried to help that woman learn to pray! I behaved very badly. Upon getting dry she was the very first person I decided to make amends to. I called and said something like, "Dora, I just wanted to tell you that I love you," and she promptly replied, "Thanks one whole heckuva lot" and hung up on me. I was crushed!