Living Every Day With Hope
August 1st – Amends to Myself
“Step Eight was the beginning of the end of our isolation.”
– Life with Hope, second edition, page 42
Before recovery, self-care was a foreign concept. I worked the Steps with my sponsor, and when I got to Step Eight, I was told to put myself at the top of my amends list. Upon reflection, I could see how much I had harmed myself in my addiction. I cut myself off from my dreams, my ambitions, my connections with others, and especially my connection with myself.
I make amends to myself by taking good care of my body, my emotions, my spiritual health, and my recovery. I know that I must keep my recovery a priority in my life. If I’m not clean, I will lose all the blessings that have come to me since I gave up marijuana, and surrendered to my powerlessness over marijuana. I can never forget I’m an addict, and I need meetings, a sponsor, working the Steps, and a community of fellow addicts to have a peaceful, joyful, and serene life. I make amends to myself every day by staying close to the program, and close to my friends in recovery. I also stay close to my Higher Power, which keeps me “right” inside.
Final thought: I make amends to myself through living a life of recovery, one day at a time.
Living Every Day with Hope – Copyright © 2025 Marijuana Anonymous World Services. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Marijuana Anonymous groups have been granted limited permission to quote Living Every Day with Hope.
Hope Delivered To Your Inbox
By subscribing to Daily Dose of MA Recovery you receive via email the meditation of the day from Living Every Day with Hope and additional announcements from MA World Services.
-
Loud Is Who I Really Am
Written by, Martha S. The start of my sobriety from weed coincided with the end of my 24-year-marriage to the man who was originally my gay best friend. We had adventures. We survived 9/11, left the City to start a small farm in the mountains, adopted an infant from an African country (both of us…
-
My Beloved
Written by, Jessyka C. Mary Jane, My beloved, my wife, my true love, I’m writing once again, To say I’m sorry but there’s nothing to discuss, I mean it this time, it’s over between us, you’ve got me feeling like trash, Now there’s no going back, I’m here wasting all of my cash, I can’t…
-
-
There is Hope for the Doctor in Recovery
Written by, Anonymous I’m a marijuana addict in recovery, and I am also a physician. I have struggled with my addiction in secrecy for my entire life, with not even my sister knowing the extent of my use. I lived a double life—one where I was a “goody-two-shoes” and “smarty pants” and the other where…
-
Dear Mary Jane,
Written by, Don S. There was a time when I didn’t think I would ever be writing this. I pretended and wanted to tell myself that this day would never come. When we first got together and for the first couple of years of our relationship, this ending was not on my bingo card. I…
-
The Dream Slayer
Written by, Bill H. Here is a word that silently destroys more dreams, more relationships, and more personal growth than anything else……that word is trying. Notice what happens in your body when you hear yourself or hear someone else say, I’ll try. There’s a softening, there’s a pulling back, an energetic step away from a…
Copyright © 1989–2026 Marijuana Anonymous World Services—All Rights Reserved
—Marijuana Anonymous World Services, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, does not endorse or accept contributions from any outside enterprise—