I’m part of a small men’s Step study group that has met every two weeks now for a few years. We’ve worked through several Twelve Step workbooks. This exercise has served to deepen our programs, our spirituality, our accountability, and our ability to be intimate and truly vulnerable with each other.

One of our recent exercises was titled: “A Portrait of Unmanageability!” The objective was to artistically express unmanageability through drawing. Imagination and creativity were the important elements. We gave ourselves a time limit of a few minutes, with the emphasis on keeping things simple. Or simpler anyway.

I tried to capture the way I feel when my fears and active addiction keep me bogged down in what so often feels like a gooey web of dark, dank despair. More important, I tried to show that no matter what, I always need to continue to reach upward into life! As I lack power, my only hope and source of reprieve today is through a vital relationship with God, the One Who has all power.

It sounds pretty easy, but the process has been (and continues to be) challenging, at times painful, but more often than not, rewarding! “Just keep coming back,” they say. Just keep coming back!