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The United States is going through the throes of addiction run amok. While we have been burning fossil fuels, wallowing in personal comforts, and traveling around the Earth like there’s no tomorrow, the coronavirus has finally brought us to hit bottom. There is no tomorrow.

The multiple calamities we are confronted with right now are all attributable to one thing: our misuse of Earth’s resources. Racial injustice and violence against women? Denying equal rights to some of Earth’s living creatures. Lack of education funding? Blindness toward the need to learn science and skills to live within our means. Pandemic deaths? Hubris that people could outrun and outwit Nature’s resources. Wildfires and flooding? Willful ignorance that there is a delicate balance.

For two years in my fifties I accompanied my sister to AA meetings both in the community and in a women’s prison. I got to see and learn firsthand the power of the affirmations and of the group support that AA has provided wounded souls for over seventy years. The repetition of the 12 Steps twice a week was more effective for me than going to church, taking yoga classes, and talking to a therapist.

The power of the 12 Step Program has kept me respectful ever since. With great humility I try to apply this tried-and-true process to my own addiction to energy consumption and misuse of the Earth’s natural resources. Here are the 12 Steps reimagined for myself:

Step 1

I admit I am powerless over Nature – that my life has become unmanageable.

Step 2

I have come to believe that the Power of Nature is greater than myself and can restore me to sanity.

Step 3

I have made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of Nature.

Step 4

I have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself.

Step 5

I have admitted to that Power, to myself, and to another human being the exact truth of my wrongs.

Step 6

I am entirely ready to have the Power remove all these defects of my character.

Step 7

I humbly ask Nature to remove my shortcomings.

Step 8

I make a list of all persons and living creatures on Earth I have harmed, and I am willing to make amends to them all.

Step 9

I make direct amends to such people and living creatures wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step 10

I continue to take personal inventory, and when I am wrong promptly admit it.

Step 11

I seek through study and meditation to improve my conscious contact with Nature as I understand it, seeking only for greater understanding to continue to live.

Step 12

Having had a spiritual and existential awakening as a result of these steps, I try to carry this message to all peoples and all creatures, and to practice these principles in all my affairs.

At the moment, this seems like an insurmountable challenge; my addiction is that strong. I am looking for a sponsor to help me. Anyone available?