The Bay Cities Area of Narcotics Anonymous serves as a vital resource for individuals and families affected by addiction throughout the coastal South Bay region of Los Angeles County. By coordinating local NA groups, maintaining accurate meeting information, and supporting area-wide service efforts, the Bay Cities Area helps ensure that anyone seeking recovery can easily find help. The area supports meetings in these communities Carson, Gardena, Hermosa Beach, Lomita, Long Beach, Redondo Beach, San Pedro, Signal Hill, Torrance, Torrrance, Wilmington, strengthening connections between members, promoting unity, and fostering a safe, consistent message of recovery for the broader community.
In every relationship, we don't always handle things the way we would have hoped. But friendships don't have to end when we make mistakes; instead, we can make amends. If we are sincerely willing to accept the responsibilities involved in friendship and make the amends we owe, those friendships can become stronger and richer than ever.
Making amends is simple. We approach the person we have harmed and say, "I was wrong." Sometimes we avoid getting to the point, evading an admission of our own part in the affair. But that frustrates the intent of the Ninth Step. To make effective amends, we have to keep it simple: we admit our part, and leave it at that.
There will be times when our friends won't accept our amends. Perhaps they need time to process what has happened. If that is the case, we must give them that time. After all, we were the ones in the wrong, not them. We have done our part; the rest is out of our hands.
Some of us might argue that the solutions to our problems, the answers to our moment-to-moment decisions and our big life choices, have always been within our reach. We just haven't been listening to our conscience. We've been unable to hear it because of the competing, confusing cacophony of noise in our heads, a squeaky hamster wheel of thoughts that we can't get off of. Others of us feel as if we never had a conscience and that it's something we develop only once we become abstinent and start to work a program. We come to the opinion that our disease speaks to us--in our own voice, no less!--and is the sole influence for our bad decision making. Conversely, our conscience, as an expression of our Higher Power, is the source of positive influence.
Whatever our opinions are about the origin story of our conscience, we can probably all agree that we can do a lot to cultivate our sensitivity to the voice of our higher self. We get clean and become humble enough to ask for help. We listen to each other's experiences of recovery. The work we do on ourselves through the Steps and for others through service awakens us enough to experience our conscience. Many of us would say our conscience has become clearer, more distinct, and more dependable as we've grown in recovery. It becomes easier to access because we're able to turn down the static brought on by its evil twin, our disease. We learn to quiet our minds and, through prayer and meditation, we gain a lot of practice in not just being able to hear it but in listening to what it has to say.
"My conscience is my inner guide," wrote a member. "It's a driving force that gives me what I need to make an honest decision. I still can't control outcomes just because I'm choosing wisely, but I come to my decisions with integrity."
