Martha Cleveland > Quotes

“As we let ourselves experience powerlessness, we feel it in our body and inner spirit. We feel lighter, more relaxed, as though we are yielding to new joy and energy and as though somehow we can rest. We feel more in tune, more connected with everything around us. To experience powerlessness is to be one with life instead of one against life.”
― Martha Cleveland, The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery

“We can learn the universal, generic pattern of life's dance from the 12 Steps. But in our individual dance of life, we must choose our own music and dance our own dance. Our music must fit our needs and our own particular movements.”
― Martha Cleveland, The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery

“We create our own 12-Step program, every Step of the way. We create it piece by piece as we work our way through the Steps. Everyone’s life and interpretation of the Steps is different, so each of us custom-makes a program to fit our own attitudes, beliefs, needs and desires.”
― Martha Cleveland, The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery

“In themselves, the Steps and their principles are only printed words lying lifeless on a piece of paper. The trick is to decide what they mean to each of us and how to breathe life into them in our real world.”
― Martha Cleveland, The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery