Step Seven: “What Shortcomings?”

Written By Pink Flowers

A little vice can’t hurt, y’all...until it can—for realz!

Step 7: “Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.”

I don’t wanna be making assumptions about folks, but I know a lot about people. I work with a lot. One on one and in crowds. I’ve never seen it fail. If I point out anything that sounds like a fault, people crumble. It’s rare AF that somebody takes well an observation they see as negative. It might not even be negative, mo fo’s get shifty AF if they notice they been seen. How anybody gonna learn anything if they ain’t open to a decent look in the mirror?

The irony is people will brag about they own faults like gold frigging medals. “I ate like a pig!” “We spent waaaay too much money!” “I lazed around all day like a slob!” Seem like people enjoy doing things that ain’t no good for ‘em, as long as nobody call ‘em on it. It’s only when it’s time to pay the piper that people seem ready to give up the thing with all the hidden fees.

In the world of recovery it’s called hitting bottom. Things have gotten so bad you willing to do anything to get something that resembles a life back. That’s usually what gets somebody into a twelve step fellowship. It’s not something you do for sheer fun. It’s what carries people through the first six steps and what makes the seventh step such a relief.

This step is all about making a direct ask to that higher power you crafted in step two when you came to believe that a power greater than yourself could restore you to serenity. Hopefully you chose wisely and that force has been walking this path along with you. Now is where you put your faith to the test. But don’t stress, it’s not that serious. All it really takes is willingness.

Pink Flowers

Pink Flowers is a Black trans artist, peacemaker, educator, and pleasure activist whose work lives at the intersection of embodiment, governance, and cultural transformation. Trained in Theater of the Oppressed, Art of Hosting, and Navajo-informed Peacemaking practices, Pink designs spaces where conflict can be addressed, power can be examined, and joy can be reclaimed.

Her artistic and pedagogical practice draws from African trickster cosmology, Brazilian Joker traditions, shamanic ritual, and cooperative economics. She is the founder of the award-winning Falconworks Theater Company (2005–2021), which used popular theater to build civic capacity and participatory leadership in historically marginalized communities.

Pink served for over five years as a trained Peacemaker in the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, facilitating restorative processes within the New York City court system. From 2015–2018, she worked in cooperative business development with the Center for Family Life, supporting worker-owned enterprises in immigrant communities.

She currently serves as Director of Education and Training for the Inter-Cooperative Council in Ann Arbor, where she leads leadership development and conflict engagement initiatives. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally, including at the Stretch Festival in Berlin and the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference.

Across ritual, performance, mediation, and institutional design, Pink’s work asks a central question:

What becomes possible when we refuse shame and choose conscious power instead?

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Step Eight: In Your Wake
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Step Six: Prepping to Purge