Bama…
Thank you for your kind words, But I have to say that I didn’t think any of this stuff up. OK, my drinking story is my drinking story, but that’s it. All the stuff about not drinking, a power greater than myself, and acceptance came from my sponsor and all the people I met early in my sobriety. Men who came in before me showed me how to live this life one day at a time.

I haven’t found it necessary to pick up a drink in a little over six years, and if I go the rest of today without changing my mind on that score, I will tell God “thank you”. I don’t kid myself for a second about how my sobriety happened. If I could have stopped, I would have stopped. But the fact is that I could of sprouted wings and flew before I could stop drinking. A power greater than myself has relieved me of the first drink. But up till now that’s been enough.

I take a Sunday speakers meeting every week with my sponsor. A speaker meeting is good for me because I don’t have to constantly think about what I’m going to say. Should I be funny, should my share be poignant, or tragic? How can I top what the last guy just said? I spent so much time thinking about myself, and how I can impress other people, that I didn’t listening to what the other guy was saying. As my sponsor once pointed out about himself, I ain’t much, but I’m damn near the only thing I ever think about. I had to say that about myself as well. I tell new guys to take in a lot of speaker meetings for just that reason. Just for one hour, get out of yourself.

I also take a meeting into a detox once a week, those guys are my best sponsors. If I ever get the crazy idea that I pulled the plug on myself too soon, one hour in there clears that up.

I also chair a meeting with my home group once a week. My home group runs a noon meeting 5 days a week. So at this point in my sobriety I do at least three meetings a week.

Now to your last question, I wish I could say that I have worked with lots of guys that are now happy joyous and free. One of my guys died of an overdose in his bed, one died in an automobile crash (alcohol related) and one guy that I gave a two year medallion to is sitting in jail as we speak. And most of the rest, somewhere around step four just went into what I call the “witness protection program”. They just disappear, I don’t know where they are, I don’t know how they are doing. I almost never say no when some guy asks me to help them through the steps, but Bama, don’t kid yourself about this disease. Alcoholism will do everything in it’s power to talk you back out, and the really scary part is it wins a lot more often than this or any other program I know anything about does.

Stay close to your sponsor, take the suggestions she offers, and stay grateful.

On the road to the good stuff,
Richard S.