Last night at a BB meeting we read the chapter, which changed my whole life, There Is A Solution. We not only read it, we discussed it, telling our own experiences in finding the solution to our alcoholism. Our spiritual awakenings, which led to our getting sober and staying sober.
I can well remember, after I got to this program and was given a BB. I read the Doctor’s Opinion and found out what was wrong with me. Going through Bill’s story and then the title of the next chapter rocked me. There it was. It told me that there was a solution. I remember my heart jumping and the overwhelming feeling of hope.
As I read on, I came to italicized words There is a solution. And then the story of the young man, who went to Dr. Carl Jung in Switzerland. How, when he had gotten sober under Dr. Jung’s treatment, he felt had a handle on himself and would never drink again. But he drank again. How in his frustration he had returned and asked what was wrong. And the good doctor told him that he had the mind of a chronic alcoholic and he had never seen anyone with that kind of mind recover. And then he was given the solution, a vital spiritual experience. Or, as the Steps put it, a spiritual awakening, which has been my experience.
Bill W. tells us in his letter to Dr. Jung, that the young man, Rowland H., who had passed away by the time he wrote the letter, never drank again. He had the spiritual experience, or awakening he sought. And so the seeds, the roots of the program had been planted. It was the beginning of opening the door to the solution for alcoholics like me.
In reading that chapter last night, almost all of us had a deep gratitude for what had happened in each of our lives. We all had found the solution. The spiritual solution. We were sober.
The Twelve Steps I went through to achieve this spiritual awakening, which freed me from the grip alcohol had on me, took me through a process of waking up and changing me from the person I used to be to a really new human being. A person, who is now living on a spiritual basis. A level above the man I once was. It still amazes me after all these years.
Yet I can never forget that I’m not cured of this disease. It’s still rooted deep within me. Like the BB says, I have a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of my spiritual condition. I’m still powerless, but empowered to live a sober life through the grace of my higher power. For that I am grateful and always will be.