Sitting here today I went back and read a Vision for You in the BB. As I read each page, I found it to be stirring a lot of thoughts about the beginning of this program. How inspiring. To be reminded of what it was like back in the beginning. And then to look around and think about how it is today. All the result of the gift I was given by the efforts of Bill W. and Dr. Bob and those, who joined in with them.
As I read their stories, I identified completely with what was being said. I knew without being there that I was just like they were. When the third man, when he talked, kept saying how he identified and was just like they were, I said to myself, so was I. I had been at the edge of despair just like that man described himself. And just like him I had been offered the same way out of the hold alcohol had on me. The same solution we all have found. The spiritual experience and the God of our understanding.
But more than that. By the time I got here the BB had been written and published. The Twelve Steps had come into being and had been practiced by all those who went before me. And not just a few new alcoholics were available. Men and women, who had years of sobriety and experience in practicing this program stepped up and helped me to get sober.
When I finished reading that chapter in the BB I was filled with gratitude. How could I not be? It reminded me of those men and women, who keep raising the subject of gratitude as part of the discussions in meetings I attend. And I hear people just like myself, who, when they came in, could not imagine ever being grateful for anything. That was me in the beginning. And what a great reversal has come into my life since then.
Anyway, just another day to stop and think about all sobriety has given to me. To remind myself what it is I need to do each and everyday to continue this sober way of life. To renew hope and faith and trust in my Higher Power. To continue to stay in contact on a daily basis with men and women just like me, who have come to this program and found a way of living, which saved their lives, just like mine was. And to continue to be open to give what was so freely given to me to others like myself.