This may be a particular special day, to be followed by a huge day tomorrow. And yet for me and so many others, it’s just another day. I’m to stay sober a day at a time. And that means to me that this is the most important task in front of me. Nothing else can dominate this moment.
I can so well remember what it was like, when I stopped drinking and alcohol was taken from me. That was the result of surrendering to my Higher Power and asking Him to take alcohol away from me and to also to take away the kind of life I was living. And it did happen.
The next thing was finding this program and coming into it. I knew nothing about alcoholism nor AA. Yet someone gave me hope by telling me there was a place where men and women met and stayed sober together. Five days after my surrender I came to my first meeting. And that’s when I heard the people’s stories. I could identify with a lot of them. But it was also the time that an old timer, who later became a close friend, read from the Jan. 6 page in the Twenty-Four Hour a Day book. The first paragraph on that page. I have never forgotten that moment or that reading. I still go there often. A great reminder to alcoholics like myself.
So, that’s what is going on today. Hopefully I’m taking the time to stay sober this day. To me it’s the start of bringing the spiritual way of life into the day. To pray and think about how important it is for me to not only not drink this day, but to focus on what it is that works in this program for an alcoholic like myself. I have been given so much that part of my focus must be on gratitude. Gratitude to my Higher Power for all that I have received, but also this program itself. And then the people in it, who have so freely given so much to me. My old sponsor and those old timers, Then there are all my friends, whom I have grown to cherish and love. I care about them, as I know they have reached out and cared about me.
Today is a day of sobriety. When tomorrow comes, in spite of everything else, it will be the same. I need to say, “Thanks so much for all I have been given.” It has taught me that I’m here to freely give to others like myself, what was so freely given to me.