One of the most wonderful things, which happened to me in this program, is my being able to laugh at myself. I know this sounds a little silly, but part of my sober life is good humor. How often I wake up in the morning and go to the mirror and laugh at myself. It’s this I take out to meetings with me and others are made to laugh at me also.
One of the things I am able to do, since I learned so much in this program, is to seriously talk about how this program works for alcoholics like myself. And then to crack a joke about myself, which often brings up good humor for the members in here. And I know that this is part of the Serenity Prayer. The program is very serious, but no one needs to take me seriously. I’m not all that important.
The truth is that I can’t change anyone, but I can change myself. This is what I learned in here from my old sponsor and all those old timers. I was taught to learn to step away from my negative emotions running my life. I had to learn to finally start to think with my real mind and not being run by all those old wild things, which ran my life under alcohol, and it was this that had come into this program with me.
I was able to learn what I was given. I could stop being angry with others, resentful, hateful, miserable, and suffering from sad feelings about myself. I had to change and begin to be rid of all of this stuff. To be open and at peace with others. To be happy and loving. Not to be disturbed by comments of any type.
And all of this began in the first Three Steps of this program. I had to surrender to my Higher Power, in order to be freed of the total demand alcohol had over my life, and to learn to give up my awful unmanageable life. And then I had to learn to begin to live a very spiritual life, and a new relationship with my Higher Power. And to learn to turn my life and my will over to the God of my understand-ing.
All of this took a lot of time. I mean I was here to stay sober a day at a time, but this all took a lot of days. A real lot of days. The real miracle was with all those old timers, including my sponsor and his wife, who were able to help me change. Like I would always say, not an overnight event.
Again I had to face reality and go through a lot of changes, but also to grow in gratitude, along with faith, hope, and love. To thank my Higher Power for the precious gifts I have been given, along with the help of the people in here.