This adventure called sobriety (and it is an adventure), I have found to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. It far outweighs anything that went before and anything I can possibly conceive. I guess it is beyond my wildest dreams.
It is right about this time of year that I came into this program. I can still remember how that last drink was and what happened that turned my life around. I can still remember that first meeting. I remember the hope I derived that night that maybe I too could get sober and be free of the curse of my alcoholic drinking. There was an indescribable excitement within me that night, because I knew from the people in attendance that they had been right where I was that night. They knew what it was to be an alcoholic and unable to stop drinking. Yet here they were sober. I desperately wanted what they had.
I remember all those early days and all the years I have been here. I remember so many twelfth step calls and how it was when we would drive to meetings in cars packed with other alcoholics talking about the program. I remember sitting in kitchens of alcoholics, drinking coffee and talking all night. I remember the ups and downs of those early years. From exhiliration to deep depressions. The roller coaster ride of emotions early on and the gradual leveling out throught the process of working the steps.
Through the good times and the bad, from tragedies and back to happiness, from being broke and jobless, loss of marriage and a broken home for my children, to people getting drunk again and suicides, and all the while the state of joy in the midst of all of this. The realization of the promises and the freedom from resentment. The clearing away of the past and the spiritual awakening.
All this up to now. An adventure which started in January of 1972. I have been so blessed I cannot tell you. We each have to have our own experiences as I have had mine. It has been truly wonderful and I owe it all to the God of my understanding and all the others who have contributed so much, which has allowed me to stay sober and be here today. I am grateful beyond words.