MORE OF HOW AND WHY

Intergroup Office and Map of AA in Greater Naples Florida

NOTE to "SHARON FAITH!"
(Formerly Valerie-Lynne)

Thank you very much for this "Superior Scribbler Award" (see on the right hand sidebar). I'm not an "award" guy, for a number of reasons. However, since you do not know me well enough to withhold this award, I WILL proudly post it in my sidebar, and link to you, Sharon Faith. Thank you SO much and God bless you!

The following sentences in blue color are taken from the book "Alcoholics Anonymous", pages 62-63. These are my all-time favorite pages, as they pinpoint my defects precisely...and lead to Step 3, and a wonderful program of recovery:

"This is the how and the why of it. First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn't work. Next, we decided that hereafter in this drama of life, God was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father, and we are His children. Most Good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom."

A child asks, "How, Daddy?" or "Why, Mommy?" Those might have been my questions when I walked through "the" door of AA. How do I stay away from the first drink? They told me to quit my job as bartender. I did not. Why do I have to come back next week? They told me if you want to stay sober, BE HERE! I did.

I did have questions, I had no 'answers'. They showed me--in time--the paragraph above, with the answer, the solution: "This is the how and the why of it..." It is indicative that all these years later I'm still reading--and writing--the same paragraphs. The simplicity of this program was a difficult concept for "my complicated, complex mentality" --grin! But I AM still here, by God's Grace, and your consistent and constant helpfulness. I did pass to freedom from alcohol through that archway--God is not named Steve.

"When we sincerely took such a position, all sorts of remarkable things followed. We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well. Established on such a footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs. More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life. As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn."

For many years, I experienced that rebirth, a result of showing up for work every day with my new boss, God. Somewhere along the line after about thirty years of being sober, my nemesis PRIDE reappeared in all its exquisiteness. And I lost some of my former enthusiasm, faith, hope, lust for life, through complacency. Oh, I attended meetings, many of them. I wanted to visit with my peeps, my friends. However, I lost my activities of daily spiritual maintenance, which, with God, is the only source for my daily reprieve from this disease, alcoholism--it no longer had anything to do with drinking. That is never to say Pride could not lead me to drunkenness.

Anyway, I wish you all to know I am getting better in more ways than I choose to write. Better in ways I never imagined! ...and the beat keeps on!

No alcohol or unauthorized drugs today...Okay? Okay! Me, too!

Peace.
Love.
Steve