The Joys of Recovery

 Vastly more……

When I arrived in Alcoholics Anonymous I only wanted to be rid of my alcohol obsession that would always drive me to that first drink. Insanity was upon me. I knew that you guys had one meeting to convince me that a life without alcohol was both available and worth living for, and thankfully you exceeded my expectations. I came across a group of people in action, so kind that they shared their experiences, strengths and hopes without reserve. I could only say 'Yes,I am one of them too, I must have this thing.'

Thank God I was then invited to join them for coffee after the meeting where I was shown how to gain 'a way of living which gets incredably more wonderful as time passes', if I were to follow in their footsteps, to do as they had done and take the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. I had to concede that if I did just that I could get the same results as what I saw in these new friends, and gain freedom from the ravishes of alcohol and an honest zest for life that I desperately wanted myself.

Some of my lifelong conceptions, theories and ideas needed to be dismissed with my many prejudices and stereotypes abandoned as I started on a journey that I would have never of chosen for myself. But in doing so I have had results far beyond my expectations and imagination. To be free of the obsession of alcohol is liberating. To have true freedom, peace and serenity, to sleep well at night. These are new truths. God has placed me in the position of neutality, somewhere I had always wanted to be yet never found alone.

Having taken the twelve steps with the guideance from a sponsor, I have experienced the promises contained throughout the basic text, our Big Book. To live a life beyond my wildest dreams sounds like a line from a fairytale yet this is my experience. Because of where I once was, what I have found seemed unattainable for someone like me. Is my life much different from the one I had when I arrived, beaten into a state of reasonableness? Outwardly much is the same. The difference is that my outlook upon all things has radically changed. I have had a spiritual awakening, a revolutionary change in thought and attitude towards life. Happiness, joyousness and freedom fill my life in a way I could not have comprehended. Gratitude is the keyword of the day and working with others the bright spot of my life. To feel alive, to have the zest that I first saw in others, is a blessing for someone like me who felt dead inside for so long. Life has taken on a whole new meaning, loneliness has vanished, new friends have been found.

So to those of you who may be asking 'Is there a suffiencent substitute?' I can emphatically say 'Yes, and it is vastly more than that.'

Jan 2009