4 

My name is ……… 

It’s a bit of an old wife’s tale to say we can live two lifetimes in one.  

Arriving in Alcoholics Anonymous was the start of something new.  I never did see coming to Alcoholics Anonymous as the start of anything. 

 I saw it as an ending. An end to my drinking. Nothing else.  

In the promises of Alcoholics Anonymous, we are given a glimpse of what’s on offer if we choose to stick around. If we choose to work the 12 steps. 

We are offered a new freedom and a new happiness.  

It says we will comprehend the word serenity and that we will know peace.  

The promises explain very clearly that no matter how far down the scale we’ve gone, it doesn’t matter. Our experience can always help others.  

They may arrive in our lives slowly, or sometimes quickly.  

And the promise contained within the promises, is that they will always materialise if we work for them.  

The promises come true from working the steps. The steps 4 through to nine. They are about not regretting the past nor forgetting it.  

And so, on they go.  

As a newcomer, I don’t know that I took much notice of them.  

I was just pleased I wasn’t drinking.  

One day turned into two days. Then three then four.  

I remember One week’s sobriety being quite a milestone. Not just for not drinking. It was a milestone because I didn’t want to drink.  

That was the big difference.  

As the sober weeks turned into months then years, life started to find a normality I wasn’t really use to. Everything in sobriety was very new and fresh. 

Life was starting to take on a welcoming clearer vision.  

Less resentments and more positivity. Less fear and more strength.  

Less anger and more sleep.  

A good, deep, lovely sleep, I’d not experienced for years.  

I worked the 12-step recovery program. I called my sponsor every day.  

I engaged in service and found myself becoming a part Of Alcoholics Anonymous. I went to meetings all the time. I loved them.  

As time in recovery moved on, so did I.  

I learnt, I lived, and I laughed. 

I’d learnt to sit and eat a meal sober with friends. And I learnt to be able to talk at those meals.  

It was one of those things I’ve learnt to do in recovery.  

I’ve lived a new phase of life I never could have guessed existed. And I’ve laughed like I’ve never laughed. 

I’ve learnt to slow down, to put my day into 20-minute boxes, I’ve learnt to say no, and I’ve learnt to put things back after I’ve used them.  

All step one manageability.  

I’ve worked hard on accepting the unacceptable. To be able to walk away from situations when every bone in my body wanted to stay and fight. 

 It’s an incredible feeling. It’s the biggest thing that an alcoholic can do is to walk away. We don’t see it at the time, but ultimately, we are the victors. For walking away shows us that god is doing for us that which we couldn’t do for ourselves.  

It wasn’t easy and it isn’t clever.  

But it was imperative I learnt this.  

Only strong-willed people survive recovery. And only people who want recovery more than anything else in the world get it.  

Being in sobriety is not easy. It’s full of pitfalls, of dangerously painful days.  

It’s a myriad of good, happy and very sad days.  

Some mornings are just so painful. Others are bearable.  

But the happy mornings are the best.  

Losing loved ones is especially difficult in recovery.  

Especially losing those who have stuck close to me throughout my drinking. 

The reality of life started to dawn through my new sober eyes.  

I was in a meeting when I met someone new. A newcomer. 

No one really knows if and who might stay sober in AA.  

There seems no luck, there’s certainly no roadmap to ensure sobriety.  

Some people make it, and some don’t.  

Sobriety stardust falls indiscriminately.  

But this person has beaten all the odds and come through sober. On Saturday, she celebrates her fourth sober birthday.  

Nothing remarkable there, except that what she has done in those four years is a lesson to us all.  

She’s dealt with loss, with pain, she’s dealt with her past mistakes.  

She’s worked through a program of twelve steps and has always been sponsored. 

A regular meetings person, she’s engaged with AA, she’s made lifelong friends, and how ever bad things may have seemed to her, she picks up the phone, she goes to meetings, she uses her program.  

It’s not rocket science. It’s a fact. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any Lengths to get it, then you are ready to take certain steps.  

These are the guidelines she took and used in her new and sober life.  

Yes, she has her bad days, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen her in a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous without a smile on her face.  

For it’s in the meetings she finds her peace.  

She finds her serenity. And she finds her tomorrows.  

There aren’t many people in this world who can truly say they’ve experienced a second chance in life.  

She is living proof, that four years of seeking the guidance of a higher power, doing as suggested, and believing the truth of recovery, she has in the words of a well-read story, she’s been given the keys of the kingdom.  

So, if you want what she has and are willing to go to any lengths to get it, and you want to experience a second chance at life, and be gifted two lifetimes in one, why not go along to her meeting and ask her for some words of advice.  

I’m sure she’ll tell you what she was told one thousand four hundred and sixty days ago. 

And that’s to just `keep coming back ‘.  

Anon