Dear Essay,

Hello, recently we had the best Monday Noon meeting in quite a while here in Akron, Ohio. All due to the beautiful share [in the October 2019 Essay] of Wendi from Colorado! Her topic was “Practicing the Principles.”

It was stated in the meeting, and all agreed, that the White Book was spiritually inspired. Her article was so concise in its personal message, that we felt that her’s, too, was an inspired work of the spirit! Simply a great message for all. Thank you, Wendi, for sharing your thoughts on how the Steps form your life in recovery. Awesome!

Note: A group of us are coming to the January Nashville International from Akron. If Wendi might be in attendance, we would like to meet her.

Yours in recovery,

Dear Essay,

Sylvia J. in Oklahoma, USA said “join SA and see the world.” I have just spent a month sharing at conventions, workshops and with individuals the joys of recovery. I have been in Italy, Switzerland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Austria, and Germany. Wow! The friends I have made and the old SA friends I have seen. This is intimacy at its finest.

And what an amazing trip this was. In a workshop last weekend we had 23 people from Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Armenia. We worked in four days in Poland and two days in Slovakia besides the scheduled workshop weekend in Ukraine and a weekend in Budapest. They are taking such good care of me.

[Dave just returned from a similarly successful trek to Alaska.]

Dear Essay,

Here are a few things I wrote down from the 2019 Post Falls, Idaho retreat. They may be of use to the Essay.

• “Why?” is not a spiritual question.
• Lust is constantly seeking more and bigger and better.
• I don’t take the actions as some sort of control or power show. I just do what I can do.
• Progressive victory just means I am spiritually fit right now. Progressive victory doesn’t lead to Victory.
• Sobriety doesn’t mean I’m in maintenance mode.
• Anything that takes me away from the present is a form of lust.
• I’m either serene in the here and now, loaded, hung over, or lusting after the next fix.
• Lust: not accepting what God gives you as enough.
• I’m addicted to what you think of me.
• In my mind I was either the hero or the zero and there was nothing in between.