…I’m only ten months in the program with half that many months of sobriety and I give thanks to God for steering me back towards life. The phone list, the literature, the meetings, most importantly the Twelve Steps and those that have gone ahead of us, give us hope.

I think this program is really good for me. I think SA when I get up and when I go to bed. To me SA is like the…song, You Light Up My Life. Thank you all very much. May God bless you all.

…I am a high-bottom alcoholic and a low-bottom sex drunk…sexually sober for 14 months. I am eternally grateful…to SA, and to God for my new lease on life. I have received many blessings throughout my life, but my sexual sobriety is the most precious.…

I was totally enthralled with how Higher Power brought it all together. It happened in spite of us. It flowed in a way no one could have made happen. I really felt the Presence. It moved me greatly.

Included with this issue is the report of the Group Conscience Committee on their proposal for a procedure for taking an SA-wide group conscience. This report summarizes feedback coming into Central Office from responding SA groups since the proposal was issued last December.

Since it was announced at the Los Angeles convention last December, Roy and the Central Office have been using the International Group Conscience Committee in an ad hoc temporary advisory capacity in day-to-day matters involving Central Office or SA as a whole. This is the only active representative body SA has at present, and it has been working extremely well. Following are some recent decisions made:

A decision has been made to go ahead with typesetting the SA manual and publishing it in 6-by-9 quality paperback format. This new edition of the SA manual would still have a plain white cover, as it does now. In the process, it is anticipated that a few changes may be made to the text where appropriate.

What do you think of the following statement, which might be used in conjunction with our sobriety statement? Please pass along any comments you might have to the Central Office.

We’re very grateful for Ruth P.’s work in translating the German newsletters into English. The following are excerpts from their sixth newsletter, dated February:

[Regarding the subject of what to do about sex offenders and the whole business of sexual dependency counseling] I have made a decision not to mix up the program with counseling. Looking back, I see how crazy I was to even consider getting involved in a “professional” way! My main area of interest—profession-wise—is in spiritual direction.… Spiritual direction and the 12-Step program are real compatible.

I want to make an amends to you. When I was at the L.A. conference, I took the chip for nine months of sobriety, when I had only eight. So I’m sending it back to you. I found my error when I wanted to tell the length of my sobriety for December 28th, and so I computed again.

I would like to share a metaphor which B.M. of the Ft. Worth group shared recently. He said that his sexual addiction could be described as follows:

The group here at K.S.P. is doing fine so far. It has dropped in attendance to about eleven. Our sobriety is getting stronger thanks to our Higher Power. Longest…so far is a little over a year by one inmate and four months for another.

I would like to take this time to express my thanks for all the help and prayers from C.O. Our Sat. night group is still going strong. We made some bad decisions and mistakes, but God in his wisdom has been with us the past few months. We have three regulars each week, and the important thing is that we are very serious about SA and our lives. I want to urge all new groups to heed what C.O. says about running ads in any newspaper.

One member’s response to a Convention: “The program told me what I needed to do to be sexually sober; the Convention gave me joy in doing it.”

As announced in L.A. in December, the plans for voting on the IGC proposal (included with January Essay), were that initial group feedback on the proposal would be summarized and forwarded to groups via an Essay mailing. Initial feedback from some fifty-four groups (see list in this issue) has been received. Last word from the Committee is that they are still processing all these comments and that their summary will be out as soon as possible.

From one member we have the following request for help; groups/members are asked to respond from their experience.

We all know how far we get in this program if we as individuals don’t have that First Step realization of our utter powerlessness over lust. Nowhere! Have you ever thought there might be such a thing as the group or SA as a whole being powerless over lust? If our malady has been telling us anything, it is that none of us as individuals or groups has the power to conquer lust and create sobriety, joy, and freedom.

My Ninth Step work began in March 1987, and the only reason I had was because there is a Ninth Step in the program. I sent a letter to the firm where I worked in 1972 and added a check for the electronic parts that I had stolen. I made another amends similar to this to the hospital where I had worked in 1974.

“Darkness” and “light” are sometimes used to symbolize things going on inside of us. The song Starry, Starry Night (sometimes known by the title Vincent) is about the painter, Vincent Van Gogh. One of the lines says, “There is a darkness in my soul.” In the story of ET, the space visitor has a heart-light that visibly glows at times.