In recovery, I’ve learned something interesting about my telephone: it only rings when I dial numbers. When I stop dialing, it stops ringing.

The Serenity Prayer appeared in 1943 to become part of the foundation of the Alcoholics Anonymous Program. This prayer opens our meetings, graces many sobriety chips, and appears in our literature and periodicals over and over. The Serenity Prayer even commonly appears on wall plaques and in cross-stitch panels.

We doubled in size last night, from three guys at the first meeting to six guys last night. No newcomers yet, but maybe that’s okay. We need to get a feel for the direction the meetings will go. Just wanted to let you know we planted the seed, and darn thing has already begun to sprout! Now I suppose we should pray for rain?

Thanks for asking us how we are doing. We’ve had some struggles getting organized, but have a good site, and a solid core of 3-4. Some of the others with no program experience are beginning to put together some sobriety. Their excitement has been a real boost to me as well. I just celebrated a year, and am grateful for the program!

My name is Ted L., and I’m a gratefully recovering sexaholic. They say that God works in mysterious ways, and for me it’s been a doozy! I was 38 years old, and had lived a life of slavery to lust, sex, and myself. I’d been in prison for six years for rape, and was finally beginning to come to terms with the evil I had done in my life. I thought that it would help my parole chances if I could get some kind of program set up at my facility.

Dear ESSAY Reader,
In the past few months we have received a number of meditations, reflections on the Steps and the Traditions, and fascinating personal stories. We always desire more! Please keep the ESSAY in mind and send us your experience. We promise to keep working on improving our “meeting in print.”

I do my own thing

Is your 12th Step alive and well? Are you looking for an opportunity to carry the message and provide a service to those who still suffer?

Earl was our mentor, sponsor, and guide. Earl started SA on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. People from New Orleans to Mobile came to these meetings. He sponsored several of us as we continued to work our programs. Earl established a light that few of us expect to achieve. He attended national meetings and had years of sobriety; yet, he fought for each day just like the rest of us.

This Step is the beginning of a life-long process of self-appraisal and accountability. If you continue in this journey, you will have many more opportunities to review your conduct, motives and shortcomings, and take action to change. I rarely listen to a sponsee’s 5th Step without discovering another example of how my defects of character injured me or someone I love.

I was well on my way to being an addict by age eleven. Pre-puberty masturbation was already a regular part of my life and it wanted more and more. By age thirteen, I was experimenting with sexual activity with my younger sister. We feared being caught and punished, so we stopped.

I can hardly believe that I have been in SA for an entire year. More unbelievable is that I have been sober the entire time. My sponsor always reminds me that it is truly a miracle. My sponsor is right; it is truly a miracle.

Tonight, as I walked my dog, I learned a lesson in recovery. She’s still as hyper as a puppy at three years of age. Most of her time is spent either in a kennel or the small duplex we rent. I try to walk her around the block several times every day. I use a long retractable leash to let her roam a bit but keep her safe. Often she will end up at the end of the leash.

My name is K. and I am a sexaholic. My story began in a small suburban town, a wealthy suburb of New York City. We were a large Christian family and my father was a Marine Corps Captain in World War II. My father grew up on the “wrong side of the tracks” and he was determined that all his children would succeed in the professional world.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free…” (Emma Lazarus)
I sought for thirty years for relief from my addiction through my church. My guilt and shame were too great. I felt that no one at church would ever understand, much less accept me.

Many people lose their sobriety or relapse back into lust and sexual addiction. Most of us have learned that relapse is a process that happens over a period of time. Slowly we let our priority of sober and lust-free thinking and acting be replaced by other things. Then we become ripe for relapse.

“I am not affected by other people’s criticism because I am not affected by other people’s praise.”
Praise is wonderful. There are few greater joys than the affirmation and applause of my fellows. But what happens when the cheering stops? Where do I find my sense of self-worth when others fail to notice my good deeds?

Hi, my name is Mike, and I’m a sexaholic. I can still remember the first time I said that at an SA meeting. My palms were sweaty, my heart was pounding, my throat had a lump in it, and I could hardly speak—pretty much the same reaction I used to get each time I approached a prostitute, or did any of my addictive sexual behaviors.

Dear ESSAY Reader,
We keep working on improving our “meeting in print” with your help. Subscriptions to the ESSAY are now available through the SAICO website store, Publications page, at (www.sa.org) Our intention is to make copies of the ESSAY available on-line soon for reproduction in other formats such as the international A4 paper size. Check the SAICO on-line store for availability.

Currently there are a number of prisons across the country that have SA meetings. However, we do not have information on all of them.