After a misunderstanding here in Quebec City, the definition of abstinence is now being transmitted more clearly and it makes me feel very good. I feel safe in SA. It is the real SA, just the way I need it. After a slip last September, I now have complete abstinence. Abstinence has prevented me from doing things and entering relationships that would have brought me a lot of pain, like in the past. I feel cleaner, purer, more myself. As a woman, my relationships with other women have improved a lot. I feel less jealous. I made friends with some that would have been a threat to me before. There is another woman now in SA in Quebec City and I started a group for women. I had that very great need to get closer to women, to get to know them again.

It was in my second year in SA that I really did my Third Step, and this is becoming more and more important as time goes by. It is my Number One solution in many situations. My only solution is to completely let go to my Higher Power. Yesterday, I started reading the Third Step prayer in the AA Big Book. Just reading it feels very good inside. That’s what I want. That prayer is my guide, my consolation, my hope. My relationship with my Higher Power is what makes me accept even the unacceptable. It is my security. Even at the thought of losing everything, I do not feel empty or scared. I feel full of something very different and more nourishing than what the world gives me or takes from me.