I’ve had the pleasure of attending quite a few SA meetings since 2020 when I first joined the Fellowship. In some of those meetings, we used ESSAY magazine articles in our literature rotation. I’m writing this to highlight how two articles from the ESSAY were very impactful in meetings I attended.

One of the oldtimers in the meetings I was going to was very excited to suggest to us, who were mostly young in the Program, a certain article he thought we could use in a future meeting. However, he had difficulty remembering the exact title or when it was published. He knew that he had read it in the print version of the ESSAY years before, but didn’t know where it was now. He said he’d made several copies and given them away and now it was maybe in his car … or his house … but maybe not at all.

He really loved the article, though, and as he told us about it with great enthusiasm, we got excited, too. Our curiosity grew and grew, and we wanted to see it, so off we went on the hunt!

We brainstormed about how to find the article, and slowly some details started coming back to him. Miraculously, one of us managed to find, “Sex and the Single Sexaholic” (ESSAY December 2012) written by Shannyn H. from Nashville, Tennessee. It’s on the ESSAY website now (essay.sa.org), and we discovered it right before our next meeting. Finally, we got to read it together in a meeting where we each shared how it impacted us.

It was so good! So good! So worth the build up! Working the Program as a single sexaholic is its own multifaceted experience, and the article did an amazing job conveying what that’s like. The author really captured how lust shows up as cunning, baffling, and powerful, specifically for the single sexaholic, especially those who intend to sober date until marriage. The author also accurately described what it’s like for the single sexaholic to practice being in the Solution (as defined in the White Book), to stay in the Solution, and to feel gratitude for the Solution.

Several of us had worked to find this article, and we felt so good about the impact it clearly had on so many in the group. The enthusiasm extended to the “parking lot” (informal chatting in a Zoom room after the meeting formally ends) and even to a WhatsApp group chat over the next several days.

The very next day, I couldn’t resist sharing it in one of the women’s Zoom meetings I attend (it’s called, “Women Bozos on the Bus”). Several of the women in that meeting, like myself, had been single sexaholics since they started the Program, and it meant a lot to us that the author was also a single woman. We had an amazing discussion about the article, and I’m so glad I was able to be of service by spreading its message of hope and recovery.

I’m also very grateful to the man who suggested the article, that we were finally able to find it, and that it better connected us by helping us see ourselves more clearly.

On Tuesdays, the daily Bozos on the Bus meeting does a special reading, and the literature in rotation at the time was from the ESSAY. I led the meeting the day we read, “Music as a Spiritual Experience” (ESSAY August 2023) written by Marshal M. in California, United States.

In this article, Marshal shares many ways God uses the talent for writing and playing music He gave him to further Marshal’s own recovery, while being of service to others by showing them how to live in the Solution.

This piece really resonated with the group that day. We even extended its effect by sharing recovery-related music in our WhatsApp group chats, which is now a regular, ongoing feature there. My own use of music has really enhanced my recovery, too. I’m very happy the article prompted my fellows to share music that is Higher Power-centered and recovery-related.

Additionally, I want to mention my immense gratitude to the translators of my first ESSAY submission, “God Replaces Old Memories with New Ones” (ESSAY, June 2023, E14, [title altered in the digital version]). They helped translate my article into both Spanish and Dutch. It was a great honor to be considered for translation at all, let alone to hear how the translators themselves related to my story. I was even more touched when I heard my story was used in Dutch where it sparked discussion that promoted group unity and better quality recovery.