After seven years of sobriety I relapsed. I called my sponsor, dreading his reaction. He was kind but very clear. One of the things he told me was to take stock of all program actions I normally practiced. Had I been practicing them? Were there some I had stopped doing or only doing occasionally?
One of the most effective Practical Tools is humor. I have been sober for a long time. I tried to give my recovery knowledge away like a fire hose. I realized I was overwhelming newcomers with way too much information at one time. I slowed it down to a garden hose.
My name is Claire, I was created in the image of God and I am a grateful recovering sexaholic. My sobriety date is July 3, 2002. I need to remind myself that I am an addict because I can easily forget.
Over three sober decades in SA there have been quite a few pieces of “bad news” for me as a recovering sexaholic. They all arise, like my entire program, from my experience, strength, and hope:
Today, “simple service” for me is simply giving back to others. There was a time when service meant serving me; pandering to my own selfish agenda, making a name for myself, etc. It’s taken me a lot of Step work and many inventories to be able to cut ego out of my motives for doing anything.
For the first quarter 2020 the income minus expenses was negative: -$12,476. The second quarter, thanks to the increased donations, showed quite a difference: $67,936!
The writer of Every Moment Is A “Given Moment” tells how his life in 12 Step recovery hit a slump at 14 years and how going to SA completely changed his life.
From the bottom of our hearts, the Trustees thank you for your years of service as editor of the Essay.
Dear Essay readers, We thank our retiring editor David M. for his long and devoted service to the Essay, and his example to us. We start this new chapter off with an international editing team consisting of an Irish, UK/Israeli, Australian, 2 US and a Belgian/Spanish member.
First quarter results were promising. Fellowship contributions were back to budget levels. Literature sales were returning to normal. Then the Corona Virus struck in mid-March. There was no warning, no ramp up, no play book. Our meeting room lights were shut off, not dimmed, but just dark.
