Utopia
I just re-read Bill’s Story (AA Chapter 1) with a sponsee of mine as part of his Step One work. It’s amazing that two Jewish sexaholics from Israel in their mid-twenties can identify with a 40-year-old alcoholic stockbroker from New York.
A Simple Prayer
These thoughts from the AA Big Book run through my mind nearly constantly: “Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done” (85). And, as emphasized on the same page, this is the proper use of my willpower.
Using the Serenity Prayer
I would like to share my recent experience in using the Serenity Prayer (SA 95). I’ve been sober in SA since October 2008, and have done lots of service work. But recently I was faced with one of the most challenging business decisions of my 30+ year career.
Getting There Slowly
I came to SA in September 2005, when I realized I was hooked on Internet pornography, and I’ve been sober since that day. Before then, I thought I could stop on my own. I actually could stop for several days on my own willpower, but then I would binge on lust for days afterward and my obsession would increase.
Lying to Myself
I’ve been sober in SA for seven years now, and today I’m grateful to be a sexaholic. Because of SA, I have a life worth living, tools to help me live that life, and the ability to help others live a life worth living by working the Twelve Steps. But it wasn’t always this way; I had a lot of resistance at first. So I decided to write a few things about my early resistance to working this program of recovery, in case my experience might benefit others.
Leaving the Nest
When a young bird is hatched, all it knows is the insatiable urge to be fed, crying out for its next meal. As the chick grows, the time comes when he is finally able to look outside the nest and see all the mature birds soaring through the air.
Thoughts on Sponsorship
I’ve been sober in SA for four and one-half years, and I believe that my sobriety can be attributed in no small part to sponsorship. The SA program continues to bless me with valuable lessons from the process of both having a sponsor and being a sponsor, and I’m grateful to my Higher Power for putting my sponsees in my life.
SA Columbia Celebrates Ten Years
When I first came into recovery in January 2004, my counselor recommended that I attend a Twelve Step group. The only group in Columbia at the time was another “S” fellowship, so that’s where I went. Then the wife of one of our members founded an S-Anon group when they moved here from North Carolina.
Recovery in Marriage
My wife and I recently celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, and I can honestly say that the last 13 ½ years have been better than the first 36 ½ years, for two reasons. The first reason is that I’ve been sober for 13 ½ years, and the second is that in the last 13 ½ years we have experienced honesty, respect, unity, and love—love that is expressed in so many different ways in our relationship.
My Experience with Sober Dating
When I came into SA in 2009, I balked at the part of the sobriety definition that says “no form of sex with self or with persons other than the spouse” (SA 191-192). I had come from a secular upbringing, and I lived through three divorces of my parents. First they divorced each other, then each of them married someone else, and then each divorced again. Marriage was not for me.
