Dear ESSAY, I am an incarcerated person in California. In the past, several of my fellow incarcerated persons and I have held SA meetings on a regular basis, and I've actually had a sponsor before. However, over the years, things have kind of fizzled out, and we no longer have our meetings, mainly due to members being dispersed throughout the system and some of the participants having been paroled.
Greetings from India. I am Iris from India–grateful, recovering, and blessed lustaholic and sexaholic. My SA journey and sobriety began on May 25, 2021, one day at a time (ODaAT). I heard about ESSAY and its garden of recovery at the beginning of my SA journey. I was approached to be a part of ESSAY’s garden, and I blossomed through sharing 3–4 articles. ESSAY has been one of my very strong recovery tools. I am never sufficiently grateful for its birth in our SA world. I am grateful for the many articles of recovery and for ESSAY reaching many members virtually and in print.
Dear ESSAY, Thank you for this topic on Grieving In Recovery. It has helped me reflect on how I cope with grief since being in recovery, compared to before.
Dear ESSAY, Thank you again for the contributions of this magazine to our fellowship. It is very important! So many of our members look forward to the next issue. During the months that I spend in West Africa every year in fellowship with SA members, we download and distribute the current issue of the ESSAY. We don't have many hard copies of the White Book since the international mail and local m
Dear ESSAY, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the ESSAY team for continuing its vital work after Luc’s passing. Your dedication keeps alive an invaluable resource for our Fellowship worldwide.
Dear ESSAY, Recently my sponsor encouraged me to give program literature more authority in my life. He meant, take the literature as my personal truth and don’t divert from it—this is how I will get maximum benefit from this Program of recovery.
Dear ESSAY, I wanted to share these photos of an unconventional meeting location. I am a grateful member of the Žilina SA group in Slovakia. One of our fellows was instructed by his sponsor to attend at least two physical meetings per week. He sometimes travels to distant members who don’t have nearby meetings.
Dear ESSAY, in my addiction I crossed every line I could imagine. Ultimately, I even sexually abused my own daughter. I was quickly arrested because she bravely told her school counselor the very next morning. I was convicted and served a sentence.
Dear ESSAY, we’d love to share the story of our Loving Chair with you all. Jaime Daniel is one of the founders of our group. 12 years ago, he celebrated his 24th anniversary of sobriety in another fellowship where he received a small plastic chair as a gift. He donated that chair to our “La Liberación” group.
In response to the previous ESSAY edition, I wanted to share the following. I once asked Roy K. what he boiled recovery down to. He answered without hesitating, looking me right in the eye. "Stay sober, work your steps, and watch what God does."
