What does is feel like to chair a meeting on your thirty-first anniversary of
sobriety?

Today I found out.

After reading the preamble of AA, and introducing myself, I asked for a
moment of silence to use as you wish. I asked the God of my understanding to
speak through me, to use me in a way that would be useful to the people in
the room.

I told the story of my drinking prior to coming into AA.

I told how alcohol had brought me to my knees, to the point of suicide.

I told how a daughter had walked into the room when I had a carbine up to my
mouth.

I told how two weeks later I came up with an idea of getting rid of myself in
a place where no person would walk in and stop me. How I had felt a sense of
relief at that point in my life when I felt my family and friends would be
better off if I were gone.

And on that Easter Sunday morning I remembered a meeting list book I had
gotten from someone a couple of years prior…and I called the minister of
the church and asked if there was an AA meeting that day…there was…and I
went to my first meeting.

Thank God, I saw the connection between being powerless over alcohol and my
life being unmanageable…Accepting the powerlessness over alcohol was no
problem…but to get the vital connection to my life being unmanageable
opened the doors that led to this day, a day at a time.

I told the group about how important it was for me to go to meetings, to help
out making coffee, to be active in many ways, and to get into the literature
and the steps of the program…simply because I saw this direction working in
my life.

I told the group that I had been around for maybe a couple of months, sober,
and that I had been a daily drinker, and it dawned on me that I hadn’t even
thought of a drink for at least the last month…and that gave me the faith I
needed to come to believe that a Power greater than myself was helping me to
handle my life.

I told the group how the steps had helped me to live with the new conscience
I had developed, and was developing so that I was comfortable with the life I
had and that I was comfortable with the world around me.

So, to those who may read this, I told the group that this beautiful program
works if you follow the directions.

And I tell you today, that I work the program a day at a time, the same as
you do, and I intend to work it…because it works if you work it.

Bob C.
South Shore, Mass. USA