Maintaining Sobriety

August 27. Happy Friday morning everyone. I hope your week is winding down with satisfaction. If you don't yet feel that way, try doing something for somebody else, then doing something for yourself.. you deserve it. One of the many great things I've gotten to experience this month is doing service work. It's one of the main things that has kept me connected & grounded in the fellowships & sobriety. I have done alot of things in my life, good & bad, but nothing is as satisfying as knowing that someone else is gaining progress in making their life better. Getting to contribute to that feels twice as good. I spent my thursday catching up on much needed sleep & then heading out to my usual meeting. We had an awesome speaker & a great meeting, followed by a quick & simple group business meeting. The topic that I heard there reminded me of some things in my life that I shouldn't be taking for granted or skipping out on. The topic was "How do you Maintain your Sobriety?". The answers that came next by the group were many, but all of them were similar. One lasting theme was among the general concenus of all those who have been sober at least a year or longer, but a few who have had the longest terms of sobriety spoke up about something more than the rest had mentioned.

To stay sober is not a simple feat, afterall we are different from others in that we cannot stop ourselves & we cannot figure out why others can. There may never be an explaination but it IS a reality we must live with or die if we choose not to accept it. Getting sober is nothing short of a miracle, I know because it took many great people & events to occur for mine to be possible, which can only have been orchestrated by a higher power. My Higher Power. The Prayer, Readings, Inventory, Sponsorship, and Meetings that everyone spoke of were all the common threads that new & old in sobriety had agreed were necessary parts of maintaining a spiritually good life free of drugs & alcohol. The difference was though, that people who were sober a long time, the BIG YEARS, they had something more to add... The 12 Steps. To boot they added they must be worked to completion & reapplied to one's life daily, weekly, for a lifetime. This & only this in combintation with a Higher Power & the rest of the mentioned tools could keep us sober forever. But we truly never need to stay sober longer than just today.. that we all have learned, or will learn in time. Those 12 Steps are said to make the difference in every successful alcoholics conversion to sober & stable life. If this is the case I question myself, Why do I make it so hard for myself to complete these steps & submit to the will of the program. And to answer myself, I am actually fully willing but I am fearful. Of what is something I must figure out, the pain or fear might be a possibility, or of losing myself once again is another. I must endure pain & overcome fear, because I believe what these old timers say, The 12 Steps WILL make or break my sobriety & are the only true way to maintain it forever.. one day at a time. I encourage anyone who plans on living a day longer than today, consider what there is to gain & what your already losing out on, if you have not completed the 12 Steps; even if you are not alcoholic; find someone to take you through them & join me in the pathway to peace & freedom in your life. Together we can achieve this, it is promised & I am personally going to try. :) Good Night. Good Morning.. <3 Jimmy