Tom F. from Baltimore at York, PA August 22nd 1998

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Tom Flynn. I'm an alcoholic and I don't drink on Saturdays,

so I show up on Saturday sober.

That works best.

Start somewhere. You know, before I got to you people, because of my intelligence, I had some complicated problems. I didn't have simple problems and naturally I needed complicated solutions. So I thought the council psychiatrist, one real busy fella. 2 couches, no waiting.

And I took sacred pledges in stone buildings with stained glass windows on sacred guilt age books.

Very impressive. And I got drunk. I'm alcoholic, you know.

Yeah, Didn't work. And I got to you guys. I ran into my sponsor and he said to me, can you postpone a dream for 24 hours? I immediately lied without even thinking, you know, And I said yes, I never tried it.

Why? I know you don't do that, but I just, I would have made a good lawyer. I could lie without thinking.

I apologize to you in the legal profession, but not a whole lot.

I had a laugh at Sally and the other admonitions about taking pictures. Let me tell you, the last time someone from the public took my picture,

I was standing in front of a floodlight and I was holding a number under me that says Baltimore City Police Department.

That was my last professional program.

I am not a problem drinker. I am a answer drinker. Life was a problem. Alcohol was an answer. That's the reason I think I drank. Alcohol took me to places it does not take. Not Alcoholics. As Vicki alluded today.

I'll often say Alcoholics and alcohol has taken me to places that Natural Geographic has never seen.

And I didn't even need a passport.

A good thing for me. It did the magic, it did the deal. That's what alcohol did for me. It was a wonderful experience. Sometimes I come into meetings and I hear some guy say, well, I picked up a drink when I was 18 and I was an instant alcoholic and my life was immediately unmanageable and I could cry.

It's so sad, so sad. He missed all fun.

Stop these messy. You know

my biggest leg? Getting pregnant without having sex?

Wrong.

Wonderful time drinking. That's the reason I drank. I loved it. Don't think he didn't like to taste, You know, I loved how it smelled, how it tasted, what it looked like, what it did going down and sometimes coming up.

I even like the distributors who delivered it to the place I was drinking in. It reassured me they were not going to run out.

I like a whole business. It was wonderful, wonderful. So I am not a problem drinker. I am an answer drinker.

What I will walk into. I was a ballroom drunk. See, I was a street drunk. I done it all, went back and did it again to make sure I didn't miss none. You know

who had a wonderful time?

I walked into a bar, you know,

little shy, unclue to be shy. I had a couple of drinks, I lost my shyness. I talked to the guy next to me immediately tell him a lie too.

There's no thought involved. It was automatic. It's like scratching the itch.

I'm just over.

I seem to have a habit when I was bragging and lying of exaggerating by about 300%. Why that number? I don't know. It just worked out that way. I would tell this guy after 2 drinks, I'm the vice president of my company.

That was a lie. I was the office manager of that three ranks down. I later, before I got fired, did become the vice president of my company. So you could Call Me Maybe a prophetic liar.

I just taken the

the promotion before the company do about it.

They were to find out about it later,

yes.

Yeah, I'll make it $100,000 a year. This is late 70s. I was making about 33. I think he gave a crap. I'm going to give him some right now. He didn't give a crap, but I made her. Didn't make. I thought he did but he didn't

have 4 drinks and I go talk to the girl 3 stools down and they almost got headaches.

They got so many headaches talking to me. I could have did aspirin commercials,

headaches,

6 Greeks. I was a singer.

Yes, I was not melodious, but I was loud,

$830 a teacher

just saw was not smooth. I was fast,

all 10 drinks. Oh my God, like Mickey, I get goosebumps. I can think about it now. I've ever been your favorite bar room and the lighting is just right

and the music is just right and the mix between the boys and the girls is outstanding.

And in that state with 10 drinks of meat, I had my first out of body experience

float above the crowd. They would have ceilings like this, not quite to this ceiling, you know, just a little below it. And I would look down on the rest of the people in the bar. That was my semi celestial fate of mine. I would say in that state I would solve

big problems. No local stuff please. It took me all night to get in this condition.

Big stuff. World hunger. Hey, there's a worthy challenge I would take. How about redistribution of energy sources?

Fun for all,

right? And I can solve these international problems

and 15 or 20 minutes. I often wonder why the UN took so long, you know, 15 or 20 minutes or whatever. Todd, did you enclosed?

I was brilliant. I would have these out of body experiences. I was to have some out of mind experiences that power

well at one exit at a time.

That's how it was in my brilliance, you know,

oh semi celestial estate. I would leave well satisfied of a job well done. Brilliant man, brilliant man. And I couldn't find my own clock.

Full reality. The brilliant man can't find his own car.

I know it's never happened to you. What happens to me? I have a wonderful time thinking a lot of funny things happen to me drinking. You know, they weren't all funny. I remember one time we were young drinking and I went to travel these three other guys

and in Dolan, which you have, is sober. I'm the only one still alive. Are these guys I traveled with,

we have to go down South of Baltimore City in Anne Arundel County, where the drinking was a little more liberal than in the city when I was a young guy. And that wasn't yesterday. But they still had cars there. And,

and we would drive over these little wooden bridges, over the little creeks going down these waterfront joints.

Anybody here? The tires over little bridge, Bump, bump, bump, bump. You drive, you know, and on the way back, we're all see two Irish Catholics, one Polish Catholic, what a Chinese Catholic. They're all drunk. And we're going to go to Mass

1:00 AM in the morning.

I am driving my three buddies to Mass

ties on. Now we're driving over the little bridges. Boom boom boom boom. I heard another little bridge anytime. Boom boom boom boom. I missed the turn and I drove off the end of a short pier

that we are all dressed up in ties going to church sitting in 3 1/2 feet of water.

Some old guy ordered me there's on the House at the end of the road right there to pier and a spotlight comes on the 2nd floor when they goes up and he hollers out the window. Who's you? Can't tie that boat up here.

Just a matter of perception, isn't it?

We just happened to put a car. We're a boat. You.

These are the kind of things that happen. I'm going to touch briefly on those guys. The one guy, his name is Boots, Boy. I don't know. Boots Barry was a brilliant man

anyway. At 26 years old, he was the chief advertising man with the second largest brewery in Maryland. At 32, he was dead. Suicide.

The other guy was a fireman

and two fire engines collided. Very unusual thing and he was killed

answering a false alarm.

Lawrence Kashmir,

The other guy was a meat cutter and he put himself through school at night in a captain seat. They became an accountant for Baltimore County in Spiro Agnew became governor and liked this guy. And this guy wound up as treasurer for the State Roads Commission in Maryland, and he was found dead on a parking lot of a shopping center

when he was 41.

And the only drunk left is me.

I don't know why I'm here other than to tell you what happened.

Simple.

I came to you folks. My heart, my stuff. Home group is the Harbor City Speakers meeting. It's in a blue collar section of South Farmer Industrial Park. We don't have problems with crab grass or lawn mowers. You know,

we have stuff with trucks, drains and stuff like that.

Vicki and I started that be.

It's been a wonderful experience. It's been a wonderful experience.

We pass it on. That's all.

That's all. I remember one time I was speaking over in Delaware, my sponsor Patty be on the back and told me what a good job I did. Wow. That was Praise and Seizure night under illusion for a short period of time and I actually knew something. It was only an illusion. It didn't last.

I had it where I intellectual seizure.

I'm down a spasm level now

and he told me I did a good job and I felt good. And he told me he said used to do the newspapers in South Farmers. A kid did not says, yeah, that's a good thing for you to remember the night. He says you're the delivery boy, ain't the editor,

so I'm here to deliver the papers.

What are your readers on Eat My Business

by the by business to make the delivery? That's simple,

you folks. August 14, 1980 and I stayed. Now the places that people go to after they get here, I've already been there. So there's no place for me to go. I didn't stay out of virtue. I stayed out of default. There's no place to go. I've been there, done that, got the T-shirt. I stayed,

came in here. Alcoholics Anonymous

as a result of some attention getting events in my life. God that sounds cleaned up, don't it? Sanitized.

I will tell you the truth. I had some direct hits.

No, I knew your miss won't do anything for a hard hit of my type. I need a direct hit. I was married for 25 years

though feeling intelligent woman

and I became divorced from this woman. I was the first guy in my family ever divorced. Guys in my family get married, some for better, some for worse, some just break even while they stay married.

Well, I got divorced. She couldn't take it anymore and so all we later became pen pals. You know, she sent me a bill, I sent her a check.

That's just how that is. You know, it's been like that since Eve, and I'm not gonna change it,

not make any efforts in that direction. That's a direct hit, though. See, you're divorced,

wave Bob buys. I got good at waving Bubba's. I can wave Bob eyes for two hands. I gotta do out of so many places, you know, just in case one got tired

with two older men. February 4th, 1950. That was a real young guy.

I helped found a service company in Baltimore City

and I was the treasurer of the corporation and owned 18% of stock at a company. 29 years later I know it's Alcoholics don't finish nothing. 29 years later, I got fired from that company.

They can't do that, Tom. Yes, they can. How do you know? It did to me. Oh OK,

you can't get fired in that position. I'm here to prove that to you. And they told me top many a corporation can use a fellow of your talent.

Umm, regrettably, we are no longer one of those corporations. And we'd like to have you get your keys at 2:00 this afternoon. Goodbye waving again. It could be way. I'm good at that. Do a lot of waving way. Bye bye. I remember when I was 8-8 years old. I'm one of nine kids.

Before TV, that was

I was supposed to go to community with my class on Sunday morning and a lot of times I had holes in my shoes because I was the 2nd wear. I'm old. I went older brother and I didn't want to kneel that in front of my classmates and have you see the holes in my shoes. I was too proud. I'd rather you think I was 8 year old Sinner.

I made-up my mind. Well, I got George shoes and jackets. I wouldn't put that crap anymore, and I never did.

Put a lot of other crap but not that pretended branch.

What am I telling you that for? I made a lot of money.

I know how to make a living. I did not know how to live until I came to you.

Oh Jesus, until I came to you. It's not the same, not in my experience.

Bought a house, Big house, impressive house. A lot of ballplayers living around here by St. Upbeat.

You have big shot 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. You know being my beautiful wife Burner late 20s. I don't know something Good neighborhood,

no kids. The only thing we ever have is the power keep

Pee up and died.

Well, that's not really the truth. I killed him. That's really

my brother-in-law. He knows I don't care for a lot of extraneous stuff and what he thought I needed was a parakeet. So he gave me a parakeet

and my wife did not work outside the house, but it's a big house for her take care of. She did a good job. I never

now one Monday morning I'm late for work. You know how that is, Hank.

And Sunday was a bad busy, busy day. I got a terrible hangover

and I'll get out of the shower and I'm shaving. I'm hurrying and the bird flies into the bathroom and shits on my head. Damn,

I said. Woman, put that bird in the cage. I don't care when I get out of here. You can put them in the oven, I don't care, but put them in the cage. So I get out of here,

you know? And she said something that she understood

and finish it up and I hear

slow wings coming down this hall. I said I bet that suckers going to do it again. So I kicked the door shut like that. And just as the door was closing on the jam, the little bird was coming through. Caught him in the door jam.

It's a little sucker, goes down, hits the floor, gives me two more.

He comes down the hall and she says

hangover, wet hair. I'm late for work now I'm accused of

I gotta go. I'm late.

She shows up with his shoebox

silver paper.

I didn't want to be no bird barrier when he get off the floor.

All right, I'll bury the bird. So I took the bird with me to work on a way over a Little Creek High Street. A bird over.

I came home earlier that night because I felt that she would be distraught.

Did you bury the bird, Tom? Yes, Joyce, I buried the bird.

Where did you bury the bird?

I buried him at sea.

That was the closest I could come to the truth. You know,

I went broke.

I went broke

somewhere in the area you're talking about. Maybe a little more

Stonebrook. What do you mean broke Top? When I got the Alcoholics Anonymous, you could shake me and I didn't need Jingle. Well, that's broke. Yeah, that's right. I didn't have no reverse in cash flow. I think that's a Washington expression. I think it means the bum ain't been caught yet.

I was broke,

came to the hospital,

woke up in hospital.

Where am I? Which is not an unusual experience for me.

You know, geographic questions for a normal night.

One died. I know. Done you guys did this. I was in the bar room. There was only one ugly woman in there and at 2:00 she was so beautiful. We went out together and she told me that she was a Spanish opera singer

and I woke up in the morning. Her wig was off and her teeth was in a glass on the ice cream.

I took one look at her. I said for Christ sake, see.

That's what happens to Alcoholics like us, you know. Some of us admit it, some don't,

that's all. So just that's all, that's all. I'm sorry. You ain't no Vestal Virgin. I'm ordering you and I beat you to it.

It's that simple. I went broke and I woke up in his hospital

and there was a big window there, a real wide with circle top with a real big windows. And there was a woman, a big woman standing against that window. You know, she was like 1/2 a window woman. She

and I knew in a frogs that this woman was deadly in charge,

and I had fears.

Suppose she's in charge of me

and my first. My fears were fully realized. In fact, she was.

I called her Mr. Nurse.

Now I was almost smart ass. See, I come to find out later, not at this time, that Mister Nurse had a heart that exceeded her size and a compassion for Alcoholics that exceeded both. But a smart ass like me didn't know that. I just called her Mr. Nurse and I went to Mr. Nurse to register a complaint.

Mr. Nurse gave me no respect.

What's your problem, Buster? Buster, does she know who I am?

And I told her, I said, do you know why I'm on a big shot

system? What's your problem, Buster? I said well, there's no knob on my side the door.

Mr. Nurse told me

that it was against hospital regulations to have much running loose in the general population,

and I told Mr. Nurse I couldn't be and not I'm a big shot and I couldn't be insane. I want an academic scholarship to Johns Hopkins University around my 17th birthday.

And she said that she was impressed, but not a whole lot.

And she told me she thought in the general way she knew who she was talking to. Her question is, did I know who was listening

there? She put her finger right on the problem and I didn't know it yet.

I didn't know it yet. Put bluntly on Nuts,

I have papers

I was trying to block with Wally on the second step, he says. Don't you have papers, Tom? Yeah, well, you're good papers, you see. How many opinions do you want?

Thank God he tells me the truth. Thank God for the old timers and Alcoholics Anonymous who tell the truth.

There is no problem at the front door of Alcoholics Anonymous. There's problem in the middle where we who are responsible do not tell these people the truth. My relationship with my sponsor is based on one thing he told me. He rather step on my toes and stand on my grave. I understand that

it's clean, it's direct and it's simple and it works. That's why

that's how it's been for me.

So there I am, nuts.

They don't put you in the house for being nuts, they put you there for acting nuts.

That's right. If they put all the nuts in in my house, our population be thinned out

and that's when he outside. These are direct hits.

How about the hit that smarts on the inside?

Did you ever

think of the person that you were closest to

and say to yourself, is she done to me what I'd done to her? I would have been out of this cotton picking outfit long ago.

I wonder why she still loved him.

I didn't know.

And did you promise with all the sincerity that you had, it would be different.

And like me, did you break that promise and feel that knife plunge into your heart?

God, that hurt in it on the inside. And did you try again?

And did you ever can try to convince those who loved you of your sincerity and you knew they had good reason not to believe you? That's powerlessness, isn't it?

And did you get another shot?

And did you break the other chance like I did? And now did you figure that plunge, dagger twist? Oh, yeah. Was the pain? Is it unbearable for you as it was for me that you had to stop promising

and I couldn't take it anymore and I made a promise to me and to a God I did not trust. So if I broke it one more time only, I would now.

And now I tell you, I broke that promise one more time. And you know,

the promise I broke to those who loved me is the measure of my guilt.

The promise I broke to me and to God is the measure of my shame,

For for me, shame is the inside version of guilty. That's how it is for this drunk.

So when I got to you good folks,

I was divorced, fired, broke nuts,

crushed by Gil, shredded by shame, laying on a floor of lights with one thought. I don't think I could fall off his floor and I fell off.

I came to you in that condition. I wasn't even toying with a bad idea. That might work. And if you understand, turn your will in your life over the Ronald McDonald's Okay with me. I didn't need any theology lessons

say I didn't need anything.

And I saw people running around here. I'm not talking about new people. I seen guys running around. I'm so over five years, like sucks. I'm hanging in there. My wifes a bitch. My boss is a jerk. Now you're a good driver in Pennsylvania and if you want what I have, I just got here. I didn't want that bum hat.

That bum didn't even what he had. For God's sake, I do that,

but they get surgery Was the East Coast distributor of the disease. He was done by recovery.

Then there were people like my sponsor who were sober and who were happy to be sober, and who were unclear enough to tell their face about it.

Uncle

See, you've taught me to live at risk among you who love me. That's what you taught me. The world taught me to live cool in my head among people I was suspicious of. But you taught me a new way of living, a new way to see life. That's what you taught me.

Went to a sponsor. I first looked around, I told you a sponsor. Here I am with the nut paper papers in my pocket and I'm looking for a man that's intelligent as me.

Obviously I couldn't find one.

So an old timer says why don't you find a guy who has what you want? It's much simpler. There were several of them. They were more plentiful than intelligent people in the group. Savage Point Junior

S Wally. I knew he was going to turn me down

and he said I could use a nut like you in my life. A guy he was working with just rural off into the sunrise in New Jersey or something like that.

A nut like they. How did he know I was? Thoughts. I didn't show my paper.

He just automatically knew.

We must have a shame on the side. Like Joseph Freeway eyes. We just have it. So at least I have it. I wouldn't say anything about you but me. Yeah.

Then he asked me a question. I start lying again.

Are you willing to go to any lane? Yes. What's any lane? I don't know how to answer yes.

I don't know what any life was.

Never unless you want to get sober. Give your sponsor a yes to that question because he will hit you over to head with it when you stall.

So if you don't want to move, tell him you'll get back to him, he'll get rid of you,

he'll recognize you right away. How you do that, Tom? Because I tried that time, though,

the sponsor took me through the steps immediately,

told me to read the fake book, He says. I'm not going to be talking to you about recovery out of this big book in English and you're listening in Albanian. We're going to read this book. We're going to be talking about the same thing

my sponsor told me. I didn't speak English. He's a truck driver for Christ sake.

God nerf I wonder. John Carroll Award for translating Homeric Greek.

He wasn't impressed.

Spaces told me the truth.

Get involved with steps now, he says. You got to help new people much sober.

Get over there by that door, Tom. There's some guy walking through there with fluoride. Somebody you blow over there and you tell them what you did to get four months of body. Tell them exactly what you did. But for God's sake, don't tell him what you think.

I

since my 4th month of sobriety

I could honestly report to you because of good sponsorship, good Home group and the big book of the Alphabetics Anonymous. And I'll fly an example of the old timers,

those who walked to walk

by an example, those who really barked the path. Well, rarely have we seen a person fail who thoroughly follows this well marked path.

And they marked a path well

unwavered. You know I'll stray. I know you wouldn't. I didn't.

And I have never been without a new man in my life for 18 years. Not a single day

that doesn't say anything for me other than I don't get too busy

in what I call You're a Johnny OneNote. Well, Tom OneNote. Me, me, me, me, me and me.

I'm depressed.

No shit,

no Kleenex looks good.

You're thinking about a depressing subject.

You.

Think about somebody else.

Who should I think about how to help them.

That's what I do. How to help God's other kids, that's all. Remembering I'm the delivery boy, that's all he says. No thanks, see you later. Shake the dust from your feet and move on.

Don't carry no coat or baggage. Travel lately?

Well, don't you need this and need that? No, I thought I did. Don't you have to be prepared? Don't you have to understand the child within?

Understand what? Understand the child was in? I don't know. The only thing I know is every time I got drunk at a little bastard got drunk too.

We couldn't tell a difference.

I don't know.

I just don't know. It's OK, you know,

Do you have to go that way, Tom? And sure why

my sponsor introduced me to a loving God. My sponsor also had the honesty to tell me he had clay feet. He made that clear five times in the first three days to me.

He says ultimately your trust must come from a higher power for a God of your own understanding. For I have clay feet. I have an alcoholic like you. I've just been sober longer, that's all.

What an honest statement. No wonder I love the man. He told me the truth.

He's always told me I tried to, Connie. He knows that. He told me. He never said I was a liar. He's so gentle, he said. I suggest you get nearer to the truth.

God, is she polite?

And then he told me he's listened to me and he suggested that he was a more efficient liar than me.

So whatever honesty I developed early on in Alcoholics Anonymous, I would love to tell you I got as a pursuit of virtue, honesty. God, it sounds magnificent. Doesn't it be like shit though? The reason I got original honesty in AA was by default my sponsor was just a better liar than me.

So you just company

now? My sponsor told me to share honestly from this anywhere now when I tell you I was a failure as a businessman, a failure as a husband, I'm nuts. I'm full of guilty. It's a little late to try and impress you, ain't it?

Little late.

That's how we get honest default.

You know all about me. You never threw me out and some of you are so open minded. You said keep coming back and some of your little snotty you whispered under your breath a lot.

I kept coming back.

I think it's appropriate. I got to tell you, I studied 4 years of theology,

two years of philosophy. In fact, I was studying to be a Catholic priest. I thought if you're gonna love God, you may as well get into church. If you're gonna be in a church, might not get a good seat,

but God had other plans. And instead of finding a God of understanding in the sanctuary, I found in one of your church basements. God's got such humor, you know. There I am in the church basement.

Well, a bunch of you guys fill with smoke. What am I doing here? Getting sober,

it works. I don't know why it works. It's just magnificent. It just works.

I have never been so joyful in all of my life. I want to tell about how I was early directed in life. Get a good education, get a good job, marry a well slipped girl, buy a house in a good neighborhood,

have a couple kids, take up coffee, I'll eat something else. Retire already. Do what you want brother. Earlier I did all that shit right. Didn't work.

That's my report. Didn't work?

Come to you guys, one of you sarcastic guy, I said. What a little fun. You want to have a little fun? Get a sandbox and a new girlfriend.

I I just won't be happy. If you want to be happy, get somebody always agrees with you and you'll be together as long as you stay to each other.

How do you get a happiness that less?

And the truth tellers told me how, based on their experience,

do not pursue happiness, pursue joy.

A byproduct of joy is happiness

by product. You can't produce them pursue a by product. You must pursue the source, which is joy.

Wow,

all the philosophers never told me that, alcoholic. Every driver told me, you know,

and if you want to have fun passing on for free,

if you do it for free, it's fun. You can have it all. You can have joy, happiness and fun. If I pursue joy,

my next question,

how do you get chewy Help God's other kids?

What do you mean?

Tell them

what a street drunk you were and tell them about embezzlement, adultery, and things of that nature. And don't you duck it. Don't dirty it up, don't sanitize it

and tell them how far away you for were from God

and tell them how God never stopped loving you. You always lost consciousness of the truth because you are attracted by other things you done. That's something money, property and prestige.

There are not distractions. There are other attractions.

OK

tell

so they will see that if you can have a loving God in your life, a rotten son of a bitch like you, look how easy will be for a nice guy or a nice girl like them to have a guy in their life.

That's what you are to do.

The company is fired me hired me back when I was two years served and I stayed there another six years. A A helps me make decisions.

I had to practice these principles in all my affairs and I could not do it in the business atmosphere I was in. I didn't have a right to expose another man's business to my ideas.

So when I was 57 years old, I quit. I did not retire. I've been there 38 years.

Testosterone.

I quit and I started a new company in a kind of business I'd never been in before, and I used the 12 traditions to form the company.

Can you live in the real world on spiritual principle? Yes.

If you're willing to wear it loosely, yes,

loosely, very loosely. My age. I'm brittle. I can't be tight up that nothing. I'll crack

loose.

The business is going well.

And as Vicki says, I, I know her business. She, I go into her shop. Her business is beautiful. You see that shop? She's got

picture taking stuff. You know, this is a yeah, I'm thinking pictures. Anyway,

I go into her shop,

her business is doing well and she doesn't own that business no more than I do.

I do not own this business, nor do I own.

I had a lot of shit in my life. The people had stocks and I bought stock at IBM in 1958

and it really went wild and I had it all those years. I would love to tell you it was because I was a smart investor. I lost the damn stock certificate. That's really what happened. I was a long time ago. That's what happened.

That's what happened.

I do not own my own life. At the end of my drinking, one of the guys I went to school with, a big Irish doctor, Jack Sullivan,

he said to me, time you're going to die. They said the magic a a word soon. How long? Right, six months. Well, I drink three and it's, you know,

we are

soon and this big Irish guy, good doctor and a caring guy, had tears in his eyes. He's talking to me because he loved me

and I thought to myself,

this guy really cares and at least I could do is look concerned.

Had to say to myself how do you look concerned?

Were at the end of my drinking. Death was number threat. It was a relief.

My final solution was to abandon life. The life I have now. My old life has not been repaired. You have given me a new life.

I don't have recap tires

on my vehicle of life today. I have brand new tires that you have given me the right one

and I am to remember

my life does not belong to me. I am the trustee for it. But I bought money. I better pay it back.

If I tell you I want to meet you somewhere, I better be there.

Yes, these are things I have to do.

And as a result of that, I have more money than I need today. I don't know why. It's not my business most everything, but the most spiritual message I got for you to say is this. Mind your own business,

and I found out for me. Where's your business, Tom? Almost nothing. Wow, that don't take a whole lot of care, does it? Oh, my stop. There's my business,

almost nothing, but I tried down the freeway. Drive one car, the one you're in.

That's what we do

when I was served by first year. I'll shut up with this. We'll tell you sometime when I was served my first year. I have a sister to none that thinkers. Oh yeah, we're

so drunken and nine word odd couple. That's the truth, perhaps.

And I want She told me there was an old Spanish nun, Sister Malagra, who had prayed for me for 10 years to get sober. And Sister Malagra did not know my name. She knew me as Sister Sheilas, brother the drunk. That's how she knew me.

She pregnant, so I was. So my first year I went to Philadelphia to thank her and system of Labor was about 99 then. She'd been a nun since she was 18.

Talk about inside track.

Not even though she's playing and I want to thank her.

And she had a little young nun who spoke Spanish and English transfer.

I said, Sister, I'm here to thank you.

I've now been sober in Alcoholics Anonymous for one year and I've been told you've been praying for me for 10 years

and the two nuns start crying. Not a typical alcohol. What have I told you?

And

the young nun says, Sister Malaga says that you are not to thank her, rather she is to thank you.

What? Why is that?

Sister Malagra says to all the nuns she has been with all over the world have gone back to their Father in heaven and up until today Sister Malayra thought that God just forgot where she was.

And now

Sister Malika

knows that God not only knows where she is,

but He hears, still hears her prayers

for her sister Sheila's brother the drunk is sober by the grace of God and Alcoholics Anonymous. Thank you.