The topic of Spirituality in Relationships at the 16th annual Thailand Roundup in Pattaya, Thailand

My name is Jay and I'm an alcoholic and God's doing for me today what I couldn't do for myself because it's, you know, it's almost noon. I'm in Pattaya. I'm not, I'm still not drinking all weekend long. No, drinking in Pattaya. Isn't that weird? I mean, is it? Most people don't not drink when they're here, correct? Especially Americans, especially like middle-aged Americans,

Males. I mean, they, they, they don't not drink in pots here, right? I mean,

I was, I was speaking at a meeting a few weeks ago and it was a large African American and Latino group. And I got up and I said, you know, oh, it's another middle-aged white guy. I hope he, you know, ends on time and he doesn't yell too much. And

one of the kids yelled it back at me. Said as if you're middle-aged old man.

Ah, so anyway,

I came to Alcoholics Anonymous. I've been living in my car and I'm unable to. I'm kind of like a cat. You know how when a cat gets sick, it just kind of moves away? It doesn't want anybody to see it, to be around it. I don't want to be around anybody who loves me, anybody who knows me, because I know that it's bad. It's been getting worse

and it's not going to get better and I can't control it. And I don't have any idea what's wrong with me. I think what I'm, I am is a, I'm a moral weakling. I'm a bad guy getting what I deserve because I've violated the trust anybody that's ever put any to me. And I cannot for the life of me figure out why it is that, you know, I mean, for all my family's weirdness, they gave me a, you know, they, they, they got me to school, they fed me. They they, they introduced me to God as they understood God.

Slow down, Jay.

They understood me. They introduced me to God as they understood God. They taught me table manners

and I can't. I can't get it. I can't take care of myself anymore. I can't keep a job. My last job I was washing dishes at the Tiktok restaurant.

It was on a on an off ramp off 5 and they fired me an hour and a half into the job

and they gave me $5.35 and that was enough that I could go and get 2 packs of cigarettes

and a quarter gin and I was really, really happy about that.

I was really happy about that.

I'm the kind of alcoholic that I get a little money together. The last, the last motel I stayed in, I, I, I hawked my clothes and, and my, and, and, and all the possessions that I had that I said, I'll, you know, I'll, I'll get them back for you. Give me a room for a couple nights. They said okay. And I got a job and I steal a little money out of the till. I got a $20 bill. I I, I, I go into the liquor store at 6:00 in the morning.

I get a case of beer. I get a quart of gin.

I get a carton of cigarettes.

I haven't eaten in a couple days, so I get a, I get a I get a loaf of bread

and I get an 8 pack of Bologna. You don't want to get a 20 pack of Bologna. And I and I get a, a cube of butter

and I set it on the counter and it comes to $20.15.

And I give the guy the butter

and he gives me the look

and he gives me the butter back.

You know, I wasn't going to give him a beer.

I wasn't going to give him cigarettes.

He gives me the butter and go. All right on, bro,

absolutely clueless to the fact that I'm powerless over alcohol, that my life has become unmanageable and I don't know what's going on. So I end up in AAI end up at this a a meeting. These people are, are, are and and I identify at that first meeting and I came in on a Friday or Wednesday and I told you I almost drank on Friday

and Friday night. I say this prayer, you know, I say my prayer and my prayer was, you know, I don't know, from Jesus or Buddha. I don't know the Talmud, the Upanishads. Just please get me the top.

I'll do whatever these dried up old geeks say to do. Just please help me not to drink

prayer, perfect prayer said from the bottom of my heart.

So I'm still not sleeping, sweating and smoking. There aren't any morning meetings. Meetings don't start till noon. So I show up. 10:00 the Alano club opened and I get I go vibrating in and I'm sitting on the Naugahyde couch smoking, you know, waiting for the meeting. And this woman comes through, Marie Sharp, a bun in her hair,

black dress, support hose, correct shoes.

She comes in, she says, oh, young man, you're new, aren't you?

She said. I can tell you the secret of Alcoholics Anonymous in four words. Ah, what are they? Find God or die.

Not that,

not that. Not anything but that.

31 years later,

I can tell you the secret Alcoholics Anonymous in four words.

Find God

and live.

Find God and live. And again, when I say God,

what I'm talking about is something that I've experienced in Alcoholics Anonymous, and you can use all kinds of words to describe it. You can use good.

You can use love,

truth,

compassion, all these things

and you'll find your own words, you'll find your own description. If what happens is is that you go through these spiritual exercises, which what are, what the steps are? They're, they're a, a set of exercises which will produce a result just like all exercises do, but you need to actually do them as opposed to agree with them.

Now there's a lot of folks that,

excuse me, I'd like to, I'd like to read you a little something.

One of the things, if you, if you haven't figured out is I'm a, I'm a history buff and I'm very interested in where Alcoholics Anonymous comes from and, and our and, and the like in it. I'd like to share with our, our Thai friends that one of the Centers for Alcoholics Anonymous was in the central part of the United States in the, in, in Ohio.

And it's a, it's a very conservative area. People are not likely to try new things. And the folks that were that were involved in a a were just a bunch of white guys that had the consciousness of that era.

And in those days, most of the people that came into Alcoholics Anonymous had been trained in Christian churches.

There are people

who would tell us that they think Alcoholics Anonymous would be more successful if it's stuck to its Christian roots. They say that

if you went back to Doctor Bob and those guys and you took a look at what they did that they would be telling you that you had to go along with this Christian thing that they were they were involved in.

But if you take a look at what actually was going on in Akron

in the late 30s and the early 40s, Doctor Bob, one of the cofounders of Alcoholics Anonymous, and his friends got together because they thought the big book was written at too high an educational level for the working guys that were in Akron. And they put together 5 pamphlets. They called them can openers because that's what you use to open a beer was can opener

and it was a way to open somebody'd mind. And they had these five pamphlets and you can still get them at the Akron Central office. And one of them is called Spiritual Milestones in Alcoholics Anonymous. And if you read this pamphlet and you start out in the front, what you get is a lot of Christian stuff.

Again, the experience of the men and women of the time. But when you get towards the end where they're bringing it all together, where they're, they're closing. This is what Bob and his friends wrote about. There was a there was. Well, anyway,

the spiritual life is by number means a Christian monopoly.

There is not an ethical religion in the world today that does not teach to a great extent the principles of love, charity and goodwill.

Followers of Muhammad are taught to help the poor, give shelter to the homeless and the traveler, and conduct themselves with dignity.

And then they write 1941 Middle America.

Consider the eight part program laid down in Buddhism right view, right aim, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindedness, and right contemplation. The Buddhist philosophy as exemplified by these eight points could be literally adopted by a A

as a substitute

four or an addition to the 12 steps.

Generosity, universal love and welfare of others rather than considerations of

are basic to Buddhism.

Smile at them and say that's wonderful for you, but know that it has no historical context

within this movement that we call Alcoholics.

The people who founded this were very, very clear that they wanted the doors open for everyone. What about atheists? This is a a we let anybody in.

What about agnostics? We let anybody in, but you got to do the stuff. We don't care. See, the great thing about these spiritual

exercises is

you don't have to do anything as far as defining stuff. You just have to do it,

and no one in Alcoholics Anonymous will tell you what kind of expression of the higher power you have to find.

But you must find one.

You must find one.

So just a little little history stuff for you. So what happens to a weirdo like me who gets terrorized by this woman who says find God or die? Well, I went and got a sponsor and I started working the steps and I described, you know, getting, I'm starting to work with others and I'm starting to make amends and all that stuff. And and then I I got involved.

Now I believe that the reason that God created women is so that men would learn

to prey. Honestly,

there are a couple of different schools of thought. This is not duality. I'm teaching but but anyway in Alcoholics Anonymous one. What is that? Don't get in a relationship from your first year

now anybody who gives you that advice, ask them if they followed it #1.

And then there's another group that was championed by our friend Serenity Sam and, and Sam said, get in a relationship before you leave the meeting today

because that'll make you work the steps, dude.

And my experiences along those lines, I was about 3 1/2 months sober and I'm, I'm 10 in bar and I meet this creature and we're having a good time. And, and then after we've been dating for a few weeks, she decides she wants what I have. And so I bring her into Alcoholics Anonymous and I take her around and I start to introduce her to people, you know, and showing her where to sit and introduce her to all the old timers, you know. And I'm not involved with a newcomer because of course we were involved before I came into before she came into Alcoholics.

I'm just helping her over the fence and,

and, and anyway, so we're we're going along and she moves her husband out and gives me the keys to the vet and I think that God's will is just fabulous.

And, and anyway, after about six months, she leaves me

for another woman

and brings her to the meetings and introduces her to the old timers and shows her waiters it and on and on and on. And so I learn about having to cruise the parking lot before you know whether you can go into the meeting or not.

I, I know this never happens here.

And, and, and, and so I'm, I'm, I'm broken hearted and I'm sitting outside the Alano Club smoking, twitching, and there's Irish Dan. Now how can you get sober without Irish Dan? You know, you, we've all got somebody like that. And so I give him this tale of wool

and he looks at me and he says, let's your prayer life like, kid,

didn't you hear what I said?

He says, no, what's your, what's your prayer life like? And I say, well, OK, I'm, I'm doing the AA thing. I'm I'm getting down on my knees in the morning and I'm being taught that prayer needs to be personal and it needs to be honest.

So I'm saying an honest personal prayer. And that was

help.

And then when I get home at night, I'm supposed to express my gratitude for a day of sobriety. And I'm going, thanks.

31 years later, the expression of is still the same. There may be a lot of other syllables hung on it and the like, but but it's, it's this, this same. And and then I'm saying a prayer at the meeting. And he says, OK, kid, we are going to ramp your prayer life up immensely.

He said, you got a job, kid, right? Yeah, right. He said, I want you and you go to work the same way because you're an alcoholic meal no matter what. Yeah. And he said you come home in the same route. Yeah. How did he know? And, and he said, what I want you to do is I want you to pick a spot

on your way to work and this will be a God spot.

And when you hit the God spot, what you do is you say hi,

he said. You need to get out of this relationship that you've had drinking or when you we need to give you, we need to get you into this thing. We call conscious contact

and all conscious contact is, is it's opening my mind up and seeing what's here.

It's as and it's high. It's establishing a relationship. And in the beginning, just high is fine. But if you say hi to somebody, it doesn't end there. Usually there's something else that goes on and and once I start doing that, what would happen is I think about somebody at the meeting that maybe was having some trouble

and I'd consider their problems and I'd kind of give it to this God. And in those days, I called it coach

because it was a different the, the, the higher power that was in the car with me was different than the higher power that I was used to.

It was it was a new relationship. It was a new kind of consciousness. And at first it was a friendship.

In fact,

that friendship is deep into now what it is, is that I, I love the Persian poet Rumi. And Rumi speaks many times about the higher power. And when describing the higher power, he describes it as the beloved.

And and that's how things can change.

So anyway, I got the, I got the God spot and I'm I'm, I'm driving by it. So now I'm praying twice more. I've got almost 100% more conscious contact going a day. Then he says, OK, kid, now you got a job, right? Yeah, I got a job. He says, you have a little trouble at work, don't you? How did he know? I'm tending bar in those days and sometimes things would get a little dicey. I'm not talking about

about drinking particularly, my sponsor said when I went to work at the bar, he said.

It's just like working in a gun store, kid. You don't pick the product up and put it in your mouth and pull the trigger.

Makes perfect sense to me

anyway. So I'm a

he. But he said at the bar, he said, find a place that you can go, that you and the higher power know that you're praying.

So for me, it was the Galliano bottle.

If I put my hand on the Galliano bottle, the big guy and I knew both knew that I needed backup

and I was reaching out. I was making contact consciously.

Later on, he says to me. A smoke kid, right? Yeah, yeah, a lot.

Excuse me, he says. We're going to make you the most spiritual guy in the meeting.

Wow, how do we do that? He said. What I want you to do is I want you to write HP,

not for Hewlett-Packard. Higher power on your cigarette pack and every time that you go out to have a cigarette, invite the higher power out to have a smoke with you.

Conscious contact

Now one of the ways I love to terrorize new people. As I say, I have a relationship with Jesus

and I said the Jesus that I know man, his favorite thing to do is go burn one with a new guy. So invite Jesus to go have a cigarette with you after the meeting. It doesn't matter,

you know? I mean,

we're in Alcoholics Anonymous.

We don't have to worry anymore.

We've been raised from the dead.

We don't have to get caught up in

talking about concepts.

What we need to get caught up in is this moment

and realizing

that now it's fine, now it's safe and this is what we have to offer new people is that we're an alcoholic synonymous. It's safe here and you don't have to drink anymore.

And that there is a power and that it's accessible. And how is it accessible? Just this real simple stuff. I mean, most folks, they want to, you know, and I'm just, this is just my story about building a relationship

one thing at a time, one thing at a time. First at home, then on drives to work, then you know, at and then at home starting to change the relationship and having a normal place where the higher power and I get together to hang out.

One of the most wonderful exercises that that I I did was for a number of years I would pour a cup of coffee because I believe in the conscious part of conscious contact. I have a cup of I used to have double espresso before I sat down to meditate. Don't want to fall asleep?

Umm and and I'd make a cup of coffee for the higher power

and invite it to come and sit if you're having trouble. If you're in a crisis,

go get a beverage. Doesn't matter what it is

for yourself, Get one for the higher power. Go sit in the backyard, Go sit anyplace that you're comfortable and just sit for a moment. But make that, that, that effort

and, and, and, and it's a, it's a, it's a marvelous, marvelous thing.

I, I mentioned yesterday about the fact that my, my first marriage dissolved and, and it, and it ended when I was 13 years sober. At the time, I was sober man,

armed with steps, concepts and traditions, able to transcend anything.

They have a drinking problem? Give them to me. I will teach them how to work the steps correctly, get them involved in the proper service. We'll go off into the sun. And it was my had a great, great experience in Alcoholics Anonymous during those years.

But my wife, Jacqueline

and she, she gave me the dignity of being able to tell this part of our story.

Um, we were not able to find a life together that worked.

And we were together for almost almost 12 years. And

she was raised by a mother who there was never a male in the house ever, except sleepovers occasionally. And I mean, you know how weird males are. Can you imagine never being exposed to them at all and then suddenly living with one?

And, and it was such a an experience that even after we had a child and she was sober and we both had sponsors and both were working with others and stuff, we just couldn't create

the kind of love

that

that either of us deserve.

And so the great thing is because we were both sober and Alcoholics Anonymous, we were able to look each other in the eye and take responsibility for it. Somebody didn't have to go get involved with somebody else or go spend the money or do whatever to cause the crisis so that we could break apart. It could be somebody else's fault. We are able to look each other across the table. And but part of the thing was is that we were unable to

create a a spiritual life together.

And so when I went shopping for Sober Wife version 2.0,

you know, there were certain things that I was looking for that I wanted, I, I wanted to identify. I didn't just want to walk into the meeting waiting to get attracted to somebody again, because I knew what that was like. And,

and when I approached Adele, one of the things that I wanted to do was I wanted to build a spiritual life

to support

our intimacy.

And we prayed, meditated together before we started having sex. And it totally changed the way that our, our entire relationship evolved. And so, you know, if you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, there are different things to try. And, and, and our getting involved together was a wonderful thing because as a young male, I was just taught to go straight for the, for the,

for the, the prize

going to be very Clinton esque here, you know. Yeah, I never had sex, you know, I only wanted sex with those people. There were all kinds of other things, all kinds of other expressions of love and affection, which I was not familiar with because I had never been present for it.

And sober with a sober partner, I could do that. And what happened is, is that I have AI have a life with my wife that is amazing in its expressions. And and I believe that the main thing that it comes from is this spiritual life that we developed together. And how did that happen? Well, we got together. I was still kind of sober man. So I said, darling, you know, we want to pray and meditate together. So let's do this. And we we got together in the morning and I read a couple of things and we said a couple of

person. We did that for about four days. And the 5th day she looked at me and she said, you know, this isn't really getting it for me. And what I heard her say was, I don't like the way you kiss.

And so I said, well, OK, darling, we'll do whatever you want. You go ahead and and start. And so she came up with a format that she liked. And so we did that the next morning. And when we were done, I waited a respectful amount of time. And then I started to tell her where she was in air and,

and This is why sponsors are so great. I mean, you know, I, I just, if you're going to be involved with a biped, I really suggest they have sponsors

because they take all the heat, you know, before

her sponsor is getting an earful. When I finally like the 10th step kind of kicks in and I go, that was really kind of lame. I better call her up and apologize. And I did. And the next morning we got up and we started doing this thing together and we've done it literally every morning for for 17 years now.

And what it is, is it's a way to really establish a relationship beyond

thought.

And So what I wanted want to do many times I'm fortunate enough that my my wife is here with me when

when I do these things and she's not here. But her response, he Rose is. And it's one thing to talk about it. But what I want to do is I want to show you what it is that Adele and I have done for years. And it's a very simple practice. And it's a marvelous thing that that that maybe if you're working with others that you might be able to suggest to them are the like, but something that's worked well for me and that all the people that I know that have applied it in their lives,

it has changed the nature of their relationship. So Rose, who my wife sponsors, is going to come up and play my wife.

This is Rose, everybody.

And So what we do in the morning is we we get up and I look at her.

I am so lucky

I got the girl, you know, I mean, it's a great thing and but I always put my hand on her and we'll meditate

now. I bring greetings from. I got the.

Sorry.

Thank you so much.

Is it on? Yeah. OK. I bring you greetings from the 11th Step Group in Manhattan Beach, CA. The meetings been going for 56 years. We got a little experience. And what we've learned over the years is that 3 minutes will change your life.

And, and again, you know, I know that it's not true here in Asia, but in like all kinds of parts of the, the planet, people actually think that the meditation part of a A is extra credit, that it doesn't have to be done.

Is there any part of the steps that we can skip?

I mean, like I like to say the whole not drinking thing, I wasn't good at that either, but I was able to get through it.

And,

and so anyway, this is a So what we do is we found that if you just sit for three minutes and your mind can be running the whole time,

but that something happens and you can be 3 minutes late to anything. So what I'd like to invite you to do is just, we're going to, we're going to sit together for three minutes. I'm going to show you exactly what Adele and I do. And then I'll show you how it is that we, we get out. So if you'd be kind enough to just take a deep breath,

blow it out,

think about how you want me killed later, slowly,

and,

and so we'll start.

Thank you.

And then when we finish, what we do is we take a reading and we share it together.

And when we started, we started with the Saint Francis part.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair,

Where there is darkness, light, Where there is sadness, joy. Oh, Divine Master, grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to be consoled,

to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we die. Eternal life,

thank you. And in doing that, none of us should kiss her.

Thank you. And, and in doing that, what happens is, is that we get the marching orders for the day.

We remember how to treat each other. We remember that this is my best friend, the person who wants more for me than I dare want for myself.

But it takes time.

Spiritual intimacy, it's really funny. Physical intimacy is the easiest and and, and emotional intimacy is a little bit more difficult. Spiritual intimacy seems to be the most difficult, but it is the most rewarding. It is the most joyful. And thank you so much.

OK, I just wanted to say that that was one of Adele's first directions to me when I started working with her. So my husband and I have been doing this too, for the three years that we've been married. And he's not even in program. So it's it's a gift. So thanks,

thank you. And we really do inflict this stuff on all of our sponsees,

truly,

because we don't get any mild cases of alcoholism in our home,

you know, and we only have a spiritual solution.

That's all that we've got here.

We can play that. It's a lot of other things, but but if you read the literature and follow the direction, you know, again, it doesn't matter what we call it.

But spirit is one of the people that I enjoy the most is a writer by the name of CS Lewis. He wrote a book called The Screw Tape Letters, which is my personal favorite book on sponsorship. He was not an alcoholic, but the setup of the book is. Screw Tape is a major demon and his nephew Wormwood has been given his first human soul to corrupt.

And so the letters are from Screw Tape to Wormwood talking about keeping hit the patient

away from the enemy, which God has always referred to as the enemy.

And it talks about different ways of keeping people away from a relationship with a higher power, things like

that. The only place your patient and the and the enemy can find each other is in the present moment is in the noun. So what you always want to do if you want to keep your patient from God is get him either in the future or in the past,

Get him to think about his mother, stuff like that. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a marvelous, marvelous book.

The last thing that I want to mention to you about this building a relationship

with the higher power is again, that it's experiential. There's no wrong way to do it. Pray. And you know, people are afraid to to launch out because all I don't want to do it wrong.

Well, pray and meditate the way you drank and used. Just try stuff in combination, see what happens.

I don't know.

I guarantee you, you'll end up with some much more interesting creatures.

And,

and, and in this there is no the only caveat is again, that if you meet people that say that Alcoholics Anonymous is a lower spiritual path, just agree with them because they're not alcoholic. They don't know and it's not up to us to convince them, but we do everything all the time that's recommended.

One of the things that

Bill Wilson

had a grand time with was talking about all the other Co founders of a A

He always talked about the fact that it wasn't just Bob and I that there were people like you, people like Sam Shoemaker and people like William James that he that that he considered to be Co founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. And if you read the Appendix 2 in the back of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, the Appendix on the spiritual experience, he uses James's definition of a couple different types of spiritual experience.

There's the sudden one, which Bill had a kind of overwhelming thing, and then there's the experiential one that is lived into. In the book Varieties of Religious Experience, James talks about the the educational variety as being the same thing as an athlete that practices and practices and practices in the game just seems to play through him.

Or a musician that practices and practices and practices and then you go to see him in concert in the music just seems to flow through them. And that is something that that if you follow these things like not drinking,

going to meetings establish, you know, asking the higher power to go have a smoke with you if you're not working with anybody sincerely, going out and having a smoker, a cup of coffee and looking up at a tree that you like and saying, you know, big guy, I'd really like to help another drunk.

Would you please send one to my way?

And I guarantee that you that if you do that

on a regular basis that they'll show up. They will show up when I start to sponsor people. Now, one of the things I do when they ask me, you know, will you sponsor me? Well, OK, Are you willing to go to any lengths to not drink for victory over alcohol? And they all, you know, Oh, yeah. OK. They don't understand what I'm asking, but that's fine. And then I say, are you willing to take another person through the process?

And they say yes. And then one of the things that I've always found

very helpful is, is that the sober friend is more important than the sponsor because somebody will tell the truth to their sober friend along before they will do the sponsor. And also that if you have two guys that you're working with at the same time, that they have a common enemy. Me

and I would like to suggest this to any of you just again try it, just see what happens. But when you get And So what I do then is I say OK, now we're going to pray. And they look at me like I've got 3 heads

and I say, and we're going to ask the higher power to send us another drunk

so that you and this other man can watch each other go through the process and you just won't think this is about yourself.

And we get down on our knees and we ask God to send us another alcoholic

and they show up. Sometimes it's frightening. You know, I had a guy show up at my house one time. He was 18 years sober and he he'd been on hiatus from Alcoholics Anonymous for a while. He was dry as a, he was a fire hazard. He was so dry and,

you know, and so I said, OK, you know, you know, you've got 18 years, but you ain't been working with it. Let's pray for somebody. We went to the meeting

and a guy sat down between us

and turned around and asked me to sponsor him and I looked at him and I said what do you think? What do you think? See, the thing about prayer is not so much in manifesting anything, but it's just being able to pay attention to your life.

Like I talked about yesterday, we all know people that are suffering. If you tap the chair when you go to the meeting, you know it. I, and I hope you heard that it was 2 1/2 years that we were a year and a half that we were doing that before these people changed. But I mean, they changed, but we were paying attention. We were paying attention. And that's what prayer does. Is it it? It allows me to to pay attention to my life in ways that that that

that I couldn't before.

All the spiritual stuff is great,

but it ain't worth it.

Adorn

if it, if there isn't something practical to it,

if it isn't something that's transmittable, if it isn't something that's helpful. And,

and so the 12th step is what this whole thing is about. We'd be as spiritual as we like. But unless I'm engaged in the action, so I'd like to ask you one more time. I would like you to do 2 things.

I want you to just close your eyes again

and take a really deep breath,

maybe move your neck around a little bit. You've been sitting for quite a while. This thing's almost over,

and I want you to please

think about

the place that you came into Alcoholics Anonymous,

That first meeting.

Where was it?

What did it smell like?

Who is there?

How did they greet you?

How did they treat you

and what about your sponsor?

The sacrifices his family made,

she made

to spend time with you.

And their friends

and how they brought you into Alcoholics Anonymous.

See, for me it was it was, it was Butcher Joe

and it was China Joe and it was Smiling Pete and it was Joyce Rolfson and Kathy Davis and and and Frank Duffry. Scream and work the steps or die.

And they were there and they were open and they were available

and they had a solution

and they were willing to share it.

This is the great gift

that we have.

We have the ability to do something that no one

in the history of the disease of alcoholism was able to do. In the past 75 years we have gone from two people to over 3 million

just in Alcoholics monuments.

But it is only there

if you are.

Alcoholics Anonymous is 12 steps

and the process is never experienced until one has taken another person through the process and then watch them take someone else through it.

Don't cheat yourself if you haven't done it. Ask the power.

Show up early,

be available,

and remember it is never our intellectual understanding of the program.

It is kindness, it is love. It is charity,

it is goodwill and have a really good time with it. Thank you.