The Brentwood Beginners Workshop in Los Angeles, CA

Help me welcome tonight's speaker, a great friend from Sedona, AZ JS

Evening friends. My name is Jay Stennett and I'm an alcoholic

and God's doing for me today what I couldn't do for myself

because it's running on 730 on a

Thursday night and I haven't had anything to drink yet today, which is a very, very odd occurrence for an alcoholic in my variety.

I'd like to thank Dan for inviting me down and it's delightful to spend time with me and his wife and I'm. I'm always enjoy being surrounded by people that I had the great fortune to learn about this thing that we call Alcoholics Anonymous, listening to and seeing friends that I haven't seen in a while. I came to you on the second day of May in 1979 and although I found it necessary on a lot of occasions, I

haven't taken the front drinks, sniffed any glue or done any of those other things that I found to be so consoling. So I just want you to know that it is possible

to stay here a moment at a time.

If that be your story, it's great. And if it's not, no big deal. But this moment is the moment that we share. This is the moment that we're sober,

so I was living in my Pinto.

For the younger folks here, It was a Smart car that Ford made in the 70s for Alcoholics.

It's highly flammable, just like its occupant.

And I'd been arrested again. It was the third time in a nine week period I was, I was arrested for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. Now that was not special. I was always intoxicated. But and I, I got out of jail and my father was kind enough over a vodka rocks to say to me, do you think you have the disease?

And I looked at him and that still small voice inside of me said,

pay really close attention, he might pay for the lawyer.

So I said,

and he said, well, I got somebody I want you to talk to.

And so he said, you can stay with my mother. So I went to my grandmother's house and in El Segundo and two days later I met this guy at the Howard Johnson at Culver City. And he said, meet me there at 7:30 in the morning. Don't have anything to drink and don't smoke any of that crap either.

How did he know?

And I sat there and he started talking about himself and talking about himself and talking about himself. He had found his life. He met Alcoholics Anonymous and he, you know, and maybe he didn't have any problems anymore. And he's talking about himself and talking about himself and talking about him.

I just couldn't stand.

After about 25 minutes I realized he wasn't closing me

and so I figured I'll give him a prompt.

I said do I need psychiatric treatment? Do I require religion? I said do I need hospitalization? And he looked at me and he said, listen kid,

he said a hospital program will cost about 3 grand if you or your family can get a hold of $3000. My suggestion is is that you go out and drink that money up and when you're done, call Alcoholics Anonymous. They do it for fun and for free.

Now this

blew my mind and I

and then he got up

and he said if you want a A it's in the white pages of the phone book.

Good luck kid. Go after it the way you went after your drugs and your alcohol. And he left.

He didn't take me by the hand. Walk me into the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous. It's just like, if you want a kid, go find it. And I went home to my grandmothers house and I made myself a, a drink. It was a, it was a water glass full of Davies County Old Fashioned Kentucky bourbon with three ice cubes. And I knocked that puppy down and I called Alcoholics Anonymous

and that was the 2nd day of May in 1979.

Now it's interesting to me that that guy didn't take me to a meeting. He didn't bring me out and introduce me to you.

He talked to me in a language that I understood very direct and not very emotionally involved.

Later on, I found out that that man had 10 years of sobriety

at one point, and another point he had 15 years of sobriety. And the day that he and I had breakfast, he was not a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. And then it had not been for a couple years and he never came back to Alcoholics Anonymous. But that man saved

my life.

It's the message. It's not the messenger

and I ended up at a noon meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. I showed up there fashionably late and everybody in the meeting started talking at me.

Now I couldn't understand why they were talking at me, but when I'm busy, my fingernails are all about out to here.

My hair, when it's long, I kind of look like the Sphinx

and I had the sub Subs

because I hadn't had enough to drink yet.

And the third guy that talked was a guy by the name of Butcher Joe Joe Hacker.

He was a butcher named Hacker,

and you can always tell Butcher joke

and he talked about when the family left, how he cried the big crocodile tears. And inside he goes, yes,

now we can drink and there isn't anybody that's going to get in our way.

And I understood that.

And then he talked about knowing just how deeply to cut himself at work so they could stop and get him the drink that he needed on the way to the hospital.

And I understood that

and he looked right through to me and he said you don't ever have to feel the way that you feel about yourself ever again

if you're willing to do the things that have done.

And that's why I'm here from Sedona,

just to carry that message that you don't ever have to feel the way that you feel about yourself ever again. Now, I know that most of the folks here, we got a lot of time and all that great stuff. And, and my experience is, is that over the course of my sobriety, that there have been times that it has been a really important for me to acknowledge

that I felt really, really poorly about myself

because of other behaviors that were going on at one time or another in my life. And that I was able and graced to find groups of women and men who've had recovery in those areas. And so if you're sitting there and you got something that's kicking your ass and I don't care if it's food or porn or you know what, whatever the, you know, the, the, the problem du jour may be, you don't ever have to feel that way

about that problem ever again.

And

you know, it was very interesting to me. The only direction I ever got financially from my old man was you take 30% of what you got, you save it and 30% and you, you, you, you spend it on your rent and the other 30% you play with. And of course, he never did that.

I mean, money in my home was a source for violence

and

and yet I found a group called Men and Money that met Brentwood for a year and they talked about stuff like that. Really, really helpful. Really, really helpful. So anyway, I I'm at this meeting. This guy nails me.

And after the meeting, something remarkable happened. Something miraculous in in in my way of thinking.

There were four guys that were going down to the Strand. This was at the club in Manhattan Beach to play cards and watch girls go by on roller skates,

and

they invited the Newman along for entertainment.

And they explained to me everything that I needed to know about Alcoholics Anonymous,

that this is a A, but we don't use no dope here. I was horrified.

I didn't know that. And we had a that afternoon. I learned everything that I needed to know about Alcoholics Anonymous in that very first, first afternoon on the beach. And I started going to meetings and I came in on a Wednesday,

all day Wednesday, Thursday, went to the meeting Friday, Friday night at the old Manhattan Beach Club. It's not the old Manhattan Beach Club. It's just a club that was in Manhattan Beach and they had a dance. I don't know. I'm, I remember some of you from the dance at Hollywood and

that up at the Woman's Club. And anyway, so we had this dance and the, I walk in there and there are girls and they're like the women that are here tonight. Most of them had showers

and they're smiling and they're swinging their hips and I realize that I'm 24 years old and I'm never going to get laid again.

And I went back into the went back down into the Pinto that I've been living in, and I start driving to the stick and Stein

not to I'm not going to drink, mind you. I'm just going to find a woman who understands. And on the way, on the way, the miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous happened for me. The little voice inside of me said this is not a good idea.

Car around and I did

and I did and I went back and I grabbed the guy and I said talk program to me, please.

And this man stopped what he was doing, got somebody else to take the tickets, and got me a copy of the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

And

I went home that night and I started reading it

and I didn't understand it, but there were pieces that got my attention. And the main piece that got my attention was at the end of the story. And we agnostics the end of Chapter 4. And it's the story of fits. Male was the number three guy to come in in New York. There's a line in there and it says, who are you to say that there is no God?

I understood that and I understood what he did. He got down on his knees and he said a prayer and, and he had this incredible experience and he never drank again.

And so I did that. I got down on my knees and I, I said my prayer. And my prayer was, I don't know from Jesus or Buddha. I don't know the Talmud, the Torah, the Dupani shuts. Just please get me the top. I'll do whatever these dried up old geeks say to do. Just please help me.

And there wasn't any burning Bush, no white light.

But I didn't drink that day. And I believe at that moment I'd finished the first three steps of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous as a perfect prayer. I'm with you tonight.

The next day I'm withdrawing. I'm sweating on a not a hide couch, smoking and A and a woman walks through the clubhouse and she says, oh, young man, you're new, aren't you? How can you tell? She says, I can tell you the secret of Alcoholics Anonymous in four words. What are they?

Find God or die.

Oh, not that. Please. Oh please. Not that

35 years later, I can tell you the secret of Alcoholics Anonymous and four words

Find God and live. Live wondrously.

Live openly

and when I say God,

please don't hang on it, what it is that you might think it is that I'm saying.

All that I'm trying to do is use a short word to describe an experience that I've had in this thing called Alcoholics Anonymous.

I got a sponsor at that meeting. Why? Because I needed protection from people like that.

And,

and we started getting together and when I was 22 days sober, I did my first inventory.

Was it a fearless and thorough moral inventory using all four columns? No, it was the greatest hits.

You know what needs to be on that first inventory is the stuff that goes around and around and around and around in your mind.

If there's something deep and dark there, it will get in contact with you later. You don't have to wait for it.

Deal with what's there and present now. And I sat there and I a couple days later and I did it with my sponsor. We, we, we went through it. And when we were done, we burned it and set a couple silly prayers. And I was a fully vested member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

You know, he sent me out to start making amends. I had the first guy asked me to sponsor him when I was 28 days sober.

I called my sponsor up. I said what do I do?

He said. Jay,

if they're sick enough to ask you for help,

you can't hurt them.

That is my experience.

It's no big deal.

There's something that happens far greater than us when two of us are together for the purpose of sobriety. We don't have to worry about it. It's all on the job training. I mean, one of the great things, if you haven't read Doctor Bob and the good old timers just see what they used to do to each other in those days. I don't think any of us are that created

anyway. So, and so I launched off into this, this thing that we call

a, a, you know, this is rush season in Alcoholics Anonymous.

You know, rush season starts the the second Monday of November and it lasts through the Super Bowl

and,

and, and this is a marvelous, marvelous time of year if you'd be alcoholic.

Because each and every man and woman in here, there is a life whom you are designed to save.

And this weekend or next week may be the time that that person comes across your path.

If we're here and we're available for

one of one of the guys that taught me a lot about Alcoholics Anonymous, Eric Blour just passed away the other day. And

Eric taught me that if you have the, if you have the privilege of taking somebody to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, their first meeting, take them to the very best meeting that you can find.

So I used to call Norm, whose wife up and say, where is he talking? And we'd go drive wherever it was that Norm was talking that night after normality passed it. I used to really like the way that Jack Kissel talked about the disease of alcoholism. So we drive to wherever, we call Gene up and go wherever Jack was talking. But and then he said, and then tell your wife or your girlfriend, I'm going to be really busy

for the next week. And he said for the next, for that seven days,

go to the seven best meetings that you know of, Alcoholics Anonymous,

and take him and introduce him to the people that you admire at those groups.

And if you haven't tried that, it's a great way to pump up your holiday season.

It's a really fun thing working with others. You know, they're new, they don't know.

Just try stuff on them, see what happens.

Really.

Case in point, number year, I, I, I've got this really weird group that I was part of down in the South Bay, Los Angeles for years, the 11 step group. It's been going since 1948. They've just got a little experience and you know, the deal there was meditate with him from the gate from the very beginning. And so we started doing that. You know, somebody come over to my house, I'd force him to meditate.

If they call on the phone,

set the phone down for three minutes and meditate with me,

it's remarkable what can happen. It really changes the nature of the conversations.

And I mean, this is the fun thing about this as we go and we change and we work with others and we do different things.

Another fun experience I had regarding sponsorship

as about three years sober and these clowns weren't running around doing a, a, the way that I thought they should be doing it. So I thought, well, maybe there's something wrong with the way I'm hearing the message. I, you know, tried being their friends and I tried yelling at them and all this different stuff.

So what I did was I went out and I took for the men that I admired most, one of whom was my sponsor in those days, Fred Ellis, Fred E from Culver City, who used to sit right over there for years and years and years. And, and Jack Pros and

Ken O'Brien. And I took these guys to lunch separately and I said, what did your sponsor do with you?

And I took notes, found out what they did and, and I learned some things, you know, and, and, and so that's the other great thing about Alcoholics Anonymous is that we have this incredible body of experience. If we will just ask. And I mean, have you ever met anybody in a, a, that if you offer to buy him food and ask him a question about themselves, they'll sit there and talk for hours. It's really cheap entertainment. You know, if you buy him breakfast, it costs a little less than dinner. But anyway, you know.

It's a it's a great thing,

you know, with the body of experience that's that's here in this, this meeting. You know, the only thing that I can, I can really share honestly from my from, from the, the depth of me is, is that

dream deeply,

really

take the take the cover off

and allow whatever is to use you in whatever fashion and see what happens. I mean, it's really, really odd the, the amount of wonderful things that I mean, it's, I mean, it can be something as simple as, you know, every New Year's I ask myself, if you could do anything

in the world,

what would you do?

Because the only limitation that exists is in my mind,

there's infinite potential available for all of us

in a moment, in this moment.

And that more and more it's, it's, it's a thing of learning to

walk away from three dimensions and stay more and more in the fourth. And it's it's not hard to do.

Maybe a little harder in Brentwood,

but 24 years ago I turned my television off and I haven't had one since.

I stopped listening to good radio about 18 years ago, and the newspaper went about 15 years ago.

And so I'm never plagued with the things of, well, if I weighed 15 lbs less, if I drove this kind of car, if my wife looked like this,

I'm not plagued by that.

I'm plagued by, oh, I wonder what's available today.

I'm fortunate enough to have a job nowadays where I I work as a program director of the retreat house and, and three times a day. What I do is, is I literally get up, go out, sit down and ask that any idea I have of what is going on for it to be removed

so that the infinite potential can be available to me.

And it's bizarre what happened. I'm inflicting weirdness on all kinds of people. And it's just, I mean, I, I, well, you know, what do you mean by living in the, the 4th dimension and all that stuff? Well,

best example I can give you recently of my experience,

I get invited to talk at a gratitude dinner in Sedona, like Sedona. I, I, I actually grew up in, in, in Laguna. I went to high school in Laguna in the 60s and that the vibe there's very much the same. There's one road to get through town and all this stuff. And anyway, it said it's an interesting place. And, and so I'm talking at this meeting and as I get down,

the voice says very clearly to me,

move here now.

Now, the reason I meditate is to distinguish the voice from the voices, right?

And so I sit down next to my wife and I lean over to her and say I just got told to move here.

And she looks at me and giggles and says,

I knew that.

Now I've lived in the South Bay, Los Angeles and been active for 33 years at the time. I mean, I sponsored Bill CI mean it's it's bizarre. And the level of activity that that that I've that I've enjoyed being part of the sober community in Southern California never even occurred to me that I would leave.

But we came home, we thought about it, I went well. I've had every wonderful experience a sober man can have in Lai. Wonder what's next? And literally, we toss the keys to to a realtor and we headed to Sedona without script or purse. And I'd been underemployed here for a long, long time. And it wasn't. We were there

three weeks, and this

opportunity came by about working in a retreat house. Three weeks after that, we found a home right at the base of the largest feminine vortex in Sedona,

and I wonder where I'm supposed to be. And,

and it's been an amazing, amazing experience.

You know, small town AA.

I was a little wary, but then I remember that it's it was perfect the day before I moved there.

Very much like at my place of employment. If there is a conflict there, I know that everything is perfect there before I bring that conflict to work with me.

So,

umm, you know, I, I cannot tell you how much fun I have had in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. And also I've had all that, you know, I've, I've, I had the, the, the crash in the, with the first marriage and, you know, business problems here and there. But The thing is, is that that

that we have a gift here

that is beyond imagination.

I'd like to ask you just for a second to close your eyes.

Just take a breath

and to realize that 80 years ago,

alcoholism and drug addiction

was a death sentence.

There was nothing that could be done for

and then something happened

and we are all walking

the earth

as love.

Thank you.

Repeat the question. Absolutely,

yes.

So I have a question. You say that a boy smoke in your head and I told you to move to Sedona.

What do you attribute this voice? Is it God? Honest question. Yeah. The question is, you talked about a voice.

Was that God?

Um,

it was inspirational.

Now I would I use the G word a lot. I'm, I'm gifted to be. I'm best described in the book Alcoholics Anonymous as a strange chap with a queer idea of fun. And so

I've I'm a historian of the movement and I'm very familiar with William James and the varieties of religious Experience, although I think James would call it the varieties of spiritual experience.

I've had a number of experiences over the years,

and the most important thing about experience, as our friend Ward Ewing said a couple weeks ago, is that experience. Trump's explanation,

Experience, Trump's explanation.

Now I had an experience at the 2 + 2 meeting

in October of 1979

where the entire room left

and

and what came was feelings,

not words. And and maybe what I did was if

you know so that the sudden experiences happen too. But we all are heir to having a educational variety of experience each day that we don't drink.

The heart is warm, more useful than the mind.

And as you open your heart more and more using the tools that we're given here in Alcoholics Anonymous,

you can listen to your heart.

And so, yeah, I said a voice. A voice did it. And and it, that's exactly how I interpret it. But to your question whether it was God or not, I don't care. The thing is, is that my I, I went down a wormhole. That's just incredible. I mean, Sedona is a place that was created for people like me to end up in, you know?

So thank you very much.

Yes.

What do you like most about the?

The question is, what do you like most about the AA in Sedona?

You know, it's so much fun because my Home group, the Sedona Reflections group, we meet at 8:00 AM every Saturday morning at the little clubhouse on Stutz BearCat is as exciting as any of the home groups that I've had.

And the reason is, is that the mines are open. I think it's that the mines are open. I was there maybe a few weeks and,

you know, they're, they're the meetings are all literature based because it was a small community. And so they, they're each meeting, you know, focuses on literature And there was a woman sharing and she said something about her inner child. Now, most of the people in the meeting, I, I have kind of the team hair color and, and

anyway that it goes around the room. And there was not one person in that meeting of 50 people. Many of them have many, many years of sobriety that didn't speak to that woman's share and not one person derided in Sedona. Everybody's on a spiritual quest, and we're all delighted that everybody's on it, and nobody's insisting that it be one way or the other. Especially in fellowships.

Yes. How do you find the best way?

Thank you very much. The question is how do I find

the best way to get present there are to meditate? There are two that have been very helpful to me over there over the years.

Once a thing of having a word that I come back to every time the mind runs. One of the things that I think is most important is, is that

meditation, 3 minutes is a perfect meditation because you can always go back to it. For many years. I do stuff long and, and then when I fall off the bike, I, I, I wouldn't get back on because I couldn't 3 minutes. One of the things I did a number of years ago was I, when I said, well, what if I could do anything? What would it be, would be to help people learn to meditate. And so with my, one of my mentors, we sat down and we did a, a, a website. It's the #3

minutesofsilence.org and there's a dozen different ways to meditate. I always suggest you pray and meditate the way you drink and used. Just try stuff, see where you end up. You know,

and you know, and, and that the only wrong way to do it is not to do it.

So, so there's that. Another fun thing for just like if we were sitting here, is to use the old thing that the Cowboys and Indians did about tracking sound

and starting with the sound closest to you and then going to the sound as far away as you can carry it. That'll get you, that'll get you stretched out.

But the one that I enjoy most is called the awareness exercise.

And, and that's the thing where you start with your your feet,

you know, like your right foot

and,

and put all your attention on it and then move it to say your left elbow,

what happened to your right foot?

And whatever it is that's asking that question, that is the thing that we learn to find. And, and, and if you do that enough, and it's it's actually on that website as the awareness exercise. There's a little Dulcie, Dulcie Smith does a great little directed I

meditation on there, and

it's a way to be able to meditate while people are yelling at you.

You learn to use this faculty that we all have, but that we've never, ever to use.

Yes, Sir. Can you talk a little bit about some of the things that the early members of Alcoholics Anonymous and the founders did as their program before the book was published, like training for guidance, some of the literature that they used to pass around and read, some of the habits that they created early on? That's a long question, but

So what were some of the things that the early folks did? A great meditative practice was called

How to seek guidance. It's it's, it's actually on that same threeminutesofsilence.org and, and what they would do is, is that they would specifically sit down with a pencil and a piece of paper. That's a great thing for folks that say all my mind's too busy. Really.

Well, I'm not good at it. Do you think Bill and Bob were? I mean, those guys were toasted.

I mean, the stuff they drank and the pills Bob had at his disposal, Give me a break. These guys''s mind was as torched as any tweaker you're ever going to sponsor.

And one of the things that the Oxford Group did was is they would ask specifically for direction. So you put a piece of paper down, whatever the problem is, and you ask specifically for help with it. And then you sit there and you,

you just open your mind and the instruction is that you write down everything that comes across your mind. Good thoughts, bad thoughts, holy thoughts, unholy thoughts, all of it. You write it all down because in that record, there's going to be stuff that specifically,

if you do it today, we'll show you that there is a thread that's running through your life now again, then all this stuff that I'm talking about, I'm not saying that this is the truth, but I'm saying it's a really fun thing to try different stuff. I mean, what the heck, we're sober, What are we going to do, right? But you try doing that for about 30 days now. They called it how to listen to God, you know, and, and that makes people nervous. So if you change it to guidance and then you follow it, now

you know, and, and the Oxford Group used to say, now you need to check it. So you check it with another member. You know, the, the guidance that you got. I'm supposed to take the girl from the recovery house that's coming to the morning meeting to Las Vegas,

that kind of stuff. And, and so you either run it by another member or, or you, you say what it is, you know, does it, how does it square with spiritual literature that you know? And how does it, how does it square with your duties to your family, your friends and, and, and your community?

Yes

the experience with the immense thank you and thank you the first woman that asked a question Thank God

something direct.

My favorite men's story is my grandmother Alice. Now Alice taught me out of 10 bar, I just stole a little money from her. And,

and so when I was about 3 months sober, I went and visited her and I brought her some money and I said, grandmother, here's some money and I owe you this much and God and Alcoholics Anonymous for helping me to stay sober. And she took the money and she said, what did you say? I said, well, God has helped me to stay sober. And she got up and she got her purse. She started leaving. I was prepared for a long talk.

I said, where are you going? She said. I don't know, she said. About four or five years ago

you said that you didn't believe in God anymore.

And she said, I went down and I put you on a list at the church and me and the girls have been praying for you. And she said I need to go down and report to them that my grandson has been restored

spiritual terrorism.

It's highly effective.

Now we're in the postmodern era, right? You know a lot of folks aren't churched. No big deal. Spiritual terrorism. 1O2

Because everybody in here knows somebody that's got a problem,

and when you walk into the room and you see an empty chair, just walk up and tap the chair and say that person's name.

Get three or four of your friends to do it.

In 1985, my then wife Jacqueline got sober. Is one of the most wonderful things that ever happened in my life.

And when she got sober at the moment of meditation at the end of the meeting, we thought of three people.

Her best childhood friend, our buddy Jeannie, who worked for Hefner's Enterprises and was a cocktail waitress, and a lot of you guys know, and my sister Regina, who was missing in action with her self-employed Colombian boyfriend.

Within a year, all three of them got sober.

And the two that got sober and Alcoholics Anonymous are consecutively sober today.

Get some friends and do it.

Just make an experiment, but don't give up to see what happens.

Yes

I'm sorry

from my

oh what did I learn from normality? I'm a door slider

nor Malfi was one of the great, great speakers and Alcoholics Anonymous. And and what what he taught me was is that

that laughter. He, what he, he had a line that said

he talked about, he, he, he, he talked about the hay shakers, the guys from Bell Gardens, the guys that were working out in the fields and that they were sitting down in the front of the room

and they were identifying and they were crying. And he said, he said the, and he said, we laugh out our pain and we cry through our joy. And this is the miracle that we call Alcoholics Anonymous and be my favorite.

Yes, Sir,

welcome

and the voice of God and all these little yes.

How many days without a drink?

OK, 22 months.

The wormhole.

Oh, I'm sorry. You talked about wormholes. You talked about the voice of God, you talked about all this spiritual crap. Can you give me something to do practically to enlarge my spiritual life?

OK. That was the question.

Um,

the miracle has already happened. Now whether the word miracle means anything or not is pointless.

The truth is, is that any woman or man that's in here that hasn't had a drink for 13 days, 18 days, 20 days, something beyond belief has happened. The impossible became possible. You're not loaded.

I'm not loaded. Every person in here hopefully is not loaded or is somewhere along the continuum of not being loaded.

That is the simple thing. Now, given the point of emotional pain that I am in at any given day,

especially at 22 months, because what's happened is, is that I used to be able to come to these meetings and I feel better when I left and now I don't. Why is that?

Well,

Alcoholics Anonymous gives to us,

but then we have to become the giver.

The most practical thing that I can tell you, especially at this time of year, is to make sure that you come to the Marine a little early and you look outside the meeting for a guy that looks like you feel,

or more importantly, looks like you used to feel before you got 22 months. And you walk up to him and you say, hey, how you doing?

Do you come here regularly?

This is one of my regular meetings. I haven't had the privilege of meeting you. Not are you new? But hey, I haven't had the privilege of meeting you. It fills up in here. Do you got a seat?

You don't have to know anything.

The most important thing that first couple weeks was wasn't the spiritual things. It wasn't that I got to listen to Chuck Chamberlain or find out about wormholes or any of that stuff. The most important thing that happened is is I was the recipient of kindness and compassion,

and that is the miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous. The most, the most spiritual thing that any person can do

is to stick their hand out

and say welcome,

yes, thank you,

yes.

What do you think, first line, if you decide to do that and why did you decide to stay with it? Why would anybody? The question is why would anybody turn off their television?

And then why did you stick with it?

Well,

what happened is, is my first marriage dissolved

and when I left my my family, my wife and I had a 5 year old daughter

and I knew that I would not be the custodial parent. I would be with her frequently and I was fortunate to have her every weekend

for eight years after that. And

I knew that if there was a television in the house

that it would be something that we could go to,

that we wouldn't be engaged. And I wanted to make sure that I was available to be engaged with.

But in that what happened is, is that after a time, because I do this weird meditation practice, which again, just try the stuff, you know, you don't have to believe anything. Just try stuff and whatever intellectually works for you. Cool. Doesn't doesn't matter. Sins of Commission, not omission.

But but what I found is, is that I got happier and happier. And I realized it was because I wasn't listening to people tell me

what it was I was supposed to be thinking and feeling. And I started to pay more and more attention to what is in front of me, who is in front of me. This is what my day is to be.

The person at the grocery store is what's supposed to be there. Now they've even got screens telling me what to buy or what, you know, things I need to be inoculated against,

you know, instead of being engaged with my fellow people.

So my, my, my purpose is, is to open myself further and further to being engaged with folks. And it's great.

It's great. I go home to the woman that I want to go home with more than any in the world. My life is is an absolute dream because I'm being focused on what is and not what I'm being told.

Thank you.