May Article Online
|
Editor's Note
Dear Reader,
"I have a disease that wants me alone and dead," a woman in my home group used to
say. I was only a few weeks sober the fi rst time I heard her, but I knew what she meant. She
was talking about the loneliness that pierces the soul of the alcoholic and the compulsion
to shut out other people, convinced, as only an alcoholic can be, that being alone and
getting drunk will quell the pain. Her statement was stark and threatening. It also gave me
hope. It assured me that others had felt the same drunken desolation I had, and that they
had found a way out.
From the
AudioGrapevine...
Listen to the Editor's Note
on the AudioGrapevine[MP3, 1MB]
The stories in this issue offer similar comfort and hope -- along with solutions. After writing openly and honestly about the despair he felt when his wife fled their alcoholic
marriage, the author of "Sentenced to Loneliness" is just as straightforward about his struggle in sobriety "to accept things the way they are and
not the way I would like them to be." He is still in pain, but has AA tools to deal with it. Describing the peace he found after making amends to his
once-terrifying father, the author of "Addressing the Wound" is both practical and grateful. His father still "said and did hateful things. But we
were changed men," he recalls. "We were family . . . . Forgiveness healed my soul." Stories like these
help me understand the profound spiritual change that amends can bring. As the Eighth Step essay in the "Twelve and Twelve" promises: "It is the beginning of the
end of isolation."
This issue also celebrates the March 2008 release of the Third Edition of the Spanish-language Big Book. This new edition offers a total of 47 stories,
including 32 brand-new ones reflecting the growing number of women and young people in Spanish-speaking
AA groups. "Sentenced to Loneliness" is a sample of the book translated into English for Grapevine readers. It's a clear reminder that wherever AAs hail from,
we can solve our common problem and help others with the extraordinary solution found in AA.
In fellowship,
The Editor
 Tell a friend about this page
|
