My home group usually seizes up if there’s a whole 45 seconds of silence between shares.

The entire trip was turning into a disaster.

The AA program only suggests that newcomers attempt to begin to conceive of a power greater than themselves, in their own individual terms.

When I finally entered the rooms of AA in earnest, I read the Steps over and over. Early in recovery, I attended a meeting focused on Step Eleven.

Monday morning: my sponsor has asked me to make a list of my character defects so that we can do Steps Six and Seven when we meet later in the day.

I spent 47 years talking to myself, trusting myself, relying on my own best judgment. My best judgment finally brought me to my knees.

When I joined AA more than 30 years ago, the idea that I would find a Higher Power of my own understanding seemed unlikely.

Several years ago when I was an alternate DCM, we had our area delegate’s Day of Sharing, the pre-Conference meeting.

I was born into a military family. My father was a Green Beret in Vietnam; my mother was from the south of Germany.

I am the only child of a single parent. My mom worked two jobs. She was an art teacher in a junior high school by day and a college professor by night.

It was a foggy Friday in my old hometown. I had just returned to the United States after living abroad with my recently deceased husband, who truly was the love of my life.

Back in the 70s, my marriage was falling apart, and I found myself alone raising our six children. One of our sons decided to live with his father and graduated from high school in Virginia.

While the rest of the world began locking down and experiencing the many bad effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was entering a rehab at a Salvation Army in Chico, California.

I turned my life around in April of 1989. It still amazes me that one day at a time, I could actually live a sober, God-centered life for the next 30 years.

When I was growing up in the days before cable and satellite TV, we had an outside antenna on our roof. Our TV could pick up three network channels in our area through the antenna.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Don’t leave five minutes before the miracle.” And maybe less often, “If you can’t be on time, be early.” Even less commonly, “When you’re the secretary, don

In the beginning, I had normal drinking habits. I enjoyed a drink after work, a drink out at dinner in a restaurant, and my personal favorite, a holiday drink.

On March 16, 2020, I was elected cochair of our 6:45 morning slogans meeting that meets on Mondays at the Greenbelt Step Club.

Back in 1996 I requested a new incarcerated AA member to correspond with through the General Service Office (GSO) Corrections Correspondence Service.