I always figured I would die at my desk. I was afraid I couldn’t face retirement because I wouldn’t stay sober with so much free time available.

I have been lucky enough to live one day at time for a while now. Every now and then, I reflect back to some of the best things I’ve heard at my AA meetings, things that have served me well.

The other day I remarked at my home group discussion meeting that my life was uneventful. Later it occurred to me: Who needs excitement anyway?

I had my last drink on May 14, 1973.

My first interaction with a Higher Power was terse. I had reached the end of my rope, having attempted sobriety for a period of about 19 months.

When we are satisfied that we’ve given Steps One through Five our best effort and have identified our most glaring defects and shortcomings, it’s time to affect the changes in our thoughts and beha

I’ve often likened my mind to a runaway horse. If I’m not holding the reins, my mind tends to bound downhill and spiral into negativity and discontentment.

I’m 64 and none too happy about the abuse I’ve heaped on my body and mind throughout my life. My muscles and joints won’t function like they used to.

A while back, it seemed that at most of the AA meetings I attended, the topic turned out to be gratitude.

When we get to AA, many of us are told that if we are real alcoholics, we “have lost the power of choice in drink,” as it says in the Big Book. We don’t get to choose whether we drink or not.

I was invited to my first AA meeting by an alcoholic friend. I was a “visitor” from Al-Anon.

The outpatient treatment center where I was staying had finally had enough of my excuses and threatened to kick me out if I didn’t attend an AA meeting.

On this particular day, I needed courage because I was on a mission. I walked into the local social club and sat on my favorite barstool and downed a couple of whiskey highballs.

It was not until I was in a women’s residential program for addictions where AA meeting attendance was required that I truly found the Fellowship of AA. 

Today, this very day 10 years ago, I stopped drinking. Yes, that’s right, for 10 years I’ve been making first dates feel awkward by ordering club sodas.

I was on my fourth trip to the Grand Canyon in my fifth year of recovery. My normie girlfriend and I started out from Albuquerque at 10:30 a.m. We arrived at the canyon by evening.

I was never a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. If I made them, they were general and half-hearted.

When I first walked into the rooms of AA, I was too broken to be nervous. I felt like a ghost of myself as I just floated through the door.

We had some old kitchen barstools from the 1980s. They were here when we moved into our house. They were big, bulky, heavy and in very poor condition.

The worst five years of my drinking, as well as my last drink, all occurred in the north part of South Carolina.

On the 5th of August, 1968, at about 7:00 in the evening, I was walking up and down Holborn Kingsway in London. I was of two minds as to whether or not I would enter a certain building. 

Old-timer? Well…that depends on your criteria.