A Sweet Challenge

SOBRIETY has brought me countless gifts. They have come as blessings, unfashioned by me, unearned by me, almost a side effect as it were, of often bungled efforts I have made to apply the principles of AA to the small pattern of my life. These gifts include a measure of tolerance, which I am now thankful I have come to accept, since my illness precludes indulging in jealousy or resentment. Understanding, in the form of a wordless communication with others like me and still others who are thankfully unlike me. The ability to share, which surmounts the wall of loneliness that I took so long to build so carefully. A sense of belonging, of contributing, of sometimes being made adequate through grace given to me. The ability to discover goodness in all human relationships. An awareness of the rights and the values of true friends, where once I was incapable of appreciating love. This above all I abused since I misunderstood it, seeing it, in my alcoholic insanity, as a restraining mesh to freedom--the freedom to remain in a prison which grew progressively smaller.