EDITOR'S NOTE

This issue offers sharing on a range of topics, from the unexpected benefit of doing a Fifth Step to the powerful feeling of belonging gained from sponsorship and face-to-face meetings. Re-reading it, I had the same experience that I often have at meetings, of hearing just what I need to stay sober today: that I can't take recovery for granted. Alcoholism never goes away, these stories remind me. It lurks beneath the surface, lashing out in the nightmares described in "Drunk Dreams" or in the self-will depicted in "I'll Handle This Myself." "The danger does not go away just because I've achieved some time in AA," says the author of "It's Not the Shoelace." "When I hold on to resentments . . . when I am unwilling to listen to others and change my mind . . . I am not only not emotionally sober but I also may become not physically sober."