Thankful for All I Have Learned

I am thankful today for the years of my drinking, as well as for the years of my sobriety in AA. Perhaps I am more thankful for those drinking years than for these sober ones. The drunkenness, the illness, the insanity, the antisocial behavior, the loss of love and friendships, and, above all, the total self-destruction of myself as a decent human being led me into a death of the spirit—and caused me to be born again. In the darkness, I wept and cursed and drank and passed out. And yet, in moments of sobriety, I kept searching for the answer, for help. Even when drunk, I cried out for it secretly. And I was given help. I found AA.