Finding His Marbles

When I first came into Alcoholics Anonymous, I was convinced that I was an alcoholic and could not stop drinking. I was not convinced that AA would change that fact. The first real sign that this time it might be different came two weeks later after I started going to meetings when my brother, whom I was living with at the time, had a house-warming party for his and his wife’s friends. I was new in Chicago and knew nobody except my brother, his wife, and my niece and nephew who were also living there. So shortly after people started arriving, I found myself at the kitchen table talking with my niece. Now my brother and all of his family are not “one of us” and can drink without consequence. What I hadn’t realized until I had been sitting there for about 30 minutes, was that I was at the table where the punch bowel and other drinks were located for the guests included all of my old friends - Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Jose Cuervo, and Johnny Walker. My aha moment came when I realized that they were there and not only had I not noticed but even after I did, I wasn’t the least bit interested and my conversation simply continued with my niece.