Harbor Light – 2016/12

“Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” “They describe a hand so jittery that it could not lift a pony to the lips without spilling the contents; drinking liquor from a beer stein because it can be steadied with two hands, although at the risk of chipping a front tooth; tying an end of a towel about a glass, looping the towel around the back of the neck, and drawing the free end with the other hand, pulley fashion, to advance the glass to the mouth; hands so shaky they feel as if they were about to snap off and fly into space; sitting on hands for hours to keep them from doing this. These and other bits of drinking lore usual” – Alcoholics Anonymous article by Jack Alexander, The Saturday Evening Post, March 1941 With the help of this fellowship, I escaped, and now must go about the business of helping others. Hello everyone, it is great pleasure to be sober and help others. I’m described in Jack Alexander’s words above; yet today, I am full of so much life and even more energy, all because you cared enough about me as an individual to carry the message of A.A. I now understand that you had to work with me to keep what you had, so that I may someday be able to do the same thing and help another alcoholic like myself. After taking the first 11 steps, I learned that this is the essence of the 12th step of Alcoholics Anonymous. Such a simple answer: one alcoholic speaking to another