Thank you all for being here for me!

I have to leave for my own sobriety. I have made this place my AA meetings. My sponsor warned me about this, and he was right. And I did drink again.

I know I need AA meetings, and the whole deal, but because this is easier, more conveniant, I come here instead of driving a little ways to get what I really need.

I get through some steps, then I don't do what comes next.

I have tried it my way. It isn't working. I keep doing what I always do, and get the same results.

"I". See all the "I"s? This is an I program, then it is about helping others so I can keep what I have. Can't keep it unless I give it away. This is what my sponsor keeps telling me.

My sponsor is wonderful, like I have always said to all of you. He is good for me, but I keep following my own program the minute I get lazy. NO fault of his. I keep blowing it. I. ME!

"HOW IT WORKS" Chaper 5 of the BB. page 58

"Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those wo do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves."

Here is the real deal...pg. 59 of the BB.

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over tot eh care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have 'God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we wer wrong promplty admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the resulf of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

This is my program. It has to be thorough, or it doesn't work for me, and my life depends on it because I am a true alcoholic.

My sponsor, Dave, aka: Phil, came here to share step 12. When I get that far, and I will, I may be back. But until then, you all take care and do what you have to do to make it work for you!

Love, Karen103