I'll have eleven years of recovery on October 11, 2014. If it weren't for AA, I don't know if I'd be alive today, and I'm not saying that to be dramatic. It's absolutely true.
For one thing, I have Crohn's disease, a sexy autoimmune disease of the digestive system. In 2001, before I got sober, I drank so much that my Crohn's flared up and I was hospitalized. Doctors told me that I was about one day away from dying when I was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.
For one thing, I have Crohn's disease, a sexy autoimmune disease of the digestive system. In 2001, before I got sober, I drank so much that my Crohn's flared up and I was hospitalized. Doctors told me that I was about one day away from dying when I was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.
Then in 2005, my second-born son, Mike, tragically died. He was just shy of turning nineteen years old. If I had not been sober when he died, I would have drunk myself to death. The only reason that I didn't drink was because of my relationship with my Higher Power. Left to my own devices, I'd have drunk instead of stay sober and deal with that loss, head on. It remains the hardest thing I have to cope with in sobriety.
If someone came to me and asked about AA, say someone reading this or that I met around campus, I’d say what my aunt said to me some fifteen years before I got sober. She was a recovered alcoholic herself who died sober in 1999. She said, “If you ever have any questions about your drinking, you can go to AA. They can answer your questions.”
I thank God for my sobriety today. If I weren't sober, I wouldn't have graduated summa cum laude, or had my work published, or traveled, or learned to ride a motorcycle, or a thousand other things, including being at UNM right now, an MFA candidate teaching FYC to you all! AA, in a way, has given me a brand new life. We call it "trudging the road to happy destiny."
I thank God for my sobriety today. If I weren't sober, I wouldn't have graduated summa cum laude, or had my work published, or traveled, or learned to ride a motorcycle, or a thousand other things, including being at UNM right now, an MFA candidate teaching FYC to you all! AA, in a way, has given me a brand new life. We call it "trudging the road to happy destiny."
I've attended meetings all over the Southwest, British Colombia, and Alberta, Canada. I don't know if what I share helps anyone or not, but I like to think it does. A couple of weeks ago, a man was addressing a newbie and shared in the meeting that, "There are only two women in this meeting that I'd ask to be my sponsor." After the meeting, he said, "Hey Cat, you're one of those two women." That made me feel good, but to be honest, I've never sponsored anyone in the program. No one has ever asked me!
My own sponsor was a long haul trucker named Richard who died last September at age 76 of COPD. I loved that man, very, very much. I miss him and have to say that he was one of the best friends I've ever had in my life. He was a good man.
My own sponsor was a long haul trucker named Richard who died last September at age 76 of COPD. I loved that man, very, very much. I miss him and have to say that he was one of the best friends I've ever had in my life. He was a good man.