Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker Podcast

Bobby came to detox with everything he owned in a dirty white leather tennis bag. A woman washed his clothes, he began doing the same for other alcoholics, and five years later he was running that detox center. His AA story puts service into very practical terms. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Approaching 25 years of sobriety, Bobby looks back on growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, during segregation, graduating from high school at 16, and watching the promise of his early life give way to drinking. He describes military service in Germany, anger that grew more destructive under the influence, caring for his mother while she was dying of cancer, and eventually living on the streets of Cleveland. An AA television announcement prompts a call to central office, bringing a sponsor who begins introducing him to the fellowship. But meetings and treatment do not immediately end his drinking. After a night at the city mission, he asks a priest for help and describes finally surrendering the fight with alcohol. He enters the Salvation Army's Harbor Light program carrying all his possessions in a white leather bag. A woman who remembers him from better days takes the dirty clothes he is embarrassed to show her and washes them. After detox, Bobby starts returning downstairs to help the next alcoholic, including offering to wash their clothes. He recalls becoming that center's first Black director five years later. The work of recovery continues when he loses the job and resents people in AA: his sponsor tells him to keep attending meetings and shake their hands, even when he does not want to. Bobby also describes refusing to say God for his first five years, praying instead to whatever was watching over his sponsor, and gradually finding a faith expressed through how he treats people. He returns to sponsorship, the Big Book, the Twelve Steps, home groups, and the many ways to carry the message beyond the podium, from sending cards to visiting people in hospitals and nursing homes. Caring for his father becomes possible without the hatred he once carried, and his daughter knows a loving father rather than the man in his drinking stories. At the 30th Gopher State Roundup, Bobby's message is that sobriety can change what he does today, how he loves, and what he gives to the next person. Bobby M. from Cleveland, OH speaking at the 30th Gopher State Roundup in Bloomington, MN - 2003 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Brian put his strong opinions about local AA on his own website, then took it down and made amends. His approach to the Twelve Traditions asks what he's willing to give up for the fellowship that helped him rebuild his life. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Brian got sober on February 24, 1988, and admits that he initially had little interest in the Twelve Traditions. AA seemed ideal for a defiant alcoholic: no rules and nobody with the power to enforce them. As recovery gave him a life he valued, he began asking what he could do to preserve the fellowship for the next alcoholic. In this AA Traditions talk, he presents all twelve as requests for willing sacrifice rather than commands to police other members. He uses the same rhythm his sponsor taught him for the Steps: problem, solution, action, and result. Unity is the challenge, a loving God expressed through group conscience is the solution, and the remaining Traditions ask members to set aside desires that could pull a group apart. Brian explores membership, singleness of purpose, group autonomy, self-support, service, outside issues, and anonymity through his own experiences and interpretations. His clearest personal example is a website he created to promote groups he admired and criticize what he saw as watered-down AA. Although others defended his right to publish it, he came to believe it could imply he spoke for those groups, took it down, and gave the domain to Intergroup as an amends. He also recalls a proposal to remove a group from the meeting list and explains why he favored conversation over trying to compel compliance. Self-support, for Brian, includes showing up for service as well as contributing money when able; he jokes that members should be competing to take jail meetings rather than leaving commitments uncovered. Throughout, he invites disagreement and acknowledges that he is offering his understanding of the Traditions. He closes by connecting anonymity with sacrifice and principles before personalities, then admits that his own group is still a little too dominated by him. The challenge he puts to himself is the same one he puts to the room: help preserve AA by becoming willing to give something up. Brian H. from Fort Lauderdale, FL speaking about the Traditions at the Steps and Traditions Group in Boca Raton, FL - July 23rd 2009 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Nearly seven years sober, Samantha picked up half a glass of wine and felt one thought rise from her gut: "Here we go." Her AA talk follows the two years that came next and the actions that helped her stay sober after returning. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Samantha's sobriety date is September 5, 1995, but her first experience of recovery came through teenage treatment in 1983. Raised in Arcadia as the youngest of four children and the only one adopted, she remembers feeling different and being the person who persuaded others to follow her into trouble. A later stretch of nearly seven years sober ended after she stopped going to meetings and picked up half a glass of wine. Her immediate thought was "Here we go," and the next two years brought 11 arrests, three psychiatric admissions, and a life that eventually took her to Atlanta. A former sponsor directed her to a women's recovery home in Santa Barbara, and the man who supplied her drugs drove her across the country and paid for her stay. Even after being asked to leave the home at 60 days, she stayed sober while couch surfing, with AA members getting her to a 6:45 a.m. meeting and old-timers who could meet her anger without being scared of her. Samantha describes the Twelve Steps as a meal she needs to take as it is served, and stresses that remembering a terrible bottom alone will not keep her sober. She wants tools for living, not just surviving. Returning to school and entering law school are part of that new life, but a painful sober divorce exposes another difficulty: she can forgive what she did drinking more readily than mistakes made in recovery. She talks about learning not to ignore warning signs just because she wants something to work out, jokes about needing ten-minute chips for emotional sobriety, and describes sponsors and sober friends as spiritual chiropractors who keep bringing her back into alignment. This frank, funny AA talk connects Step One, surrender, family boundaries, fellowship, and willingness with the ongoing work of accepting her own humanness and learning to live sober. Samantha M. from Santa Barbara, CA speaking at the Third Tradition Speaker Meeting in Studio City, CA - November 16th 2005 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Roz's sponsor called her a beautiful flower and a garden variety drunk. After years of wanting to be anybody but herself, AA helped her find both self-respect and the freedom to be one member among many. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Roz recalls growing up in an Orthodox Jewish family, losing her father before she was six, and facing antisemitic bullying after her family moved to England. Long before her first drink, she desperately wanted to be anybody but herself. Alcohol seemed to offer a way to run away while standing still, but blackouts, changing identities, moves around New York, and increasingly dangerous circumstances followed. Her first AA meeting was an accidental encounter on Christmas Eve: she thought she had found choir practice before midnight Mass, only to hear someone introduce herself as an alcoholic. Years later, with nowhere else to go, she began attending the Mustard Seed group across from her apartment. Her last drink was on Christmas Eve 1975. Early sobriety was slow and awkward: she brought expensive cookies so nobody could say she had received something for nothing, struggled to choose a dish drainer, and filled her apartment with 174 plants. A sponsor gave her a T-shirt reading "My Sponsor Says No," helping her set boundaries before she could say no for herself. Meetings and fellowship gave her somewhere to be, while step meetings became the place where she learned to change. Service grew to include Intergroup phones, prison meetings, detox work, sponsorship, and Young People's AA, but eventually another member challenged her to remember that AA was a bridge back to life. Roz describes the Twelve Steps as chiseling away everything that was not really her, including the fear that kept her from coming out as a lesbian. She shares the happiness and work of a 15-year sober partnership, with separate sponsors and meetings, and a move to Denver to be closer to her brother's children. There, away from her old AA reputation, she began learning to be a worker among workers and a member among members. This frank, funny AA talk connects sponsorship, the Steps, service, and humility with learning to live comfortably as herself. Roz B. from Denver, CO speaking at the Sacramento gay/lesbian "River City Roundup" - November 7th 1998 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Jay once lived in a Pinto and called it his "outdoorsman phase." In AA, inventory, amends, sponsorship, and laughter helped him become a man people call when they need someone to show up. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Jay came to Alcoholics Anonymous on May 2, 1979, after drinking from age 12, losing jobs, collecting arrests, and living in his car while insisting he was simply going through an outdoorsman phase. Alcoholism had touched nearly every branch of his family, but at his first meeting he heard people describe a freedom he had never known and was invited to join them at the beach afterward. Almost drinking on his third day brought him back to the club asking someone to "talk program to me," and a copy of the Big Book gave him language for the problem and actions he could take. He describes an awkward but sincere prayer, a sponsor and his wife who welcomed him into their home, a first inventory at 22 days sober that amounted to his greatest hits, and amends and sponsorship before his first month was over. Paying back his grandmother brought an unexpected response: she wanted to tell the women at church that the grandson they had been praying for had been restored. Jay connects those early actions with the life he has today: a sober household, daily Step Eleven practice, a daughter who has never had to fear her father, and the ability to be present for other people's joy and grief. A later Third Step leads him to help build a church in Belize, where he finds another alcoholic and exchanges stories with him in the jungle. Throughout this funny, direct AA talk, Jay returns to taking the Steps, making things right, staying available, and helping others. His closing quote about God, human folly, and laughter leaves room for mystery while reminding him to make good use of the part he can share. Jay S. from Redondo Beach, CA speaking at The Way of Life Speakers Meeting in Goleta, CA - March 28th 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Jerry thought he managed his law practice, his family, and his drinking. In AA, an aquarium full of fish that refused to follow his rules helped him see what he had been missing. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Jerry got sober on January 1, 1973, after spending a year and a half secretly trying to pass his own controlled-drinking test. He had a successful Dallas law practice, a wife and children, a comfortable home, and money in the bank, yet nothing seemed to mean anything anymore. Alcohol had become a vacation from responsibility that he could no longer end when he wanted. His wife's involvement in Al-Anon threatened the control he thought he had, until her suggestion to try limiting his drinks forced him to confront a test he never passed. After another lost New Year's Eve, he decided to quit, refused help, threw the recovery books against the wall, and discovered that not drinking left him shaking, sleepless, and thinking about alcohol constantly. A tentative prayer and a call to AA's central office led him toward help, although he first wanted a meeting full of college graduates near a country club. He eventually found a group above a 7-Eleven, parked in the alley, and climbed the fire escape to keep his attendance discreet. There, laughter, sponsorship, the Big Book, the Twelve Steps, and small acts of service began changing how he saw himself. Jerry illustrates the mental obsession with a bulldog that repeatedly returns to a hog it cannot handle, then recognizes his own self-centeredness in an aquarium whose fish refuse to follow his plans. The deeper evidence of recovery comes through his mother's illness: while drinking, he fled into alcohol; five years sober, he could stay present, support his family, and face grief without wanting a drink. Speaking on freedom through action, Jerry connects surrender, inventory, amends, and working with newcomers to a life with purpose, trust, and room to be himself. Jerry J. from Dallas, TX speaking at the Rocky Point Roundup in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico - October 13th 2000 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Bob was holding a beer and asking what was wrong with his life. His AA story follows the answer through a family intervention, a sponsor who challenged "my program," and a phone call that changed two alcoholics' lives. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Bob got sober on November 8, 1989, after agreeing to family counseling and discovering that his whole family had gathered for an intervention. He grew up in a loving Akron home, found acceptance and relief through drinking as a teenager, and built a marriage, a family, and a career while alcoholism quietly took over. Missed school events, unpaid utility bills, two lost homes, and the hurt in his children's eyes became problems he tried to wash away with another drink. At the intervention, his ten-year-old daughter's poem finally reached him, and four days in treatment introduced him to AA through people who brought coffee, shared their own stories, and read from the Big Book. The death of a beloved neighborhood father brought grief and the first real permission to cry, an experience Bob connects with the lifting of his compulsion to drink. Sobriety still required more than putting down the bottle. Nearly two years in, his sponsor challenged him to stop relying on "my program" and begin living the Twelve Steps as a way of life. Years later, after that sponsor died, Bob found himself isolated and struggling despite meetings, sponsorship, and service commitments. A phone call from a mountainside in California restored his connection with another alcoholic who was struggling too, giving him his own AA arithmetic: one plus one equals three when God enters the relationship. He closes with a child praying for a suffering drinker at Dr. Bob's house and a reminder that working with others means reaching out, staying accountable, and carrying the message. Bob C. from Akron, OH speaking at the Aberdeen Wednesday Night Group's Quarterly Meeting in Aberdeen, SD - 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Joseph says the more he obsessed about staying sober, the sicker he became. His AA recovery changed when he stopped staring at the problem and committed himself to the Steps, amends, testimony, and service. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Joseph drank from childhood and eventually reached a point where alcohol occupied nearly every waking thought. He remembers waking in jail, asking what time it was, and being told he should worry about what day it was because he had been asleep for three days. While serving time, Joseph first heard about Alcoholics Anonymous from another prisoner whose honesty, openness, and freedom from resentment gave him something Joseph wanted, even though the man fully expected to drink again after release. Joseph attended AA meetings inside but arrived certain that the sick people around him needed his help. He planned to take only the Steps he liked, rejected sponsorship, and later decided that AA did not work because nobody reached him the way he expected. Online recovery rooms and a New Year’s Eve alcathon brought him back. A small Step group followed, then a man he spoke with regularly finally asked whether Joseph had a sponsor and announced, “Well, you’ve got one now.” Much of that sponsor’s guidance only became clear after his death. Joseph’s deeper change came when he stopped making sobriety itself his entire focus and committed to working the Twelve Steps. He describes surrender, hope, and faith in the first three Steps; learning to live in the present through inventory; laughing through a Fifth Step in prison; discovering the Sixth Step as a state of readiness; making amends instead of spending another apology; taking a daily personal inventory; and hearing his higher power through the testimony of other alcoholics. His pathway is toward self-acceptance: getting outside himself, working with newcomers, and receiving through service what he once tried to manufacture with alcohol. Joseph G. from Royalton, IL speaking at the AA Downunder Group - July 20th 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

At fourteen months sober, Pat accidentally tasted vodka and thought nobody would know. The AA foundation built through meetings, sponsorship, service, and washed coffee cups answered with three words: God will know. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Pat, sober since August 28, 1970, grew up in Brooklyn with an alcoholic father and a mother whose long dependence on stimulants and alcohol left Pat watching other people for cues about how to think, feel, and behave. She began drinking alone at fifteen because alcohol quieted the confusion and briefly filled the empty place inside her. Over the next twenty years, drinking became the organizing principle beneath marriage, motherhood, rigid household control, late-night binges, rage, and relationships that looked acceptable from the outside while collapsing internally. After a humiliating afternoon at a family picnic and a blackout behind the wheel, Pat walked into Brooklyn’s Canarsie Group. For one hour, the hole inside her felt filled. A sponsor claimed her, the group put her to work, and she stayed close through meetings, speaking commitments, service, washing coffee cups, sweeping floors, and traveling in caravans with other members. When her family moved to rural New Jersey at fourteen months sober, that entire structure disappeared and the emotions she had never learned to face came rushing back. At a gathering one night, Pat unknowingly took a sip of a drink containing vodka. Her first thought was that nobody would know; the next was that God would. She put it down, called her sponsor, returned to a meeting, and began working the program at a deeper level. Through inventory, amends, prayer, willingness, education, nursing school, a painful divorce, a new marriage, sponsorship, and continued service, Pat found the mind, choices, emotional life, and heart’s desires that alcohol had postponed. Her message is that everything she needed to grow and change was already present in the books, rooms, and people of Alcoholics Anonymous. Pat R. from Lake Hopacong, NJ speaking at the 3rd Buckeye Roundup in Cincinnati, OH - November 11th 1994 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Seventeen years sober, Charlie thought he had already experienced what AA could offer. Then deeper Big Book work showed him he had spent all those years in the cheap seats without knowing there was a skybox. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Charlie, sober since March 22, 1985, shares a funny and direct Alcoholics Anonymous talk about the difference between staying away from alcohol and treating alcoholism. He remembers discovering drinking at sixteen, regular blackouts, crashing his mother's car into a parked police vehicle, pawning his family's belongings, entering treatment, and making promises to his father that he sincerely meant but had no power to keep. AA gave him physical sobriety, but over the following years he repeatedly hit a wall and settled into a meeting-based program while dishonesty, self-will, isolation, and the bedevilments continued operating underneath his life. Surviving a plane crash briefly sharpened his gratitude, but the deeper change began when a sponsor took him back through the Big Book and showed him the material he had missed between willingness and inventory: selfishness and self-centeredness were the root problem, and alcohol had been his solution. Charlie describes revisiting inventory, completing long-delayed amends, practicing Steps Ten and Eleven daily, sponsoring other men, and helping build Austin's Primary Purpose Group around line-by-line Big Book study. His message is directed to the person with years in AA who is no longer feeling the fire: the full program is still available, the best years can still lie ahead, and nobody has to relapse before beginning again. Charlie P. from Austin, TX speaking at Summer Serenity at the Beach in Destin, FL - August 26th 2010 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Michael turns his AA recovery story into a slide show where the martini keeps reappearing, until a hospital death watch, the fellowship, and nearly fourteen years of sobriety replace it with a coffee cup. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Michael grew up in San Francisco, flew during World War II, tried monastic life, studied theology, and built an award-winning advertising career across Portland, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, and Kansas City while martinis gradually became the organizing principle of his life. By 1978 he was isolated at home, drinking roughly half a gallon of vodka a day, and making a blizzard trip in layers of pajamas and black leotards because running out overnight felt unthinkable. When he finally called for help, he collapsed in a hospital tunnel, spent five days in intensive care, and awakened paralyzed from the waist down under a death watch. Michael initially rejected the hospital AA meetings, but later found identification at Kansas City’s Plaza Fellowship and helped establish the Live and Let Live group in 1979. Approaching fourteen years sober, he uses a deliberately theatrical slide presentation to challenge several AA myths: the Steps are not casual suggestions, nobody graduates after completing them once, life does not become permanently manageable, and recovery means more than excusing behavior with “what do you expect from a drunk?” His program is built around change, inventory, learning through mistakes, accepting divine delay, and the three givings of giving, forgiving, and thanksgiving. The final slide replaces the old martini and black leotards with an AA meeting and coffee cup. As Michael says, there have been a few changes. Michael D. from Kansas City, MO speaking at Chicago Roundup - July 20th 1991 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Paul says his Higher Power has a substation in his computer: after working AA's Twelve Steps for nearly thirty years, he types his problems to God until an intuitive answer begins to appear. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Paul opens this AA talk by making the room hug, then turns to the balance he believes keeps alcoholics sober: meetings and the Twelve Steps together. He describes attending meetings while continuing to drink for seven months, quitting every morning, and living like a tour bus with no driver while different voices in his head took turns making decisions. Through the Steps, those voices began communicating, and Paul learned to use powerlessness as relief instead of defeat. He explains why Step Three must lead immediately into inventory, why every later Step deepens the ones before it, and why he has repeated the full process roughly every five years. Along the way, Paul shares the four-column inventory guides he helped develop, writing his first inventory in code, finally taking a Fifth Step at a San Diego convention, using spot inventories for marriage and money, and typing letters to God when he needs an intuitive answer. He talks about accepting the defects his Higher Power has not removed, forgiving people without pretending to like them, and viewing recovery as a baseball diamond stretching from physical to spiritual sobriety. After nearly thirty years, his focus is emotional sobriety: if somebody else's behavior is not worth taking a drink over, Paul asks, why reward it by becoming so upset? Paul O. from Laguna Beach, CA speaking about working the Twelve Steps at the AA Desert Pow Wow in Indian Wells, CA - August 3rd 1996 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

At twenty-six, Laila has ten years sober after entering AA at sixteen, and she makes a fierce case that an alcoholic's seat is equally worthy whether they drank for six years or sixty-six. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/appIf you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Laila entered Alcoholics Anonymous at sixteen after growing up in an alcoholic home, using alcohol and drugs to bury fear and trauma, and reaching a dangerous emotional bottom that led to treatment. At first, AA sounded like strange slogans, and she misunderstood sponsorship so completely that she imagined finding a business to sponsor her like a Little League team. She began learning the program, received her six-month chip from her dying grandfather during a family AA meeting in his hospital room, and then moved from a thriving young people's fellowship to a town where older members told her she was too young and had not drunk enough. Laila eventually stopped attending meetings without taking a drink, but sobriety without connection left her sick, isolated, and unwilling. A woman who agreed to sponsor her for just thirty days met with her every day, took her through the Big Book and Twelve Steps, and restored her faith in Alcoholics Anonymous. Years of meetings, service, sponsorship, and repetition later, those actions carried Laila through the deaths of an aunt and her brother within days of each other. With the phone in her hand and the book in her lap, she kept calling, kept doing what AA had taught her, and stayed sober. Her message after ten years is simple: no one else gets to measure an alcoholic's bottom, the solution belongs to every member, and one more sober day is the gift worth passing on. Laila M. from Stafford, TX speaking at the 3rd Annual Arkansas Traveler Roundup in El Dorado, AR - September 2002 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu