Growing up in a blue collar community of about 6,000 human souls and raised by two God-loving parents in the Catholic religion was for me a joyful childhood. Although brought up in a strict Christian home, At the very young age of 14, I caught the camaraderie of drinking beer and smoking weed that saturated the atmosphere during the 1970’s and remained attracted to that lifestyle until I entered the great Anonymous 12-step fellowship that helps drunks like me get sober. I didn’t think my drinking was all that bad but many others suggested it.
For a great portion of my life, I tried very hard to stay away from this fellowship, but once I started attending the meetings on a frequent basis, I said to myself, “Where have I been and what took me so long getting here”? The program offers so much good spiritual food that I deprived myself of for many years.
One of the frequent suggestions given to newcomers is to get a lot of phone numbers. In the early days of my sobriety and after just a few days of attending meetings, I began to see a few pretty women asking me for my phone number so I told the man who was to be my sponsor, which is a spiritual guide through the 12 steps of recovery, “Hey Mark, I think this program is going to work out pretty well for me after all”.
It didn’t take Mark long to set my thinking straight in this area as he told me to forget about relationships and focus on my sobriety.
I was determined to do so. Mark and I agreed to work one step of the program of recovery per week. He suggested that I learn all I can about the disease of alcoholism before we got started because it is important for one who is an alcoholic in recovery to know precisely what they are recovering from. He explained, If I don’t know what the problem is, then there would be little hope for recovery. So I immersed myself in learning about the disease.
It was somewhat comforting to me and many others to learn that alcoholism is not a moral issue, but is in fact a two-fold illness: alcoholism is an obsession of the mind and an allergy of the body which is manifested by a real physical craving(need) of more of the same of what is consumed by the body. In this case, more alcohol is needed by the body of an alcoholic who consumes alcohol.
This knowledge seemed to explain why I never wanted to stop drinking once I started to drink alcohol.
This fellowship has become and continues to be one of my greatest blessings in life. “God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to behold” is what is often heard in my inner circle of friends.
This was to be the turning point in my life as it was on this occasion that I began a journey into a path of life that brings about a great amount of joy, happiness and freedom. The most liberating freedom the program offers other than being freed from the obsession to alcohol is freedom from resentments. I quickly learned in my early days of sobriety that there is no such thing as a justified resentment because resentments always turn back like a boomerang on those who harbor them. And not only that, but a justified resentment blocks one off from God just as surely as an unjustified resentment does.
As I remember it, I was told if there is a resentment I wanted to be free of, if I would pray for that person every day for 2 weeks, asking God to give him or her everything in their life that I wanted in my own life. Before the 2 weeks are completed, that resentment would be gone. Sure enough! This is precisely what happened in my case. And I’ve seen it work in others every time
Before walking through the doors of this fellowship, it seemed to me that this program was great for people who needed it, but I just couldn’t face the truth that I myself was one who needed it because of being in denial.
It helped to learn straightaway that alcoholism is the only disease that tells a person, he or she doesn’t have it and that I was a sick person who needed to get well, not a bad person who needed to get good.
There is a great amount of fun and laughter about it all.
I am sober today because so many loving people in this fellowship that took me by the hand and showed me the way out of alcoholism and addiction.
Living sober has given me so much more than what I ever dreamed of, and, by the grace of God, I have become a published author. My first book is the spiritual guide to true joy and happiness in life.
To find out what people around the USA are saying about this book or to purchase a copy, please consider visiting its website: thywillbedonebyjameskuczykowski.com
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