Hi, my name's Jo-Anne and I'm an alcoholic.

I'd like to share my experiences with Humility. When I first came through the doors of AA, humility was a word I wasn't at all familiar with. I vaguely associated it with humiliation -- something I was very familiar with. I thought being at an AA meeting was the most humiliating thing that could happen to me. Of course, in reality, I'd had many more humiliating experiences -- such as being photographed when I'd passed out face down in a pizza, or the time the police found me standing in a back alley at 2:30 AM, yelling obscenities after being locked out of the house. Humiliation was a very familiar emotion for me, along with anger and my all time favorite -- self-pity. I understood that humility had something with humbleness -- I didn't realize it had nothing to do with low self-esteem, and that it is, for me, impossible to feel humble, to experience real humility without appreciating that I am a person worthy of my space on earth, and worthy of the air I breath, and worthy of a chair in any meeting. Now, I understand humility to be, very simply, the ability to understand that there is a Higher Power -- and I'm not it. When I can truly practice humility, I'm able to know that the answer to my problems will come and, in the meantime, the best thing I can do for myself is help someone else. If only to get out of the panicky frenzied state of fear that I find myself in. Fear for me is what is most likely to take me back to drinking. And love -- as I understand love -- is what keeps me sober and safe. Often, affirmation of God's love for me is found through prayer, attendance at AA meetings and by working the Twelve Steps. Thank you for my sobriety.
- Jo-Anne