Did I, an alcoholic, have a defective character?
Of course I did.
Was I, an alcoholic, also a sick man?
Yes, very.
To what extent I was personally responsible
for my drinking, I don't know.
Yet I'm not one to take refuge in the area
that I was a sick man only.
In earlier years I certainly had some degree of free will.
That free will I used badly, to the great misery
of my mother and countless others.
I am deeply ashamed.
As one who knows me a little, you may have heard how,
ten years ago, a friend, himself a liberated alcoholic,
came to me bearing the light
which finally led me out of the toils.
There will come a day like that for you and yours --
I'm so confident! As ever, Bill W.
Letter to the Mother of an Alcoholic, December 1944

Thought to Ponder....

I have been given a quiet place in bright sunshine.

Recovery Related Acronym

H O P E = Heart Open; Please Enter.