Thank you for helping me to keep receiving the gift of sobriety. I can never become so emotionally healthy and spiritually fit that I can take just one sip of booze. The following recent experience is a small illustration:

Sixteen years without John Barleycorn and his identical twin cousins (beer, wine, etc.) find me with an occasional flirtation with that insane thought of the first drink. For me, to drink is to die. About two weeks ago after leaving an AA meeting, I stopped at a convenience store to buy a bag of sunflower seeds and a diet Dr. Pepper. No big deal, I've stopped there scores of times with no thought of drinking. On approaching the door, I saw a sign advertising a sale on an 18-pack of beer; now when I was a pigswill beer guzzler, they didn't have 18-packs, so my mind immediately starts to calculate the cost per can and was prepared to factor in inflation in order to . . . The insanity of the first drink! No big deal? For me, perhaps the biggest deal possible.

I immediately asked God to help me recoil as from a hot flame. I didn't finish the calculation nor buy the beer. I followed up with some Twelfth-step work. The insane thought shrank into imperceptible retreat -- for now.

Much of my life is filled with the joy of living, but never can I drift away from the simple truth that I am an alcoholic, and that I need as much help to not drink as the day of my last drunk.

All progress and solutions to my problems contain three elements:
1. DON'T DRINK, NO MATTER WHAT.
2. ASK FOR GOD'S LOVING HELP.
3. WORK WITH GOD'S KIDS.

Love and Service, Max V.