Nikko here, grateful alcoholic.

For me, showing up is what it is all about. If I don't show up, I can't learn. I am good at isolating... "Been there, done that"...with the result that I lived in my own pitiful, painful world apart from others, alone and very sad. Not a way I choose to live today.

It was God's insistence that forced me to get to know you people and this program, I didn't know why at the time, but I have some idea now. If it hadn't been for all of you in my life, and what I have learned in this program, there is no way I would have survived the events of the past six months. Alone, I would have ended it, but you all supported me, and loved me, and gave me a different perspective, which eventually led to my seeing the miracles within the pain.

One other thought...is that if I don't "show up" when Fear comes knocking, then I won't have a way to walk through it and come out the other side. How many times I have needed to do that, and have had some tremendous revelations as a result. None of them would have been possible if I hadn't "been there." Thanks to all of you for what you have taught me about showing up, and for making a Twelve-step call on me today.

- Nikko