Hello, my name is Glenn H, and I'm an alcoholic.

While I well realize that the Fourth of July represents our independence as a nation, as an ol' alky, thoughts of independence are always inevitably and irrevocably linked to my graced sobriety. I seem to better understand with each passing day in sobriety that being born to the wonderful circumstance of living within a free society, while glorious, in actuality represents little to me personally when actively caught up in the bondage of my alcoholism ... the bondage of self.

I know today, for myself, that true freedom comes not only from without ... the circumstances of society around me ... but from within as well. A practiced approach daily to conscious contact with a God of my understanding offering to me the immeasurable returns of love, peace, tolerance, and acceptance to the world about me. That practiced approach, for me, comes through the Program as directed within the first 164 pages of the Big Book and the Twelve Steps therein.

I more realize in sober reflection now that there's little difference between myself or the alcoholic living in the deprivation of a totalitarian state outwardly, when caught up in the chaos and insanity of my active alcoholism inwardly.

Once again, in simply maintaining my first priority of staying sober and applying the Program daily in my life, I receive an infinite amount of "bonuses" from a God of my understanding. At this time of year, one of those bonuses is the feeling of celebrating a dual independence, one for my Country; and one for myself in freedom from the nightmare of active alcoholism. Happy Fourth of July to all!

-Glenn H., Louisville, KY, USA