My name is Phil and I am an alcoholic.

My sponsor has 35 or 36 years sober, and I often give him a ride to meetings. When I pick him up as I have for years, I still ask him a question sometimes that I already know his answer for. I ask him, "what do you know?" His answer is always the same. He will say, "not much!" It used to make me wonder how somebody with so many years of sobriety could get along not knowing much. Today, I understand a lot better. I don't have to know much. There are just a couple of things that I know for sure. The first thing is that if I pick up a drink I will die. I also know that if I don't pick up a drink, I won't get drunk. My life today is a constant source of wonder for me. I look at the things I do from day to day and think about my friends in AA, real friends who love me, and whom I love, and I wonder whose life this is! Left to my own devices, my life wouldn't look anything like this. My best thinking, as they say, got me my seat in AA. I have to let God drive the bus, not me. The sign above the dashboard on a public bus sort of sums it up. It says, "Driver will not operate this motorcoach with passengers ahead of the white line." I just have to stay behind the white line and let God drive. I have a nice comfortable seat in the back. I just have to buy a ticket every day. I have to go to meetings, read, pray and not pick up a drink under any and all circumstances. These things get me my seat on the bus each day. I love life today, I am sober, and I owe it all to AA, my Higher Power and all of you.

Thanks for letting me share.

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