The right Sponsor

The speaker at this morning's 12 step meeting described a 15 year struggle with relapse before he finally got sober. After initially staying sober for some five years he relapsed. For the next several years he kept going kept going in and out. He would be sober for 90 days, then he would relapse.

At the end of his drinking and drugging he was living under a bush. He wrapped himself in shrink wrap to stay warm. When it finally got too cold for him to continue living outdoors he decided that he must be doing something wrong. And that's when he went into a detoxification unit.

But the thing that kept him sober was to find the right sponsor. He said he found a man who was no-nonsense - who made him do each step thoroughly. While doing his fourth step he would periodically call to ask if he should include something.

            "Leave no stone unturned," the sponsor would reply, then hang up. And so he would continue to doggedly work on his fourth step. The last time he called his sponsor to ask about including something the sponsor asked  "if you had cancer surgery wouldn't you want the doctor to get all of the cancer?"

So he continued to dig inside himself till he got everything into his fourth step. After all, he realized it was about saving his life. About staying sober. It didn't matter how painful it was.

He was also thorough about making amends. He'd stolen from a lot of people. If he couldn't pay back directly, he would make a donation in their name to a charity. It took him more than a few years to pay back everything he'd ripped off. But he said it was the best high he'd experienced.

And the fact that he was standing at the podium and sharing his message after many years of sobriety was evidence that he'd found the right sponsor.