Not New -Just Renewed! — I’ve walked this planet for 66 years, and hope to stay around for another 34 — then, I’ll reevaluate! This from someone who wasn’t expected to reach age 30, and hoped to live down to that expectation! I didn’t trust anyone over 30 then — so I never wanted to…

Finding Work As summer ended and I was moving into the farmhouse in Ivyland with George and Al, my job at the Fort Dix Laundry ended. It was just a summer gig. Somehow, I wound up working for an outfit selling lama-skin leather tote bags. I was desperate for work, and it…

George was the Step Group’s service representative to the Philadelphia Area Service committee. He came back from a meeting with the news that the group’s use of the AA 12 & 12 was now considered a violation of the 6th tradition, which warns against endorsing an outside enterprise. N.A. had…

Welcomed Back With Love and Acceptance My new N.A. friends really welcomed me back with love and acceptance after my “relapse”. When I told them I got loaded, they said, “Of course you did — you’re an addict. That’s what addicts do. Now, if you want to get clean, try doing what we do.” I threw…

Looking for Signs of Life I started going back to AA meetings after my stoned revelation reading the Big Book that night, but nothing I was hearing there sounded like what I’d read in the book. The book had talked about recovery from alcoholism. It made it sound like they actually got well, the ones…

My White House Suit Pants & Face-Plant Field — This is the final story for this series — I promise! It occurred to me recently that I hadn’t told this one here, yet. This story should definitely be a part of this, and honestly, I couldn’t think of a better one to be the closer. When I was playing…

Feeling Infinite — The last blood moon until 2025 occurred this morning. It was also a lunar eclipse, occurring between 5 and 6 a.m. here in Virginia Beach. I hadn’t set an alarm, but the deck chairs blowing around on our balcony awoke me at 3:30. …

Honoring my Blues Brother — We were dubbed “the Blues Brothers” — Billy was Elwood, I was Jake. We were, indeed, like brothers. We met in the middle of a literature conference in Warren, Ohio, where work was being done on a book by addicts, for addicts seeking recovery. We’d both found a way out…

When Anything Can Happen — I had abandoned the safety and security of the same ship I had called home for 2 years, with a steady paycheck that I could do with what I wanted to, since I didn’t have to worry about a place to sleep or what to eat — the navy had…