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It is correct to say that on the 15th of February, 2008 I had what I have come to believe was a spiritual experience resulting in my desire for alcohol being taken from me. My recovery from alcohol-ISM began.
Initially I took everything very slowly, my health was okay but I was not likely to go out and start running marathons! I saw my doctor, explained that I was no longer drinking but when she expressed her concerns and the remedies for them, lose weight, give up smoking etc., etc., I pointed out that I couldn't do everything at once, like most of the medical profession, counsellors etc., she didn't really know thefirst thing about my diseease.
In 2009 I probably overdid it undertaking an Open University course in Sociology, but I completed all my written assignments with an average mark of 65%, I didn'tsit the final exam having proved that my brain still functioned to a certain level and completed around trip for along weekend from the UK to Marthas Vineyard, the whole experience from renewing my passport, taking the trip and so on was good, although I suffered from jet lag and the heat and humidity, it was mid-summer.
However, as grand as this may sound I realised how far I had progressed last week and when I undertook one of my regular visits to my son, we talked about the past and where I was now, it was amazing to hear him , now 28 and a successful profesional muscician soon to be father tell me about me, not in grand terms but the most simple things, mainlysurrounding preparations forthe forthcoming event, but what we'd been through together, for I had raised him my self from the age of 10yrs.
My head is still not as clear as it should be, I have everything that I need, not what I want but that's fine, at 63 I am suffering the vissitudes of aging, lets not go there but my health is basically okay, my financial status is stable but in all this there is no room for complacency. The first 164 pages of the Big Book have never lied to me, even more so the words written in the personal story,'The Keys of the Kingdom' are, for me also true.
To me, recovery is a never ending process that brings daily rewards, it is no bad thing to have someone point these out to you, otherwise there is the danger of complacency setting in and that could spell disaster.
One last thing, in my spiritual progression I have learned Buddhist principles, there is a saying ,"When the pupil is ready, the teacher appears." In Buddhism this is not always conventional so like many of the benefits of recovery you have to look for them or at least open your mind to their existence. Mike W.