'A man who knows. . . . .'
 

There is an old Arabic saying,'A man who knows god, knows himself.' Now I was an alcoholic for the best part of 30yrs, from my early thirties to the 15th, Feb.,2008, then aged 62, during this time, and I don't say this to boast , nor deny that my alcoholism had no part in this I managed three careers, a stint at university in my mid-fifties and without any support raised my son,from the age of 10yrs, now at 29, a university educated professional musician with a burgeoning career in front of him.

Having said this, once I accepted my alcoholism, which took some time, not least in the first career it, as a police officer it came with the territory, everybody did it! I began my spiritual journey, for a long time, through ignorance and not just on my part, I didn't understand anything about the,'Fellowship of AA' , I don't thinkthe meetings were what they were when Bill W. started the whole thing back in 1935, I know a number of people share that view.

Still, I persisted on my spiritual journey, enhancing it with whatever and wherever I could , eventually I settled on basic Ghristian beliefs, Jesus said,"Follow me," and I do, and Buddhist principles, particularly ,'The Four Noble Truths,' which deal specifically with sufferiing, we've all known that!
Plus,'The Doctors Opinion' and the first 164 pages of,'The Big Book', which has never lied to me. There are others,'Jonathon Livingston Seagull' by Richard Bach, a character to whom I'm likened, I'm okay with being described as,'an anarchic Christian', quite proud of it really.

Through all this and the spiritual experience, although it was nothing dramatic I had when my alcoholism was removed from me and in my time in recovery to date, bearing in mind the words on p.275 of ,'The Big Bokk', A.A. is not a plan. . . . . ., I feel that , above all my lifes experiential learning, personal and professional, I fulfil the words of the saying,'A man who knows. . . .,' to me that is the great joy in recovery, I know exactly who I am and what I have to do to maintain that balance, and other than us recovering alcoholics I don't know many people can say that.