I Had Ten Meetings a Week and Was Completely Hollow Inside - AA Speaker - Mike L.

Mike was five years sober, going to 10 meetings a week, and completely hollow inside — until the man he disliked most in AA told him he'd missed the entire recovery program. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️ Sober Sunrise Speaker Archive Mike did Alcoholics Anonymous the way he did college — signed up for everything, bought the books, threw them in the closet, and started partying. Five years sober, he had the meetings, the service, the sponsees, and was dying of untreated alcoholism in a room full of people who looked happy. The man he disliked most in AA told him something that cracked everything open: sobriety isn't your solution, it's your problem. You've been sober thousands of times — you can't stand life sober. A sponsor named Don told him to pray "God, please teach me about love" and Mike called back two weeks later furious because the only woman he liked had left town and his blood pressure meds made him impotent. Don said the prayer wasn't "God get me a woman." Over the years that prayer unfolded into falling in love with his son, restoring friendship with his ex-wife, and finding Linda — a woman who wrote out the primary purpose for their relationship including the clarity of the diamond. When she died of a stroke, he thought the prayer was over. Then he discovered the next lesson was letting the people of AA love him back.
Mike L. from Indianapolis, IN speaking about steps 10 & 11 at the Stateline Retreat in Primm, NV - December 12th-14th 2008
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu