THE EXTRAVAGANT PROMISES PODCAST

What if I told you ... would you believe it? How could you? How many times do we hear in the Rooms about lives that are second to none, lives worth celebrating, when, at one time, all was lost? Do we believe them? Have we ever heard the converse? Of course not. Rarely have we seen a person fail ... So why are we so stubborn, why don't we believe? We need to see for ourselves, and we few, we proud few who are lucky enough to stick around until the miracle happens, well, we truly "came to believe."

LUCKY SEVEN. Today marks seven years of continuous, uninterrupted sobriety. On Father’s Day 2015, I wrote a letter to God petitioning Him, begging Him to save me. I needed an angel, in a bad way. My Higher Power didn’t send me one angel, He sent me a program of angels in the earthly form of a group of drunks just trying to stay sober and stay alive called Alcoholics Anonymous. Since getting sober, I have endured death of loved ones, ruin and wreckage in many forms as well as victory and glory. I have tried to treat those imposters all the same. It wasn’t all pink clouds, but I have kept faith that my Higher Power loves me, and if I can just stay sober today and help one drunk do the same, I will earn and live a life worth celebrating. My name is Gregory B. My sobriety date is July 19, 2015. I have a sponsor, who has a sponsor and I sponsor other dudes who are trying to get sober and stay that way. I go to meetings and I’ve worked the Steps. I support other drunks who need a helping hand or just a kind word of encouragement. These are not extravagant promises. They come true if you work for them and if you let them. Luck's got nothing to do with it. Neither do I. Just my Higher Power. I love you and so does my Higher Power.

The Judgment of Paris: Discordia throws the golden apple into the banquet (to which she was not invited), and the rest, as they say is history. Unprecedented carnage, an Odyssey, the fall of Troy, death of Gods and Mortals alike, a stolen bride, and of course, the death of Paris himself. All because of one bad apple. Like the Waylon Jennings song goes, "there's one in every crowd, for cryin' out loud, why was it always turning out to be me?" Why indeed?

Recovery and the Twelve Steps are both living breathing organisms, institutions, theories, and principles, but they are solid and fundamental at the same time. That is the beauty and the mystery of our Program.

We get the conduct we tolerate. This is nowhere more important than the conduct we tolerate in ourselves.