Hello and welcome to Sobercast, where we provide A.A. Speaker meetings and workshops in podcast format.

We're an ad-free podcast, and if you enjoy listening, please help us be self-supporting by visiting Sobercast.com, look for the donate link and drop a dollar or two into our virtual

basket. We hope you enjoyed the podcast. Have a great day. Hi, family. My name is Alice, and I'm a

grateful, grateful, grateful member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Man, it's good to be here. My sobriety date is May 21st, 1987, and I have to say I'm surprised by that. I'm surprised to be 35 years sober. I got to Alcoholics Anonymous. I was 26 years old. I did not come to stay. I don't even think I came to stop drinking. I came because the pain was it crushing and I just was looking

for some relief. And the truth is if I could have found a way to get joyous and happy and free

and still drink, you'd have a different speaker today. That's the truth. But that's not that's not the

truth. The truth is that I had to give it up.

I had to give up that one thing to get everything. I want to thank Mel for, for starting this

meeting and for inviting me back. It's one thing to be invited. Oh, it's another thing to be invited back.

So I'm really, I'm really grateful and thank you tamer for

your your tireless service like man what what a shine in light and alcoholics anonymous

i love that you guys acknowledged um natasha for her service.

Like, I just love that.

Like, how important it is for us to acknowledge the people in the group that make things happen.

Andy, thanks for being a great host.

Liz, thank you for being our sobriety countdown person.

And thank you, Rachel, for reading, right?

Like, it takes a village.

It really, really does.

And so I'm here

to talk about a part of the book that I really love. And there are a couple of things I want to say

before I get started. I want to say that one of the most important things in my recovery today

...