June G. – Step 12 – The Slow Educational Variety of Awakening – 2021

About This Speaker Tape

June maps out a life that began with drinking at age eight and ended in a total collapse—no home, no family, and a desperate desire to die. She describes her spiritual awakening not as a lightning bolt, but as a slow process of prying boards off her windows to let the light in. With 49 years of sobriety, June dismantles the idea of the 'intellectual professor' and instead emphasizes the grit of early AA: the row of sport coats for the poor, the 60-mile walk of a Native A. speaker, and the courage of Sybil, the first woman to get sober west of the Mississippi

. June traces her own shift from a 'taker' to someone who finds purpose in the smalls—like serving mustard and ice as a waitress—viewing these mundane acts as a form of service that broke her bondage of self.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 June opens by emphasizing that AA is free, noting she couldn't afford a dollar in the basket for her first ten years.
• 4:15 June describes her childhood drinking and the 'jumping off place' she reached before sobriety.
• 8:20 Metaphor: The boards nailed to the windows of the spirit and the slow process of letting light in.
• 11:30 Discussion of Step 12 and the 'joy of living' as the theme of the step.
• 13:15 Laughter: The Eskimo story about the atheist in the snowstorm.
• 17:40 AA History: The story of Sybil and the early struggles of women in the fellowship.
• 24:10 June reflects on her 49 years of sobriety and the feeling of being 2000 years old when she started.
• 28:30 Story: The 40th anniversary trip to Denver and the drunk guy in the van.
• 33:10 June admits to reading the Big Book out of ego to avoid feeling inferior in her home group.
• 37:45 Discussion of the 'bondage of self' and the shift from being a taker to a giver.
• 42:10 Story: Sandy Beach calling from the emergency room at midnight to help a newcomer.
• 46:50 June describes finding spiritual purpose while working as a waitress, serving mustard and ice.