Polly P. – Step Four and the Inventory of the Now – 2012

Oh, my name is Polly Pistol and I'm an alcoholic. By God's grace in a program called Alcoholics Anonymous, I haven't had a drink since April the 11th of 1977 and for that I am eternally grateful. I have a home group and that's the West Connect Group in Jacksonville, Florida and I have a sponsor and my sponsor has a sponsor. And I'd like to thank Dick for inviting Dave and I, and I love this conference. I hope you guys are having a lot of fun. You're having a little bit of fun? You're doing a lot Of fun? Yay! Absolutely. Absolutely. And Chrissy, thank you so much. This is a go-to-any-links kind of gal. I mean, she's been in the hospital, she can't breathe, and she said, but I made a commitment. I said, well, Chrissy please don't die on the podium. You know? Anyway, that's AA at its finest, when you just suit up and show up no matter what. And I'm really, really excited to be here, and I feel like it's such a privilege to be with the people who are here this weekend and the people whom we're sharing this weekend are my heroes. And Ralph, baby, you just knocked it out of the park. And I feel very blessed today. I have a really, really beautiful AA sponsor, and she's been my sponsor for 30 years. And the first five years of my sobriety, I did not live in Southern California. And when I moved to Southern California, I had heard Dottie speak in Austin, Texas when I was three years sober. And I had no idea that I would ever, ever live in Southern California. And I sat there that day and I heard her talk and I said, if I ever live anywhere where that lady is, she'll be my sponsor. and uh in 1980 dave and i ended up moving or i guess it was sometime around there we ended up moving to southern california and uh lo and behold we started going to the big book group in bellflower uh californIA and that's where dotty h went and what i did is i asked dotty to be my sponsor, and she has been my sponsor ever since. And the good news is as I stand here in Atlanta, Georgia, and in two hours my sponsor Dottie will be at my house in Jacksonville, Florida because she's going to spend the next week with us. And I have a home group, and that's the West Connect Group in Jacksonville, Florida, that's going to celebrate their 50th anniversary and Dottie's our speaker. So, I mean, it just doesn't get any better than that. And I spoke to my son this morning, and he is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and his advice to me this morning was, Mom, this is the best day of your life because it's the only one you have. And I thought, wow, that's it. But you see, I'm one of these people that's always out here or I'm looking back. And this is the day. This is the Day that God has given us, and this is The Best Day of our life. And one of the things that I want to do today is live it to the fullest because it is the only day that God Has given us. And as long as I stay in the moment, as long as I stay in the moment, everything is going to be absolute. There's nothing as Dottie used to say is there's nothing bad happening to you right now. Right now. No matter what's going on, there's Nothing Bad Happening Right Now. So to just stay in The Now. And I'm grateful for that reminder. You know, it's just like kids are always the ones who tell you this stuff, you know. So I'm glad for that remainder. My job here today is to talk about steps four and five. And one of the things, Ralph, I really hope, I know you and Ron, and I've known, well, I've know Ron for a long time, and because of Woodstock have gotten to meet you, I need to meet your mother. I need to meet your mother every time you talk or Ronnie talks I think how did anybody I mean