The Dignity of Walking Through It – Sheila A.

About This Speaker Tape

A yellow, slinky dress and hair like a bush filled with baby's breath. A prom date who had just bitten the head off a live frog. Sheila A. recalls the absurdity of a youth where the abnormal became normal, raised by alcoholic parents who drove on the wrong side of the street. She speaks of the "disease of perception," where alcohol blurred the wreckage of her life into something acceptable.

Her story is one of grit and hard landings: a Denny's uniform, an eight-year slip, and the gut-wrenching moment she woke from a blackout to find her son missing from his bed in the freezing Oklahoma cold. She describes the brutal discipline of a sponsor who overruled her head and taught her dignity, forcing her to stop "strutting around" and start acting like a lady. Through the 12 steps and a Higher Power, she moved from self-obsession to the quiet peace of forgiving a mother who died yellow and bloated from cirrhosis.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Sheila S. opens with her history of an eight-year slip and her early days in the room wearing a Denny's uniform.
• 3:15 Childhood memories of an alcoholic mother driving on the wrong side of the street and the sawdust on bar floors.
• 7:40 Discussion of self-obsession and the 'disease of perception' during her youth.
• 12:10 The prom disaster: the frog-eating date and the 'bush' hair.
• 18:50 The tragedy of her mother's death from cirrhosis and the final act of forgiveness.
• 24:10 The struggle of drinking and drugging during pregnancy and the support of her sponsor Peggy P.
• 31:20 The December 15th moment of clarity after nearly losing her son in the cold.
• 36:40 Laughter: Story about being arrested for a suspended license while being 'Happy, Joyous, and Free'.
• 41:15 The influence of a hardcore sponsor who taught her dignity and the importance of a bra.
• 46:30 The emotional release and healing regarding her mother at a convention workshop.
• 52:10 The loss of a twin baby and the lesson of looking at what is left rather than what is lost.