Why Adversity Is Part of the New Way to Live – Jim S.

I noted pretty damn quick with that. Hi everyone, my name is Jim Shaw and I'm an alcoholic. As those of you from who regularly attend the Pacific can tell this is was an extemporaneous deal because I don't have a tile and I did the best I could with what I had to do with I am the mountain high conference has been a big part of my life of course you couldn't be involved in married to and what have you about this conference without having it be a big part of you. But I don't want to slight the rest of my time in Alcoholics Anonymous either. I may have to go up a little bit, so I don' t know if you'll bother to just stay along with me. And when I first came to Alcoholics Anonymous, a desperate soul. I had nothing around me that looked like support. It looked like everybody was out to get him. And that him was me. And then I came to Alcoholics Anonymous and he told me to do some simple things. Well, can you take an arrogant so-and-so like myself and bring him to Alcoholic Anonymous? And say, oh, now you've got 12 wonderful steps to work and it's going to be all fun and enjoy every step of the way and you're gonna really change your life entirely we don't ask much of you but we want you to change your lives entirely and so I came in here and started to change my life trying to change and went long and joyous it really was something else and one night I was standing up in the and I mean at the civic group and I was taking a year's cake and I was given a sterling silver lighter which said architect in diversity so if you carry that lighter not many but some and that was giving to me my sponsor my sponsor gave me that that means that that lighter as a symbol of the work we have to do in order to to build our lives and a lot of times they're adversaries adversity there and we have to keep on building Adversity is something we all face. We've all faced it. Every single one of us here has faced adversity, and alcoholism does not promise that we won't face adversity. what it says is that we will be given a new way to live our lives which includes adversity and joy and all the other good things but the adversity sometimes comes to all of us everybody has their chance in the barrel everybody does and I want you to know that it seems to me like in the last few years I've had my share of it. But when I look back at it, that's not so. I've got a loving wife that I've been with for almost 15 years now. I've heard a marriage that I never dreamed I could have because you see I wasn't good at marriages. I was one of these kind of guys that I was on these kind of guys that didn't know how to make a relationship or a marriage work and when I did listen to the advice that was given to me it worked almost singly every time and so that was giving to me by Alcoholics Anonymous and you people and so you've given me a whole lot. I've had a lot of trouble when I first came to AlcoholicsAnonymous my daughter was still drinking and i loved my daughter my son was drinking today i uh i can tell you that one out of two ain't bad my daughter has got uh she is now has 12 years of sobriety and for that i'm extremely grateful we have a relationship my daughter and i that is something i never dreamed could happen we all i think in alcoholics anonymous i think we are all about relationships of some kind whether it be trying to learn how to have one whether being in one or whether being anyone and then satisfied with it there's no key on that last scenario and that's not it takes a lot of work to get that done it may take plenty of tries it may take a lot of tries but we got to keep on going and we got to keep in front of us the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous I've never seen it successfully done any other way as members of AA have tried I want to thank a couple of people that have been more than important in my life there is a young lady who has been very close with me and my business in Alcoholics Anonymous and who has been, who came to me she had no skills and I'm not saying how great a guy I am because I'm telling you what great gal she has made herself made herself turn out to be she has she was just stuffing letters when she first came to work for me for advertising and it's very important to me the way I watch that young lady one day one of the guys said you know you're going to have to have somebody that man right there said we're gonna have to have somebody to replace me he says I think that April can do it why don't we let April come over and see if you do it and so she started doing it and she you know in a length of time it seems very short she was running the whole darn thing but that was because of her willingness in her program and I did not want to leave here today without showing my recognition to April thank you for your information as a little side light there as far as commitment ago she She has done the, on the, all of the write-ups and the mailings and that sort of thing up until the last couple of years. She has been totally responsible for it. And so it's not without her alcoholic anonymous commitment that that happened. I also want to thank Tracy, and Tracy and I have had our times, but Tracy is just like me or anybody else out there. She's out there trying to find a way to make herself, to find a path to go by. And it doesn't have to agree with mine, as long as that path is what it needs to get there and stay sober and be a part of Alcoholics Anonymous. So I want to Thank you, Tracy. Today I'm going to be followed by a speaker who is the oldest number of years that I have sponsored him. He is the youngest guy that I've ever sponsored. He's the oldest guy that we have sponsored in Alcoholics Anonymous as far as terms of years of sobriety. I have watched that young man come in here and grab hold of the program. And I'm even glad. Within 24 hours, my wife had him out on, oh it was an A service, a couple of getting married, a couple AA people getting married. And so she had him out there at late digging up rocks to put bring in, put around the things she was gonna have for an ornamental thing. So but my friend Alvin did all that stuff and he didn't buy he just kept right in there and jumped right in here and did it now I've got to tell you about my group I know I missed somebody, I'm sorry already I knowI missed some of you because there's people like Jack and Carol, what's her name there's people like Jack and Carol who have been close to us so close, I can't I just can't tell you how close they are just more than relatives more than that more than how to buy a shot whole big shot and they have given to me like nobody's business and it just is this there's no way to say thank you for that and like I said I'll pass I miss on some of you because I just don't have my memories also failing and the speakers that we've had here they've all had to do their thing and they did it well very well this weekend i think and uh just a number of things like that that are kind of surround what we're doing today and one of the things i'd like to say to you is that this fellowship has been my inspiration has been total way of life and it has always been running around and hit me in the nose where it says we're always looking for his will and for us and the power to carry it out that's all we're looking for not a new cadillac here or a diamond ring over here we're looking for the power of his will for us will his will progress and power to carry it sometimes that's not really easy to take I want to thank this group my home group, the Pacific group without whom I could not have stayed sober that's a blunt statement and very broad but I want to tell you this individual needed precisely what this individual got and that was the hands and the love and endearment that I found in A.A. and the Pacific Group of A. A. I wouldn't be remiss in saying, you see, that turning the barrel was coming up for me. and many of you know that I have uncurable cancer and that there's a limited time. I don't know what it is but I do know this much. The one thing I'll miss is, but I probably will be watching if I know me. Every Wednesday night I'll I'll be watching that group stand right out in front, making a line. And I'll watch that bunch sitting up on the chairs and that sort of thing. And I kick a little tail here, give a little accolade there, you know. But if it's something that people have asked me, are you afraid? No, I'm not afraid. I really am not afraid Well, I've disappointed, yes, because there's a lot of things to do. I've got a lot Of things I'd like to have done. I had a lot of places I'd like to have gone and I may not get to go there now miracles happen if they do God I'm right here I'm not here but if they're not God please let me face my destiny with some with some courage and with some dedication just as I have watched you people be dedicated this is not something for us to be sad about it really is not it is not something to be sad about I want to thank you all for being part of my life I want to thank Thomas Sells for doing an excellent job here being a very close personal friend and having done it in a real good job in the way he's done it all i know is that i can say in closing to you people is this you are what you are and i am what you are because of what you want and the principles that we laid down here are the best that possibly could be laid down for a person of my makeup we'll see you in the coming days thank you very much