I Paid Half a Million Dollars for a Big Book - AA Speaker - Adam T.

Out of Dirt Comes Flowers - AA Speaker - Vaughn Q.

Father Vaughn says the dirt is beautiful, because out of the pain, wreckage, and defeat of alcoholism, something living can finally grow. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116] ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Father Vaughn shares a funny, forceful, and deeply spiritual AA talk about alcoholism, recovery, freedom, grace, and the lived experience of the Twelve Steps. With stories from his life as a priest, hockey player, drinker, and longtime worker with alcoholics, he talks about the conflict between behavior and values, the danger of cheap grace, the importance of laughter, the need to stop being spectators in recovery, and why the steps have to be internalized rather than merely observed. He digs into surrender, self-acceptance, the Fourth and Fifth Steps, forgiveness, sexuality, shame, love, service, and the sacred responsibility of carrying a message that may be the only “big book” another suffering person ever reads. It is a lively, old-school AA talk about becoming fully alive, letting grace work through the wreckage, and learning that out of the dirt can come flowers. Father Vaughn Q. speaking at Comox AA Rally in British Columbia, Canada - 1999 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

The Glee of This Moment - AA Speaker - Carla R.

After years of running, surviving, and trying to escape herself, Carla found something in AA she never expected: the ability to be awake in this moment. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116] ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Carla, sober since September 25, 1987, shares a powerful and deeply human AA talk about growing up in instability, discovering early that alcohol could do something for her she could not do for herself, and trading away pieces of her life for the effect it produced. She talks about running away, juvenile halls, psychiatric hospitals, damaged relationships, motherhood, sponsorship, inventories, amends, trauma, forgiveness, and the slow rebuilding of a life inside Alcoholics Anonymous. Carla also shares how AA helped her become present for her daughter, her mother, her family, her sponsors, and the people who now need what she was freely given. With humor, honesty, and a lot of grace, she points toward the simple miracle at the center of her recovery: waking up, staying close, and learning to live fully in the moment she used to spend her life trying to escape. Carla R. from Tujunga, CA speaking at the 60th Gopher State Roundup in Bloomington, MN - May 26th 2013 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

5,000 Meetings Before I Heard Step One - AA Speaker - Tom P.

Tom had years in AA, thousands of meetings, and still drank again. Then one Big Book talk in treatment finally explained what he had missed. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Track your sober time, take a daily pledge, listen to trusted AA speakers, use beautiful home screen widgets, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116 [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116]   ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter [https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter]   Tom shares a direct and hard-hitting AA talk about starting to drink at a young age, living restless, irritable, and discontent without alcohol, spending years around Alcoholics Anonymous, and still missing the core of the program. He talks about treatment centers, discussion meetings, slogans, “thinking through the drink,” long stretches of meeting attendance, and the frightening moment when all of that still failed to keep him sober. In treatment after his relapse, Tom finally heard the Big Book explained in a way he says he had never heard in thousands of meetings: the physical allergy, the mental obsession, the spiritual malady, and the need for a spiritual solution followed by carrying the message to others. He gets into why meetings are not the solution by themselves, why working with other alcoholics matters, why delaying the steps can be dangerous, and how taking the steps quickly changed his life into one built around service, sponsorship, and watching other alcoholics recover. Tom P. from Dallas, TX speaking at the Casa Group of AA in Dallas, TX - November 27th 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Don’t Let Me Meet God With Alcohol on My Breath - AA Speaker - Grant P.

Grant hit the end of half-measures with one desperate thought: he didn’t want to meet God with alcohol on his breath. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Grant shares a funny, painful, and deeply honest AA talk about growing up alone in a rigid military home, losing his athletic future to a brain tumor, taking his first drink at 17, and slowly crossing the line from controlled drinking into hiding beer in spare tires, wrecking cars, damaging his family, and trying to manage alcoholism his own way. He talks about white-knuckling, coming to AA, continuing to drink between meetings, and finally reaching the kind of pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization that made him willing to do whatever it took. Grant also shares powerful moments from recovery: hearing that God would not bring him into a room with the answer just to deny it to him, finding a sponsor, taking the steps, making peace with his father, discovering the truth about his childhood, and becoming a man who could love, forgive, and be useful. Grant P. from St. Paul, MN sharing his story at the St. Paul open speakers meeting in St. Paul, MN - January 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

At the Christening of AA - AA Speaker - Paul K.

Paul says he was not there at the birth of Alcoholics Anonymous, but he was there at the christening. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Paul K. shares an old-school AA talk with 46 years of sobriety, reflecting on early Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr. Bob, the Oxford Group influence, the Four Absolutes, sponsorship, surrender, inventory, amends, traditions, and the spiritual simplicity he saw in the fellowship’s early days. He talks about coming into AA when it was already “in place and working,” being sponsored through direct action, taking the Third Step on his knees in front of the group, using honesty, unselfishness, purity, and love as guides for inventory, and learning through painful amends that restitution could become an act of love. Paul also speaks tenderly about his wife, their shared sobriety, and Dr. Bob’s final message to keep the program simple: love and service. Paul K. from Akron, OH speaking at the Deep South AA Convention in New Orleans, LA - April 8th-10th 1988 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu