I Was in Prison Before I Ever Got to Prison - AA Speaker - Wallace B.

I Had One Relationship 20 Times - AA Speaker - Keith L.

Keith says he used to think he had 20 relationships, until he realized he had one relationship 20 times. ☀️ 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 Keith, sober since May 13, 1973, shares a thoughtful and funny AA talk about relationships, isolation, emotional immaturity, sponsorship, marriage, friendship, and learning how to grow up inside Alcoholics Anonymous. He talks about coming into AA at 29 but feeling emotionally 15, treating people like cut-out figures in his life, needing to be different, plotting revenge, stalking instead of dating, and slowly discovering that sex, attention, and control were not the same thing as real relationship. Keith moves through the lessons AA taught him about discovering who he is, accepting who he is, and then forgetting himself through service and availability to others. He also speaks about covenant, marriage, his wife Julia, children, siblings, sponsorship, motives, and the sacred responsibility that comes with the people God places in our lives. It is a mature, honest AA talk about moving from isolation into connection, and from self-centered need into love, responsibility, and usefulness. Keith L. from Wilmington, NC speaking about relationships at a 12 step workshop given by Mike W. - May 3rd 2002 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

A Belly Full of Fear and a Head Full of AA - AA Speaker - Pat P.

Pat says his wife went back to work and told him they were going to build their lives stick by stick. In sobriety, that is exactly what happened. ☀️ 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 Pat shares an honest AA talk about losing jobs, family, housing, self-respect, and freedom to alcoholism before finding a sponsor who came to the county jail to “see a drunk” and took him into Alcoholics Anonymous one meeting at a time. He talks about workhouses, homelessness, failed attempts at responsibility, a marriage damaged by drinking, the fear and anxiety that followed him into early sobriety, and the old-timers who put a finger in his chest while also showing him how to change. Pat also shares how the steps, sponsorship, meetings, prayer, and the example of other sober men helped him become present for his wife, children, work, union responsibilities, service, and eventually a daughter who found her own way into AA. It is a grounded, grateful story about rebuilding a life slowly, staying close to the people who tell the truth, and protecting the self-respect that sobriety gave back. Pat P. from Cleveland, OH speaking at the C.A.H. group in Euclid, OH - December 21st 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

What You’re Looking For, You’re Looking With - AA Speaker - Ed M.

Ed learned from Chuck C. that what we came to AA looking for, we were already looking with. ☀️ 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 Ed M., sober since January 5, 1971, leads a funny, blunt, and deeply spiritual Mother’s Day retreat on alcoholism, emotional maturity, spiritual sobriety, and living the Twelve Steps in every area of life. He shares his own story of early drinking, violence, resentment, faith, amends, forgiveness, ministry, family pain, and the surprising life AA opened up for him, then moves into a practical look at powerlessness, surrender, inventory, anger, defects of character, and the need to keep applying the program beyond alcohol alone. With stories about Big John, Clancy, Chuck C., treatment-center confusion, carrying the message through tapes, forgiving the men involved in his father’s murder, and learning to stop living from old “ones,” Ed keeps returning to the same simple point: the answer was never missing, but the application has to become real. Parts 1-3 of Ed M. from Davenport, IA speaking at a Mothers Day Retreat - 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

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