We never rest on our laurels…

When I came in to AA I learned how to be honest, unselfish, and to genuinely care about other people through the acts of unselfish service...And I laughed a lot.

NA taught me to take a look at those pills I used to steal from my Mama's medicine cabinet.

When I joined ACA, I found my heart. I learned about feelings, boundaries, limits, and later, needs.

When I joined OA and FA I solidified techniques to have a strong heart, a small, firm waist line, soft skin, clear lungs, and a more quiet mind.

I quit smoking pretty early on, as I couldn't breathe at night, and there was, as of yet, no program for that.

When I joined DA I found how to be free of the anxiety of debt, underearning, overspending and extrapolated their ideas to learn to save, invest and to buy things at a good price.

When I join SLAA I learned how to rid myself of the shame of masturbation, and the fear of being caught in affairs. I learned freedom from objectification, fantasy, and intrigue. I also learned the joys of intimate and committed sex.

When I join WA, Workaholic Anonymous, and told them "I can't quit working the steps" they were a little perplexed, but I knew I needed to learn to be OK without doing anything...And I learned to repose...

I joined Al-anon and Coda and learned not to be a people pleaser or a door mat, and not to shame, blame or control when I felt angry, from feeling hurt.

The GA folks, Gamblers Anonymous, taught me to keep an eye on day trading in the stock market.

In Oregon five years ago, they started caffeine anonymous, but it failed.

In the last 28 years it's the only recovery I have relapsed on. But, I kicked it to the curb a couple years back.

All along I felt like a merchant searching for spiritual jewels.

One day, I met a 5' 1" Columbian man with the worst English you have ever heard.

In him I saw a quality, or a combination of qualities I had never seen before in a human.

Clarity unlike anything I have ever seen. An astounding intuitive intelligence, tremendous power in personal relationships and, most useful to me, a resilience that instinctively protected him from the vicissitudes of life.

He was funny, deeply compassionate, brilliant, energetic, powerful, dynamic and humble to his God...If you could understand what he was saying.

I saw the pearl I was looking for, within him.

I knew it wasn't him. It was the kingdom of God within him, that he had purchased at a great price...and that price was chastity.

He had spent ten years in a Catholic monastery and could comfortably pay the price for the kingdom.

I was, honestly, much, much poorer than him spiritually and could not pay that price...

But I sold everything I had to buy it: A beautiful 2600 sq. foot, state of the art, home. I left a business I had had for 25 years, and I left a

marriage to the prettiest woman you have ever seen, and one day at a time,

I try to purchase the pearl of great price, just for today...it gives me peace.