Thirty-two years ago marked the most important day of my life: I attended my first Twelve Step meeting. Happy Twelve Step-versary to me! I had no clue how my life would be transformed, the extent to which it would be. Nor had I a clue as to all the wonderful people I would encounter on that path.

I was a devout atheist, who for the prior five years had heard about the Twelve Step program, and had had no intention to willingly go and interact with a group of people who were going to use the ‘G’ word, i.e., God, when they spoke. That is the attitude I held despite my life-long struggle with overeating and binging; my hopelessness and despair; my aloneness because people didn’t understand me; and, a hole within me that food did not fill.

After doing some inner work on myself and severing myself from some unhealthy relationships, I found myself willing to dip my toe in the water when a second person, whose experience and advice I trusted, suggested the Program as a means to help with my eating disorder. That Saturday, March 10, 1990, I went to my first Twelve Step meeting in the morning, and I was Home. It was amazing! What I heard and the people I met so fed my soul that I went to two more meetings that day!

Today I celebrate my thirty-second anniversary of stepping into the rooms of recovery—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. I celebrate being given a guidebook on how to live life, interact with others, and have a relationship with a Power greater than myself that restored and maintains my sanity, that allows me to live happy, joyous, and free. I celebrate being part of a worldwide fellowship that is loving, understanding, caring, supportive, and fun! I celebrate being of service in helping others, giving of myself while simultaneously discovering my gifts and talents along the way. I celebrate all of the promises coming true.

Thank You, Spirit, for the birth of Alcoholics Anonymous, all the fellowships that sprung from it, and all the recovery and healing they have brought to countless souls. I am one of those blessed souls.