Passing It On: My Book

Recovery

By Donc on December 25, 2023 • ( 17 Comments )

As part of my morning disciplines (plan, read, write, pray, meditate, affirmations) I do a gratitude list. This daily work is critical to having a useful and productive day and staying in fit spiritual condition. Today’s gratitude list contained an item never there before in my 41 years of program. My paperback and digital (Kindle) book was published this morning on Amazon Books.  Food Was the Symptom, Not the Problem: 12 Steps to  New Life, by Don C. Why a book? Three reasons.

First, I feel I have a reservoir of useful information inside me that needs to be passed on while I can. I just turned 83. Need I say more. I used to have plenty of opportunities to share what I’ve learned over my 41 years.  Now there are less face-to-face opportunities, less retreats for me, less speaking, less sponsoring, less leading of step studies, and less opportunities at the region and world service levels because of my age and disability.

Secondly, to hold on to recovery and keep living the program in my new life of unfixable chronic pain and slowly increasing physical disability I needed to find something in which I could lose myself. I need to do something positive that overrides the negative. Writing has always been my top antidote for the depression I’ve fought all my life. It’s the same reason I started a blog in 2015. Writing is therapeutic for me. In this case it was an alternative to the opioids which the doctors attempted to prescribe.

And third, it’s pure 12^th step work. A lake, to stay clear and clean, needs a flow-in and a flow-out. My flow-in is working and living my 12-Step program.  My flow-out is passing it on  – passing on the program of recovery to others.

That’s why I wrote the book. Those of you who have followed my blog over the years will recognize some material from the blog, especially the chapter on Working the Steps for the First Time and the chapter on Living the Steps. These chapters are a distillation of multiple blog postings.

None of this means I’m finished. I’m not dead, just slowing down! I’m taking 25 people through the steps in a 15-week step study starting in two weeks. I have several sponsees I’m taking through the steps. I’m still involved in both intergroup and regional work. Thanks to zoom I’m still speaking 2-3 times a month. I plan to post much more frequently this year on the blog. And lastly, I’m working on another book. All this is about holding on to my freedom.

Categories: Recovery