Hello everyone, my name is Mike D. and I am an alcoholic.  It is good to meet some new A.A. friends who are outside of my A.A. circle and I am looking forward to getting to know all of you.  To help you get to know me, I will share a little bit about myself here.

          As you will probably gather, I am new to online recovery forums like this one, but I am not new to A.A.  In my home group, I am undoubtedly referred to as one of those crusty old-timers.  By working the 12 Steps of A.A., last January I celebrated 25 years of happy sobriety.  We have an abundance of large and small meetings here in the Midwest, but my home group is pretty big with 140 members most of them very young and very new.  So, there is no shortage of opportunities to do plenty of 12^th Step work here.  Sponsorship has been a very humbling and gratifying experience for me as I have kept myself busy bringing many young folks through the 12 Steps over my years of sobriety.  Not only has working with newcomers kept me sober, it has brought me a level of joy that I could never find in a bottle, or anywhere else.  Sponsorship has developed a love and compassion within me that I know I would not have otherwise, and an ever-increasing faith, as I have seen God do miracle after miracle.

 I would like to share with you a little bit about what I have been doing in the past several years.  In 1998 I began to expand my efforts at 12^th Step work and reach out to more recovering alcoholics who need help working the Steps.  So, along with individual sponsorship, and putting on Step workshops in my area, I have put my years of 12 Step experience into the form of the printed word.

           Working Step Eleven eventually led me to write a devotional book entitled The Healing Rosary for those in 12 Step Recovery, which I am told has helped a great number of folks with meditation over the past fifteen years.  And, just recently, I have published an ebook entitled Letting God In One Alcoholic Talks to Another About A.A.s Step Four.  This book is derived from my experiences with helping many sponsorees take the action of Step Four, and it addresses a wide variety of the many fear-based questions that people have as they try to begin to work this crucial Step.

           One thing I have learned in sobriety is that there are many effective and different ways that we all share our experience, strength, and hope with each other.  Im looking forward to learning from all of you in this 12 Step recovery forum.  In order to allow you to get to know more about me, please feel free to click on the link to my blogspot. http://mikedauthor.blogspot.com/ Thank you for letting me share.