I was thinking today
About the 80th birthday of AA
How much has changed from the days of old
When they’d lock us up or leave us in the cold
Back in Akron is where it came from
Two men started a journey
a movement that changed the world
one alcoholic talking to another
one hand reaching out to the hopeless
how more than one hundred men have recovered from alcoholism
that’s what the cover page on our book read all those years ago
now the hundreds are men and women and millions more
Once, a lifetime ago for some of us,
we didn’t care about anyone but ourselves
now we seek out others to help, only giving of ourselves
A power greater than yourself
Your own conception of “God”
That’s all that is necessary to make a beginning…
Well, and maybe an open mind
I have 21 years of sobriety
It doesn’t seem a possibility
That the man I am today
Could even be alive this way
Today, and every day
I reach out my hand
Think about the other man
Share what was so freely given to me
So another might be free
