I've been meaning to write about this when it first happened.  I don't know why I put it off.  Today I received a phone call that reminded of the incident which seems the perfect time to finally post it.

I've witnessed many things that I thought could be called miraculous.  Many were things that happened to me while I was active in Narcotic Anonymous.  Like my impending twenty-year prison sentence being dismissed before I even had to go to court.  I heard the news, I was at work.  I dropped to my knees and cried.  I'm still clean -- 17 years 6 months 5 days.  Although I no longer attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings, I still follow the principles and I am still in contact with many recovering addicts.

Today I received a call from DA to tell me how much she appreciated what I had taught her.  I couldn't imagine what she was referring to since I hadn't seen DA in a dogs age, at least.  That's when she reminded me of the talk we once had and "the medallion".

Sixteen years ago, I was sponsoring a young girl.  I met her at a meeting when she was still in a halfway house.  She liked what I had to say and saw something in me she wanted to emulate -- basically, she liked my recovery -- so she asked me to sponsor her.  I agreed.  When she had two years clean I gave her a special silver and gold medallion with the roman number II on it -- sample here.  The design has changed some.  Back in those days, the lettering was smaller and there was room to have the medallion personalized.  On the medallion I had engraved my initials (FC), my sponsor's initials (EP), her sponsor's initials (LP) and her sponsor's initials (DA) ... four women all in the same sponsorship line with an approximate 50 years of combined recovery.  I wanted my sponsee to see that recovery works.  I wanted her to know that she could go to any one of those women (in essence, her grand-sponsor, great grand-sponsor and great great grand-sponsor) if she needed a ear or a shoulder and especially if she wasn't getting what she needed from me.

Through the years, several of us have relapsed -- CR -- who was the young girl I sponsored, EP -- my sponsor and DA, my great grand-sponsor.  EP is still using -- she says, "because I want to".  CR returned to recovery but DA bounced in and out of recovery.  One night at a meeting I hugged her and told her that I had faith in her -- that I knew she could do it.  She said she was going to try but that she was skeptical.  "Have you ever seen anyone relapse and come back to accumulate any kind of clean time?"  "Yes," I said, "me."  I had relapsed at nine years clean, stayed loaded for several years and by the time we had that discussion, I had five years clean again.  DA continued to bounce in and out of recovery for years.

Last month, DA celebrated two years clean!  A whole two years.  Quite remarkable for someone who's been in the revolving door of active addiction for about ten years.  CR, who used to be at the bottom of the sponsorship line, now has more recovery than DA and is sponsoring her.  On the night that DA was going to a meeting to be recognized for two years clean, CR called me.  Crying, she told me that she still had the medallion and would be giving it to DA at the meeting that evening.  The same medallion that had DA's initials on it when she was at the top of the sponsorship line.  Then I cried -- it made me so proud of them both.

It's amazing -- a gesture of faith, a kind word, a gentle hug -- these things affect people and it stays with them for years to come. DA was the woman who hugged me, loved me when I was no longer lovable and gave me faith when I was crawling out of the gutter ... gave me kindness freely and graciously ... later on, because of the gifts she gave me, I was able to share them with her.  Now, seventeen years later we've come full circle.  We may have changed places in the sponsorship line but one thing will never change -- the love between women bound together by the same struggle and the same triumph, one day at a time.

Missing the Redwoods to the tune of:
Outside: From the Redwoods
By Kenny Loggins