transcript of Jimmy.K's share at WCNA 23.

 I learned in this program to be selfreliant. A lot of people think thats a dirty combination of words, but thats what this program teaches us to be. To be selfreliant because we know from where comes our power; because each of us has our own higher power as we understand it.

But thank God again you and I have another power that works in our fellowship and its the same for all of us. Isnt that a beautiful thing that we can have the best of both worlds. And what we have in each of us is a definition of our own beliefs in a power greater than ourselves, call it God if you will.

 But together we have a power who is much greater than all of us and this a part of service to another human being. So we can offer what we know from our experience to be a reality. And that we have in common; and that is what keeps us together most of the time regardless of our individual beliefs.

Twelfth step work is done in many ways. Some of the best people that I know in the program are those who listen to fools like me. They listen while we talk and they are doing better twelfth step work than we are. And most of them are the ones behind the scenes, that you dont see do the work. Theres a lot of work to be done, a lot of people sitting in this room tonight are doing a lot of work that is unseen, but that is the spiritual foundation of our program anonymity. To do something without asking for or looking for or accepting a reward in the normal, usual sense of the word. 

Yes we get our rewards in our own way. We get sobriety. We get peace of mind. We get selfrespect. But above all, we get back what we give outa four letter word that most of us didnt know when we got here... very simply, its love.

Ive said many times in the past and its something Im gonna say again because it seems to bear out what Ive always felt about this fellowship. The whole thing has been a learning experience, both in the individual sense and in the fellowship sense.                                                      

 Ive always been very highly idealistic and I find out that many other addicts are too, sometimes to the point of illusion. I learned many years ago in reading, as I do, many things. When the emotions are deep and strong, when the words that float on the surface are like a tossing buoy that betrays where the anchor is hidden and this poet told me to cling; cling to my beliefs and to what the world calls illusion.

 And many times in the past when weve started to die again and I had to hang onto the idea that the dream is worthwhile: that addicts could live and could recover and could grow and could go where theyre supposed to go; to walk like real men and women in the real world.       In the past 15 years in particular we have seen this happen.

Ive said before and Ill say one more time: A man without a dream is only half a man, and a fellowship without a vision is a farce.

But in NA weve combined our dreams and made our vision come true !