Things You Do When You’re a Sponsor

The phone rings. It’s one of people I’m sponsoring in OA. Here’s the conversation that followed.

Me: “So how you doing?”

Sponsee: “Not so good. There’s a bag of potato chips in the house and I want them badly.”

Me: “I see.”

Sponsee: “I’m not sure what to do.”

Me: “Get the bag of chips and do everything I say.”

Sponsee: “OK.”

Me: “Open the bag and stick it under the kitchen faucet.”

Sponsee: “Uh, OK…”

Me: “Turn the water on and fill up the bag.”

I hear the water running, so I’m pretty confident she’s doing what I suggested.

Sponsee: “OK. I did it.”

Me: “Now those chips don’t look very good to eat, now, do they?”

Sponsee: “No. Not at all.”

Me: “Now you can move on.”

Sponsee: “OK. But that really hurt.”

Me: “I’m sure it did.”

Later that night, Sponsee calls again. It’s after 10 p.m. and I was half asleep. She was hungry and wanted to know what to do.

Me: “Go to bed.”

She did.

This gal is a trooper. She’s following my lead with complete abandon. She is ready for abstinence.

She has been through a lot. She’s been through AA, Big-Book 12-Step studies, and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. She’s been to hell and back more than once.

And she is relying on me to help her.

I wonder if she realizes she has a lot more recovery under her belt than I do — and that she’s actually a lot stronger than I am.

I hope I don’t let her down.

Mood music to end this post: “Love, Hate, Love” by Alice in Chains:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPFGsGlHeos&hl=en_US&fs=1]

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