One of the things I like best about my sobriety? No one and nothing can take it from me. Think about it. How many things can any of us say that about?

   My love for my loved ones and my love of reading and music come to mind. However, things like jobs, relationships, cars, health, belongings, grades, reviews, pay, health insurance, car insurance, and people, can be taken from my life.

   But no one can my take my sobriety, or yours. Sobriety requires and deserves a solid foundation.

   Early on (I’ve been sober 22 years) there was talk of a higher power.  

   When I heard or saw the words, higher power, I thought, God, and found I didn’t believe in God as defined by religions.

And this is exactly the point I was making with a friend of mine named Gene one evening. The two of us were leaving an event and were walking to our cars in the parking lot.

I told him my dilemma. I knew my higher power could be anything I wanted but it meant God to me, and I wasn’t so sure about God. And then, in a single sentence, Gene changed my life.

“Start with this, Peter. When it comes to a higher power, as long as you know it’s not you. Don’t lose sight of that.”

My world was changed. Clarity.

For the first couple of years, my higher power was nature, Mother Nature. I trust nature. For the past 20 years and counting my higher power is honesty. Honest with myself, honest with others, stay in honesty’s lane. I have been in the honesty’s lane for 20 years.

There is something I am sure of. Whoever (or whatever) is the Big Moo of higher powers, I know it ain’t me.