But I was very fortunate to have found the right sponsor - at my second meeting. She must have seen something in me - my "gift of desperation," maybe? 
) - and she reached out to me and told me what to do. Even so, it took me awhile, but she stuck right with me, she was an incredible human being, no doubt about it, and helped so many people.
And I got stuck on the Steps where most people don't, the Higher Power belief, but all I was asked was if I had an open mind and I certainly do - I'm a liberal Democrat after all! And it didn't hurt that my sponsor was Jewish, so any religious component was up to me - but what confuses a lot of people I've noticed is the conflation of religion and spirituality. I'm not religious, but the "power of the rooms," people helping and supporting each other, is what has worked for me. If religion works for some people, good for them, but that's not really what it's about.
And I lost my sponsor a year ago this month. She wasn't all that well when I met her, but defied the odds and almost made 16 years when she doubted she'd make it to "two digits," as she used to say. Her birthday was also a week ago today. I miss her a lot and have yet to find a new sponsor which I know I need to do (she had a sponsor and her sponsor has a sponsor), but she was pretty special and I haven't yet found someone who I feel that connection to and could measure up to my friend, Sue. 
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