Hi I'm Bill and I'm Old: Reinventing My Sobriety for the Long Haul

William Alexander

Jul 2009 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

For baby boomers and beyond—an honest, often humorous look at how staying clean and sober takes on a new dimension as the challenges of aging are thrown into the mix.

"Funny, courageous, and empowering. In exploring the richness of his own life, Alexander celebrates and invites us to discover the uniqueness and wisdom within ourselves. This book is a gift to those of us who are old, and even more, perhaps, to those who are young." Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel, author of Big Mind, Big Heart: Finding Your Way ,"Moving between the intimacy of self-revelation and the universality of spiritual wisdom, Alexander takes us on an absorbing and illuminating journey to the outer edges of life." Kevin Griffin, author of One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve StepsOut of author William Alexander's personal reflections and hard-won insights emerges an unconventional approach to the challenges of achieving and maintaining real sobriety--"a radical way of living on this earth, endlessly honest, open, and willing"--that come with aging. Beginning with the admission that we are as powerless over growing old as we are over our addictions, Bill takes readers on a journey of discovery and, in doing so, overturns the clich鳠of age, revealing how he was able to let go of old ideas about "self," experience meditation in a new light, and discover the virtues of simplicity. With one foot planted in the principles of AA, and the other in his ever-evolving personal spiritual journey blending Eastern and Western traditions, Hi, I'm Bill and I'm Old helps people in recovery embrace the unique challenges that come with age as lessons for reinventing their own sobriety.William Alexander is a writer, storyteller, and teacher who leads sobriety workshops at such venues as Union Theological Seminary, the Esalen Institute, and Hazelden Foundation. He is the author of Cool Water and Still Waters.

About the author

William Alexander is a self-described "free-lance storyteller" who leads sobriety workshops at such venues as Union Theological Seminary, the Esalen Institute, and Hazelden Foundation. He has lived and travelled throughout the U.S. and Central America. Alexander stopped drinking and using drugs in 1984 and has since been working to move from what he refers to as a "deeply self-centered" life to an "other-centered" life. He is an Episcopalian with a Buddhist spiritual practice. He recounted his recovery story in the classic book, Cool Water, and his story of living the sober life in Still Waters. Alexander wrote Hi, I'm Bill and I'm Old when, after 23 years of sober living, he found himself "romancing the drink" in a reverie. He writes, "I saw, quickly enough, that the only way to move into a useful elder life was to completely re-vision my life, based in whatever wisdom and experience I had gained over all those years of living what I call 'radical sobriety.'"