Hey friend — if you’ve got a few minutes, sit with me for Stacy Cook’s talk from the A Shotglass of Recovery speaker series. Stacy lays it all out: a childhood of emotional starvation and adoption, stealing and trouble as a kid, finding alcohol at 12 and instantly knowing she’d be back for more. She doesn’t sugarcoat the wreckage — homelessness, institutions, arrests, and the chaos of being someone who could never drink safely.

But this is also a story of bright, messy miracles: a woman named Donna who took her in, a first experience of belonging in an AA meeting, going from renting a trundle bed to finishing college and later working in a field she never trained for — all because she kept showing up and doing the next right thing. Stacey’s life explodes with service: building meetings inside prisons (even death row), taking meetings nationwide, and eventually speaking at international events — things she once thought impossible.

She gets honest about relapse too: after 20 years sober she drank again and lost everything, even selling her body to survive and hurting her daughter. The return to sobriety came in 2013 after a desperate prayer and a series of humbling steps back into AA. Stacy emphasizes that staying sober is easier than getting sober, and explains how emotional sobriety and a relationship with a higher power rewired her life more than meetings, service, or willpower ever could.

There are tender threads throughout — finding her birth mother through DNA, facing hereditary cancer and lifesaving surgeries, and being lifted by unexpected connections (including men on death row who reached out during COVID). Her message is simple and fierce: you don’t have to be alone, keep coming back, find the sponsor and tribe that answer your “dog whistle,” and lean into God (or your chosen higher power) — that’s where the real change happens.

If you want an unvarnished, hopeful talk about the wreckage and the wonders of recovery — complete with humor, humility, and service — Stacy’s story is one to listen to again and bring a friend to. She signs off reminding listeners to subscribe, leave a review, and support the show if it helps them — because recovery is a circle: we give more than we ever imagined we’d get.

A Shot Glass of Recovery

Welcome back to A Shot Glass of Recovery! Whether you're a first-time listener to A Shot Glass of Recovery or a loyal member from my 2 Sober Chicks days, I’m glad you’re here. 🌟

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