Keys to the Kingdom

As the years go by, working together, sharing our experiences with one another, and also sharing a mutual trust, understanding and love -- without strings, without obligation -- we acquire relationships that are unique and priceless. There is no more aloneness, with that awful ache, so deep in the heart of every alcoholic that nothing, before, could ever reach it. That ache is gone and never need return again. . . .

In return for a bottle and a hangover, we have been given the Keys of the Kingdom.

c. 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 276