Real Recovery Podcast — Episode 123 When the Light Found Her, Part 2: Nothing Wasted, Not Even the Hard Parts July 17, 2026  |  Hosts: Julie P. Lewis & Peter B. Dowell  |  Runtime: 1:07:00 Timecodes approximate — pending final edit

“I found a sister. I didn’t grow up with a sister, but I have a sister now. And every time I refer to you, it’s, ‘You’re my sister. You’re my spiritual sister,’ and that is everything to me.” — Jen L.

Key Points

• 00:01 Jen spent six months in IOP without once telling her family she had stopped drinking. Recovery was her private project first.
• 00:02 Her dad was dying of cancer. At 18 months sober, he waved a glass of whiskey in her face. She didn’t take it. She also never told him she’d stopped.
• 00:05 At age 12, Jen discovered her grandmother Lois in Reno was biological. She found the branch of the family where the disease ran — and finally had a name for it.
• 00:07 In her first five years of sobriety, Jen walked through what she calls a suicidal depression. She kept showing up anyway.
• 00:14 Dr. Angela, a Cherokee elder and professor at Reed College, gave eagle feathers at every AA birthday she attended. Jen and Julie both carry one.
• 00:35 Recovery League Softball: Jen joined five teams and averaged 12 games a week. The obsession for more doesn’t disappear in sobriety. It just finds new rooms.
• 00:39 Jen met Mickey through softball. She walked into a friend’s house and found a gun and a badge on the kitchen table. Mickey was a parole officer. Jen didn’t run.
• 00:45 When Peter was going through cancer, the fellowship showed up. What the tools of the program carry people through that willpower alone never could.
• 00:47 Tammy’s third step gift: “If it adds to you spiritually, it’s God’s will for you. If it takes from you in any way, it’s not God’s will.” Jen still uses it.
• 00:48 Jen’s higher power: driving into the woods alone. What she finds when she breathes in the wind on her face.
• 01:01 Jen and Julie have been riding this train together for 29 years. What it means to call someone your spiritual sister — and what Jen says at the end about nothing going to waste. Not the grief, not the hard years, not even the parts she’d trade if she could.

Websites Discussed

• The Grotto — National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother, Portland
• Recovery League Softball
• Real Recovery Podcast

Listen Blog Post Newsletter #RealRecoveryPodcast  #RecoveryIsPossible  #AddictionRecovery  #SoberLife  #LGBTQRecovery  #AA Real Recovery Podcast is a production of Real Recovery Podcast Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.