Clif G Steps 8-9 Southern Maryland Roundup 2026Clif G Steps 8-9 Southern Maryland Roundup 2026
Mad Dog Recovery AA Speakers
Clif Gooding shares his experience with AA’s Steps 8 and 9, focusing on making amends, rebuilding family and professional relationships, and finding spiritual meaning in everyday life. Through humorous and moving stories, he shows how simple actions like writing a name on a list can lead to unexpected change.
1:05:07•13 Apr 2026
Clif G on Steps 8 and 9: Amends, Family, and Being “Just the Ass Carrying the Message”
Episode Overview
- Making a Step 8 list is only about writing names; sponsors help decide timing and approach for actual amends.
- Staying in the present moment reduces fear, because fear often lives in the past and future where God is not being experienced.
- Financial and relational amends are about balancing the ledger, regardless of whether the other person says repayment is necessary.
- Service to other alcoholics and communities, such as professional groups, grows from amends and demonstrates a Higher Power at work.
- Powerful healing can occur in family relationships when amends are made, sometimes leading to meaningful final moments with loved ones.
“"All that was because I was willing to put a name on a piece of paper and take that piece of paper to my sponsor and say, what do I do next?"”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This talk from Clif Gooding at the Southern Maryland Roundup focuses on Steps 8 and 9 of Alcoholics Anonymous, bringing humour, honesty and plenty of real-life experience to the sometimes scary topic of amends. Clif shares how he came back to AA in 2001 not to stop drinking, but because his wife had thrown him out and he needed a way back into the house.
From there, he walks through how the steps slowly built a path he couldn’t see at first: getting right with God, with himself, and then with other people through amends. He jokes that Alcoholics love to time travel into the past and future, and explains how he learned to "be where my feet are" so he could actually do the next right thing.
You’ll hear powerful, down-to-earth stories: making amends to his parents after years of distance, being present as both his mum and dad took their last breaths, paying back a downtown landlord who once evicted his law firm, and then being welcomed back into the same building. When someone later asked, "How did you get back here?", Clif saw that his life had become a quiet demonstration of a Higher Power at work.
Clif also talks about service to other alcoholics, the importance of sponsorship, and the way AA gatherings "re-energise" people so they’re ready when the next suffering alcoholic walks through the door. With lines like "I came here to get back in the house" and "I'm just the ass carrying the message", the tone stays light while never forgetting, as he puts it, "there's nothing funny about alcoholism".
If you’re wondering what real amends look like, or you’re stuck on Step 8 or 9, this talk might be the nudge to start your own list and ask, "What do I do next?"
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