Book excerpt: In the spiritual successor to the best-selling Touchstones, the author continues to explore masculinity and sobriety. Now well beyond recovery’s trailhead, we confront life itself: it isn’t merely abstinence and coping skills, it’s a triumph. Stepping Stones guides your self-help discovery along its next steps, ensuring your recovery finds inspiration, meaning, and brilliance. For many of us, sobriety began uncomfortably. Treatment and counseling unearthed addiction’s thumbprint—substance use, anger, resentments, and behavioral patterns around sex and intimacy—as well as challenged perspectives about religion and spirituality. As addictive behaviors and mind-sets gave way to both mental health and physical wellness, our new sense of self emerged, and our family and friends supported our continuing transformation. This self-help meditation book is designed for men to keep moving forward in recovery. Recovery is well-earned, but life never slows—nor should it. Stepping Stones advances a person’s recovery so that it emerges as a comfortable journey that stays in stride with a person’s overall life and experiences. It offers insight into the many masculine roles men undertake—father and son, friend and lover—and provides actionable meditations for leading a full life. Life isn’t about recovery; recovery is about life.