A conversation we’re grateful to have, and a friend we can still listen to again.

A canopy, a sign, and a year of stories we're still grateful for.

It's almost the middle of October. Peter caught himself telling someone the date and realized the month is already half over. The holidays are right around the corner, our harvest party is coming up, and the Freedom Awards are the night before. Neither of us feels ready. Peter even needed new slacks because his old ones fit two of him. He's lost weight since his cancer treatment, and he's looking at the positives. "That's what got me through and keeps me going."

A Wednesday meeting, a hospital bed, and a reason to stay.

Cade wouldn't give up his Wednesday home group to record with us. We asked about that night, and he told us it belonged to his meeting. It's where he got sober, where his sponsor goes, and where his guys go. We respected that and found another night.

Cade M. is 23. He tells us he finally got sober at 19, after an earlier attempt at 18. He talks honestly about drinking and drug use, treatment in Minnesota, and the people he hurt along the way. In a hospital bed, a thought about wanting another pill made him recognize something about himself. That realization didn't mean he stayed sober right away.

He wanted people his own age around him. Young people's meetings gave him a place to fit in and have fun without getting loaded. He could hear the similarities in their stories. Following the suggestions was another matter. Get a sponsor. Get into the book. Do the work. He heard those things, but says he didn't listen to them.

A lost baseball dream. A nurse's advice to wait five years. A job that let Brad be of service.

How does someone who dreamed of playing college baseball end up helping people choose treatment instead of prison? Brad O. told us about the long road between those two lives. His drinking and drug use cost him his baseball goal. He remembers sitting in jail and seeing his son's mother with their baby in her arms, trying to get him out.

Treatment did not make everything easy. Brad kept going to AA meetings, even through two and a half years when he was smoking weed. He told Julie and me about the one-year coin his sponsor made him give back. At a gas station, two women from his home group found him. One gave him a hug. Brad says that was the moment he knew he needed to trust the fellowship.

While he was in treatment, a nurse listened as Brad talked about becoming a counselor. She told him he might be good at it, but to take care of himself for about five years first. When Brad reached five years sober, he spoke up at a community meeting about the lack of treatment options in rural Colorado. The director of a local detox offered him a job. Brad has worked in the field ever since.

The friend who came for him. A trip they have yet to take. Hope to pass on.

"I needed proof. Matt was my proof."

Walter Bailey said that about his best friend Matt in Part 2 of our conversation. In Part 1, Matt was the person Walter called from a trap house in Northeast Portland. This time, Matt has asked Walter to choose a trip they can take together. They settled on Kona. Walter says he has never been. What stays with him is the person who asked him to go.

We also talked about the parts of recovery that keep changing. Walter has been sober for years, but he still catches himself thinking he isn't enough. He talks about his marriage, his imposter syndrome, and trying to learn how to love himself so he can love his wife better. Julie and I shared some of our own experience with that too.

A garbage bag for a curtain. A best friend at the door. A father who got his baby back.

"Here comes God. Here comes God to my rescue."

That's what Walter Bailey thought when he peeled back the garbage bag covering a trap house window in Northeast Portland and saw his best friend, Matt, walking up. Walter was 40 years old, with no food and no water. Matt came in, Walter hugged him, and that was the last day he used.

Julie met Walter on LinkedIn, and he showed up in Duke blue Nikes. Duke is Julie's favorite team. The conversation ran over two hours, so we're sharing it in two parts. This is Part 1.