IN THE BEGINNING...
This morning I get to chair the weekly beginners' meeting at my group, and this is a serious, yet fun place, for me to be. I actually enjoy being with people who are newly sober, who are full of wonder. So often I can see that they want to know what it's all about, but have not the answers...in fact, they have not even the questions. We say, "Suit up and show up." Sounds so trite, but SO tritely true it is!
And then, to watch the new ones grow, oh, so little at a time. "Careful", I say to myself, when I notice one of them 'catching it all' in the first few weeks. I was there. I knew most everything about Alcoholics Anonymous in the first couple months. After Step 5, I was ready to save the world. It does not work that way.
Patience, sweet patience, dear friend, we will guide you at a slow and comfortable (Ha! Who is comfortable during those early weeks of 'sobriety'?) pace through these steps, all the way to freedom. Freedom from bondage, freedom to be yourself, freedom to confidently do God's will, freedom to walk any where, any time, with your head held high. Freedom to look in the eye anyone on the face of the earth--AND in heaven...freedom to face your God, Whoever that is.
And yes, the freedom to express this AA program in terms that others might understand, and climb on the wagon--this wagon of our program, which leads to peace of body and soul which I can call serenity. And yes, know this. In time, (that's TIME!), even HAPPINESS entered my life. And I hope and pray it enters yours, dear new person--or 'old-timer' who might still be suffering somewhere inside.
I am so blest...and SO grateful!
9 comments:
i hear you! time used to be my enemy. the things to avoid and dodge and keep busy, 'cause heaven forbid i had time to quietly sit and think. the thoughts and demons would start running rampant in my head and the need for escape become overwhelming. in time, i learnt that time is actually my friend. it heals. it fixes. it provides clarity. now i treasure it!
The newcomers are blessed to have someone of your experience & enthusiasm leading the group.
I'm getting addicted to reading you in the a.m.=GRIN=
You sound a good person of the AA, oh how I remember them early days, full of terror and at the same time wonder..
I am watching it all again by taking my good friend Uncle Buck to his early meetings, he will be a year sober in November.
I still look up to the old timers in my group, they look wise and calm, a place I try to get to but cannot help but be brought down by my racing mind.
Still life is getting very gradually better, its like climbing a mountain, each step seems so gradual but when you look back the way you have come its breathtaking.
We're all suffering from time to time... and we're all blest too!
i like the phrase 'bring the body, the mind will follow'
(mine doesn't always follow though!)
have a great day
A great service to do the newcomers meeting. Glad that you are there for them. If you suffer, at least you know what to do. Hopefully, the newcomer will eventually know as well.
When does a "newcomer" stop being a "newcomer?"
Time, thoughts, whats it all about, when I start getting thinking I think why? whats life about? where are we going? whats after it?
I am good at thinking but not too good at talking, thats just me, the way I am
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