Do you realize just how fucking lucky you are that you are in the fellowship
One of my friends, a very wise man said that tonight. We work with others, because it helps US stay sober. Most of us, have a very low batting average, when it comes to people sticking and staying, in the room.
People are suffering. And they, tonight, openly admitted such truths to the rest of us.
I know, that if I don’t know what to do, or where to turn, or whether I am coming or going, I stick to the basics. Most people shake their heads when I repeat this advice in open community, but it works …
If I don’t know whether I am coming or going, I make coffee. I put chairs down and set up tables. I have keys to the church and I use them religiously. I am always there, early. I know that if i show up early, others will show up early too.
I turn my will and my life over to the care of my higher power, (read: My friends), every day. I know that they have my back. Sadly, those same friends, who are struggling right now, don’t think to call me … go figure …
Our stories are well told. And not earned. Our particular suffering gives us insight to each other, that people, in the outside world, just do not have. Our shared struggles gives us the ability to help each other in ways, we will not find outside the rooms.
The city has begun rolling up the Terraces, that have been open all summer long. The weather is growing colder by the night, and soon, very soon, I imagine, the snow will begin to fall.
NOW is the opportune time to get people connected to the system that works for many of us, sooner than later. Because if we do not act now, numbers will definitely drop off.
As is the case, in this time of year, as nights grow longer and the weather gets cold, people begin to calculate just ow much time it takes them to make a transit from home to a meeting.
AND they will find every excuse NOT to show up.
If the weather goes south, and snow begins to fall, people will think to themselves, Ah, it’s cold and snowing and I can’t bring myself to head out to a meeting.
And we remind them this fact …
When you were drinking and drugging, how often did you brave a freaking snow storm to score a drink or a drug ???
People tend to forget the lengths they went to, to SCORE.
The meetings are getting Solemn. And Deep, and Difficult.
I can’t make someone show up, nor can I force them to trust me. Not many of my kids trust me with their lives just yet, so they struggle from one day to the next, when I offer them simple suggestions they just look at me askance …
Like, Really, Is it really that simple ??? Why yes, it is just that simple.
It’s obvious that they really don’t want to go to any length to get and stay sober.
But the alternative is also an option. A good number of my friends are looking at the stark alternatives to coming and showing up. They know what the flip side of this sober equation is.
To Drink or to Drug.
My friend reiterated tonight that we forget, or don’t fully realize just how fucking lucky we are to have the rooms and the fellowship. My friends really don’t have a clue about being lucky.
Our resident old-timer man said tonight that “WE ARE THE LUCKY ONES.”
It took a long time for him to Get That Fully. YEARS and YEARS.
We are lucky, we have each other, we have the rooms and we have a WAY OUT.
I may not have ALL the answers, but I do have a way of life that works.
Our old-timer also said that, “If you want to hear the voice of God, come to a meeting.”
The fellowship is easy. It is not rocket science. The book lays it out simply.
If you read the book, and do what it says to do, in the order as the steps appear, you too will get sober, despite yourself.
People are just not listening to simple reasoning.
They’d rather walk around in the dark grasping at straws, and fumbling, when really, all they have to do is pick up that 2000 pound phone and show up early.
How freaking difficult is that advice ???
Alcoholics are self-centered to the extreme and we abhor authority and direction, but when we come in, and we let go and let God, we find safety, within that very same framework the fellowship provides for us.
Simple direction. Simple suggestions. A simple program of action.
People just do not want to put in the effort, time and care.
And they will suffer for their inaction.
At least I will stay sober during the holidays, because I know what to do, even if my friend do not. And they might bitch and complain about me doing so much service, but it needs to be done, or there would not be a meeting to go to, or coffee to drink and books to read.
If service is not done, where would we all gather on a Friday night ?
A good friend took her Thirty Year Cake last night and she mentioned that at Thirty years, she had reached the point where she saw Significant horizons in her life.
It really take A LOT of time in the rooms to have these observations and realizations come to pass. I know certain things at Sixteen years, almost.
I have reached, also, certain significant horizons in my life.
Horizons are on the way, as long as we stick and stay.
Just keep coming back.
One day at a time.
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