I was thinking about the word “ameliorate” today. It means to improve ones condition. To make better.
Why was I thinking about this word? Well, today I was talking to a friend about meetings. We both agreed that no matter what is going on in our lives that a meeting makes it better. I know that I have often gone to meetings with shoulders all tensed and muscles bunched up in my neck, causing pain, and discovered, as the meeting went on, that there was a relaxing of the tension and by the end of the meeting all this seeming paralysis was gone. Amazing. Troubles dissolved in an hours time within the rooms of AA. Meetings seem to ameliorate whatever is troubling me.
There was a time, when I would take a drink to relax me and to deal with whatever was troubling me. But, we all know where that led. Alcohol began to increase my troubles and eventually I was buried under my troubles. I was in hell before I became aware of it. In the end I found that alcohol no longer worked. It made things worse.
When I got sober, I began to discover that the program had an answer for all of my problems and that by going to meetings I was able to sustain this condition in my life. As time went on I discovered something I would never have believed; I actually liked going to meetings. The more I went the better my life got. The less I went, my life would begin to deteriorate. I found out that much was missing and I began to forget what was keeping me sober. And what was keeping me sober, that I forgot, was the essence of this program: Spirituality.
I have another friend in this program, who says that every time he steps into these rooms he experiences something spiritual. I believe the same thing. It’s just there. Doesn’t matter how many people are in the room. I have been at meetings where there were only two of us. I have been at meetings where there have been packed crowds. It’s always the same. And, I believe the reason is that it’s because we’re there to stay sober. The pathway to sobriety is the way of spirituality. That’s what’s there. It just is. It’s the solution.
Anyway, I was thinking about this, when I got home from the meeting today.