Someone asked me today about why I go to meetings. Interesting question.
There are a number of reasons and the first one is that I want to stay sober. Meetings always remind me of a number of things, even if no one says anything about them. Gratitude is one. I go because I am grateful for my sobriety. I got my sobriety at meetings and I want to give back what others gave me from the very start. I have an obligation to share my experience, strength, and hope with others who are still suffering from their alcoholism.
The second reason is that I have such a quick forgetter. I have to go back and be reminded of what it its that I need to do on a daily basis. I have often got to a meeting and been reminded that I hadn’t prayed that morning, asking for help and giving thanks. I need to be reminded of the steps I have forgotten to put into action that day. I need to be reminded of defects of mine, which I need to take care of. I need to be reminded to do an inventory of my failings and of my assets. I need to be reminded that I need to check my BB and the 12&12 for answers. I need to hear the solution.
But mainly I go to meetings to experience my higher power. My original higher power in the program was the group. I could recognize that the group had the power not to drink. I didn’t and I was desperate to grasp that power for myself. The group gave me that. I first got hope in the group. In a meeting, where others told me of their experiences and that opened the door for me to enter in and find the solution they had found. It was at meetings that I began to recognize what spirituality was all about. The spiritual solution is all around me in meetings. There are times, when I can actually feel it in my being.
One other thing comes to mind. Bill W. tells us in the BB that we are people who ordinarily wouldn’t get together. But alcohol, our common foe, and sobriety, our common purpose, drove us to such meetings. We gather together in spite of ourselves, because we know we can’t do it alone. If we don’t recognize this, then God help us. We do together what we can’t do by ourselves. By myself it was impossible to stop drinking. Ever since I came to the program, I haven’t had a drink. Now that’s a miracle. I come each day to once again experience the miracle and celebrate that in common with those who attend with me.
There’s probably more, but that’s enough for now. Anyway I was thinking about this when my friend asked me that question.