“AA doesn’t add years to my life, but it does add life to my years.”
That was said by a wonderful little elderly man, I met in AA years ago. I have never forgotten him and never those words. I find them as true today as the day he said them.
Today was chip day at our regular meeting and I couldn’t help but think of those words, as the meeting went on. That’s because I was thinking of why they are true. Obviously it’s because of the nature of AA. First because it’s a We program. Equally it is a spiritual program and dependent on our faith in and dependency on a higher power.
It’s hard for me to separate those two elements; the spiritual and the “us”. Just as the long form of the 5th Tradition states: Each Alcoholic Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity…”.
That’s what’s added life to my years. Because the rest of that tradition states “…having but one primary purpose-that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.”
My individual primary purpose of staying sober and having a spiritual awakening and trying to carry this message to alcoholics, becomes part of the groups primary purpose. After all, it’s still a We program. I can’t do this alone.
I can honestly state from my experience that AA has given me a full life. This both in my outer and inner life. It is a life, which, through the discipline of surrender, has allowed me to let others to work with me, as well as me to work with others. A far cry from when I was dead on my feet in my alcoholic years. It allows me to experience life to its fullest, both humanly and spiritually. And it’s this which keeps me sober.
Anyway, like I said, I was thinking about this and that little old man today and what he said.