The importance of going to meetings was emphasized today at our meeting. To me meetings are an important part of my being able to stay sober.
Where else am I going to go to be reminded of who and what I am. An alcoholic. No one outside the program is going to do that. I know that without my being in the rooms of AA, that the memory of what happened will sooner or later fade. In meetings I am able to hear just why I need to be there.
I know that I attend meetings out of gratitude for all that I have received through this program. I go to share my experience strength and hope with others in the room. But, I also go to hear what I often tend to forget. Meetings serve to remind me.
I know that meetings alone will not keep me sober. How many I have known, who have left the meetings and drank afterward.
Without the 12 Steps, sooner or later the lack of doing the necessary footwork in this program catches up to the alcoholic.
The Steps are the foundation of this program to me. The meetings are the support I need to stay sober.
The longer I have stayed sober, the less I have to say to others not in this program and who don’t need it. It’s only at meetings that I meet others like myself, who I know that I can converse with openly. My interest in sobriety and the people in this program has become the focus of my life. It’s the heart of the matter. AA has a language all it’s own and only its members understand it. Bill called it the language of the heart. It’s at these gatherings of alcoholics, the meetings, that I hear it spoken.
Anyway, after the meeting I thought about this. I know that I pray that I will always be able to attend these meetings as long as possible. At least for this day.