What is it that helps me to stay sober a day at a time? How about meetings? What they say is true. At least for me. Meeting makers make it.
I couldn’t help but think about this, as we talked about the importance of meetings. A friend of mine, who has almost a quarter century of sobriety told his story today. He had laid off meetings for a week, due to some family stuff. At the end of the week he went to a wedding and at the reception afterward alcohol was key. He found himself sitting there and all of a sudden wanting to drink. He even had a glass of alcohol in his hands still thinking that. He said the thing that saved him was the thought of what it had done to him that brought him into the program. When he got back, he immediately went to a meeting. Close and dangerous.
A number of people today talked about the fact that at meetings it’s possible to hear about the solution. The importance of the Steps. Not the problem but the solution. That’s why I come. My mind is sometimes all over the place and I forget. But attending meetings brings me back to the reality that I need to hear.
But it’s more than that. In meetings I find the understanding I need. I understand what others are saying and they understand me. Where else can I find that kind of understanding. No place I’ve ever been before.
More importantly I meet people there, who go for coffee afterward and often sit and talk about what we have heard. That happened today with two of my friends. As we talked it was truly amazing. We found that we had a commonality in our relations with others and that opened the door to solutions we needed in our dealings with others. To mind our own business and learn to keep our mouths shut.
And that was the Step today that brought all this up. The 10th. I learned a long time ago, from my sponsor and others, that key to this step was MYOB. The business of others is not my business. Keep my mouth shut and my hands in my pockets. Less cause for having to make amends. If I can do that, reinforced by talking to others and the practice of what I have learned in here, I can avoid getting cut off from the sunlight of the spirit by anger and resentments and manage, with the help of my Higher Power, to stay sober a day at a time.
I can learn to practice gratitude and bring it into my day with the 11th.
This was all brought up in the meeting and in our conversation after. How great is that?