Today everyone was committed to talking about the solution. Interesting, because it was discovered half way through the meeting that there was a new person in the room.
For the most part I don’t think it mattered, in the sense that so many were getting so much from what was being said. Especially since a lot of the meeting was focused on the part our Higher Power played in our recovery. That and the role of the Twelve Steps in all of this.
As each person talked and shared, the secondary theme began to play a big role and a lot of that was delivered to the new person. And that was the expression of how grateful everyone was for what they had received as a result of getting sober and living a sober life.
All of this brought me back to how much hope played in my getting sober. I know that I wanted that for the new person. I know that my thoughts, like a lot of others, went to wishing this person was in enough pain and despair that desperation would drive them to want to stop drinking. That they would have a moment like a lot of us did, when we found hope in these rooms and it was the beginning of surrender to the First Step. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol.
Often in meetings like this, even though I’m aware of the reality of what often happens to alcoholics, who show up at these meetings for the first time, there’s something within that wants them to grab on to what is being said and come back. How often I’ve heard some say the next day, did the new person show up? A great indication to me of how many I know, who are practicing their primary purpose.
In fact one long time member said something today, which I had heard an old timer say years ago. How much meetings are part of the Eleventh Step. Meditations. Often they have been for me. This was one of them.