I think it’s always amazing, when we get newcomers in our meetings. Once again it is a reminder to all of us, where we came from. What it was like back there in the beginning.
We had two today and their shaky thoughts were expressed. I even remember that, when I mentioned the pain and despair I had inside, which was causing me to seek suicide, the one person looking back at me, with a very serious face, nodded and agreed that they probably were suffering from the same thing.
That’s exactly why I always go there and talk about having pain to get us away from alcohol. My experience has always shown me through time that the lack of pain is what leaves the door open to go back out. For the most part.
I never ever want to forget that. And I do express that, because I definitely know it was that, which helped turn me around and convinced me I never can forget that. I know in my mind that I never want to drink alcohol again. Each day that I stay sober, this thought is ever present.
Everyday I think about those moments back then helps me to remain grateful. Somehow I look at that painful despair as a gift. It was what I desperately needed to help me ask the God of my understanding to reach out and help me get free of alcohol. And I did. What a great gift to someone, who was totally helpless. It eventually gave me a new freedom and a new happiness, in those promises in that Ninth Step.