One of the things, which threw me over today, was an individual, who the leader of the meeting did not stop, who talked about dogs, children, a family, and more, but nothing about the subject or staying sober. It took a lot of time, but isn’t that what close meetings of AA are about? Or should we be talking about staying sober and working this program, and what those old timers used to bring up, which helped me to stay stopped from picking up a drink of alcohol.
The subject of the meeting today was about acceptance. And that did remind me of what my old sponsor had said to me: “You think you know that you think you know. But you don’t know.” That was a wake up call for this alcoholic. I suddenly realized that what he said was true. I mean, here I was having been educated in philosophy, theology, and sociology. Yet it was of no help. I had to stop and listen and learn, if I wanted to stay sober. And I did.
I began to learn to put all thoughts aside and listen to what this program was going to show me. How to stay sober. And the first thing was to put the Second Step into action. To begin the spiritual way of life in AA, along with a belief and relationship with my Higher Power. And slowly, paying attention to my old sponsor and some old timers, I started to learn. And time took time. A long time, but it began to work.
Anyway I had to stop and think about this. Plus we had a new young person, who needed help. No one knew that until the end, when he was called on. He could hardly talk and the last few, for the most part, spoke in terms of helping him. Even after the meeting was over some of us went up to him and spoke about helping him to change. Time will tell.
So, I will stop now and ask my Higher Power for some of the help we all need, and then individually for myself. I need to thank my Higher Power, my old sponsor, and a lot of those old timers, and also a lost I know today, who have reached out and continued to also help. And I hope I have been able to help others myself.