During the meeting today and after I had to think and to go through a lot of things, which came up. Not always easy, but it’s about getting sober and living a happy and peaceful life.
At the meeting today, where a new person had come to this meeting, there was a lot of cross talking and frivolity going on. I finally spoke up. I remembered what my old sponsor had said.
Many years ago, when there was the same thing going on in a meeting, he too spoke up. He said there were 24 hours in the day. A day, when we could laugh and carry on. Except for one hour. The most important hour in our day. That hour was the meeting.
Meetings he pointed out were supposed to be serious. He said that staying sober is a serious business for the alcoholic. It was a time for us to come in and learn about sobriety. After all, when most of us came in, we were in pain and lost, as a result of our drinking. And, as the literature points out, as does experience, this is a disease, which can very easily end in our deaths.
Alcohol kills the alcoholic. Am I afraid to tell the new person the truth? How important is it? I know it almost killed me. That was my bottom. And I came here to learn about this disease and what it can do to someone like me and so many others. Moreover, what can I do about it?
I have no problem with what he said. I go to meetings to learn and be reminded of what it is I so very often forget. I need to be reminded. All of this because I want to stay sober. I never want to drink again. I have to be reminded of what it is, which keeps me sober. The Twelve Steps. The changes in my life and my thinking and my attitude. The spiritual way of life, which supports me and so many others in here. It’s no joke.
And it’s just for one hour. We can laugh and joke all we want before the meeting and after. There are still 23 hours. But for that one hour, as I was told, we can maintain the right attitude. To talk about what it is that keeps us sober and what works and what doesn’t.
That doesn’t mean that, when someone is telling their story, we can’t laugh at the silliness that existed, when it comes up. But it’s not our purpose. My purpose I believe, as I learned in here, was to carry the message to the new person, or even someone with time in here, who is still suffering, that there is a solution. The Fifth Tradition. Makes me wonder sometimes, if others have studied the Traditions and especially the Twelfth Step.
I am so grateful for old timers like my sponsor. I know there are others out there, who feel the same way. Just have to get back to the practice of what it is that’s important.