It Made A Deep Impression
Reading through Mary Christine’s attempt to avoid becoming a plumbing Blog :-), I recalled one particular story that made a deep and lasting impression on me years ago.
Mary said in the last paragraph of today’s post “I have done everything wrong in sobriety that you can do. The only thing I think I have done right is I never stopped going to meetings.”
Around the mid 90’s I went to a group anniversary meeting in Suffolk Cty., L.I. The word had gotten around through announcements and the grapevine that a wonderful lady with 38 yrs sober would be speaking. I’m certain I wasn’t alone with my anticipation looking forward to hearing her story.
I’d been at group anniversaries here before. The evening went along fairly normally. Chit chat, friends seeing friends, new friends being made, food. Finally, we were asked to take our seats. Opening readings etc.
The chairperson strode to the podium and did the normal, PC, introduction. At that point I watched as a lady stood up and approached the podium to speak but suddenly something not quite right was in the air. You could feel it. 38 years of sobriety, in my experience, had never stood at a podium to speak like this before. Immediately you could see the emotions on her sleeve. And, she had kept what she was about to tell us a secret from I’m sure everyone but her closest friends.
Amazing.
I’ve heard speakers with a great deal of time before and have enjoyed them. Liz B. is certainly one of my favorites. But this lady did something that etched what might be the single, most important lesson of my sobriety, deeply into the gray matter.
She began the usual way, my name is so and so and I’m an alcoholic. She paused for quite some time, her emotions getting the best of her for a while. Then she spoke of being invited to speak at this function and how she had wrestled with her decision. Boy, could you feel it then!
Thank God she decided the way she did. She proceeded to tell us that she now had 117 days! For the next hour or so, she distinctly led us through the mind process that took away 38 years of sobriety!
It began with cutting back on meetings… it ended with isolation and that last, final decision - F’ IT!
Permanent, progressive, fatal, patient. I am not immune!
Tags: alcoholism, Recovery, third-step, will-powerRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Experience, Strength and Hope, Heard At Meetings
0 opinions for It Made A Deep Impression
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: