Friday, February 16, 2007

Chairing an AA meeting

I had the most amazing experience today. Once again, being out of town, I went to an AA meeting. It was a couple of blocks from the hotel so I arrived a bit early. There were two guys there and they introduced themselves. While I shared some coffee with them, I explained that I was a guest and affiliated with Al-Anon. One of the fellows asked if I would chair the meeting. I indicated again that I wasn’t with AA but with Al-Anon and that I wasn’t sure that it was appropriate for me to do that. He said that it was okay since there were NA’s there and it really didn’t matter. I felt a bit unsure but decided that if I was being asked to do something then I needed to go ahead with it. God knows, I needed to be at that meeting today so I wasn’t about to get caught up in propriety. For some reason, I felt that I was being guided to do this and just trusted that it would all be okay.

So the upshot was that I chaired an AA meeting. I also was asked to be the first to share my story which I did. There were about 10 people present at the meeting and each one who shared indicated that my story reminded them of why they needed to stay sober and of the pain that they had caused others. One fellow said that he had committed crimes on a daily basis during his years of alcohol and drugs, had been to thousands of AA meetings but had never heard an Al-Anon speak. He said that the honesty and courage that I expressed were to be commended. I felt very welcomed and had a sense of well-being that put me at peace. I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to share my story twice this week in the fellowship of AA.

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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 17, 2007 at 7:39 PM

    I was glad to hear that you know what to do when you get into the 'powerless' mode --- you went to a meeting! NO matter which fellowship --- you sought solace and found it! That's very healthy, I believe.

    I can remember in the early days how much I was drawn to the AA meetings myself. I went to at least one per week, and could identify with 'them' more than I could the Al-Anon-ers --- guess my type A personality blended with the disease better than the isms! What it did do for me, though, was show me how and why the alcoholic did what he did. This helped me to understand that their pain was just as intense as mine, even though they were working on two problems - the drink, and themselves. All I had to worry about was me and why I was affected!

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  2. TristaDecember 30, 2009 at 8:52 PM

    Very powerful. I think there should be more open meetings. It is very hard for me on a day-to-day basis to be emphathetic with alcoholics. But I know a lot of AA-ers in my husband's group call Al-Anoner's whiners. We should all listen to each other more often.

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2010 at 2:04 AM

    Keep posting stuff like this i really like it

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