Roundup Speaker Friday night

Last night's speaker was a woman who lived in the area. She came up the hard way and began drinking seriously at 9 years old and got sober at 15. She got sober through the help of the old timers at the Cleveland, Ohio AA. It was as if I were hearing a part of AA history. Some of the old timers were around when the Akron group got started. She talked about how the old timers didn't know what to do with a teenager so they basically surrounded her with love and never left her to her own devices. It was a wonderful thing to hear how they totally took her over. She had a tough lady as her sponsor, an elderly woman who took no prisoners. It was a great story and one that made me see the love and dedication that so many have to AA.

One of the parts of AA history that was interesting was when Deb talked about the Four Absolutes: Absolute Honesty, Absolute Purity, Absolute Unselfishness, and Absolute Love. Her sponsor thought that these were the outcomes of the 12 steps. I hadn't heard of them so talked with her afterwards and she explained that the Cleveland group has a pamphlet that explains these. They are the essence of Jesus's teachings about the Will of God, the ideals for man's life, and the moral standards by which man's thoughts and actions may be tested for harmony with God's will. I found this information very late last night on the Four Absolutes.

This morning's speaker is from Al-Anon. I'll post more later when I get back. It's a day of total immersion today. I told my sponsor that I'm not an AA but from all the good stuff that's coming out of this meeting, I could be a wannabe. What a great group of people. More to come later....