Time slips by. . .

I celebrated my 35 year anniversary in AA three days ago.  I honestly can’t fathom where all the years have gone.  Nearly half of my life has been spent in AA rooms.  I remember quite well  the first meeting I attended here in Minneapolis.  I still recall many of the people, and more than a few remain in my life even today.  I will get my “official” medallion tomorrow at my home group.  My husband has agreed to give it to me and that’s very special.  We have been making this journey for many years together.

There will be a bitter sweet quality about tomorrow’s meeting too.  Joy, my dear friend who passed away on Feb. 14th, gave me my medallion each of the last few years and I gave her, hers as well, on the same day.  I know she will be present tomorrow in spirit.  I will miss her nonetheless.

We make such good friends in the rooms of AA and Al-Anon and if we are lucky, we never lose sight of those friends.  One of the women I met at my first “women’s” meeting here in Minneapolis traveled with me to Hazelden yesterday for a very special AA meeting, one I have attended since 1979. That she and I are still so present in each other’s life is a phenomenal gift of this program, I think.

There are no other “rooms” quite like them, I’m sure.  And this week end, here in Minneapolis, we are celebrating the Gopher State Round-Up, a gathering of a few thousand recovering people, for the purpose of honoring our journeys by listening to great speakers, greeting old friends, and welcoming the new ones who are coming for the first time.

I could never have guessed how my life would unfold when I walked into my first meeting on May 24, 1976.  I wasn’t even certain I was alcoholic.  I was only certain that I was constantly anxious, seeking for some thing or some one to fill my emptiness and drinking a quart of Jack Daniels daily.  Because I drank and lived among others who drank like I did, there was no reason to assume my drinking had any thing to do with my emptiness.

At that first meeting I was captivated by the laughter, the hugs and the good looking men.  I had a long way to go before I understood what I really needed for my well being.  I still laugh at how I gravitated to what wasn’t good for me.  I am so grateful others were willing to show me the right path to follow, however.  And so today, with all these years under my belt, I can pass on to the newcomers I meet the responsible principles I live by now, principles that have managed to keep me sober, and happy for many years.

I hope if you are “one of us,” you are finding joy in this day.  And if you are simply a fellow traveler seeking more peace in your life, I hope you find that too.