Scott W. was kind enough to clean up this photo of my painting of the beach I did last week. Thanks Scott! I just got home from a big Friday night meeting. It used to be a staple of my meeting schedule. Then most of its attendees died, as they do. It was packed tonight. I got to go to the 25th birthday of a man who got sober exactly one week before me. How wonderful. So many memories. So much love in that room. So many old friends, and even an old boyfriend or two.
I was urged to put my name on the calendar to celebrate my birthday next Friday, and I did. So, I will celebrate 25 years at this old meeting in an old building that doesn't even have air conditioning. I am hopeful this sweltering room will contain my friends. My sponsor may be here for it even.
I used to dislike people celebrating their birthdays at groups they don't regularly attend, but my attitude toward that has softened over the years. Tonight I got to ask the man who took me to my first meeting 24 years and 51 weeks ago if he thought it took a lot of "cojones" to do that. He said it is good for the group. That a lot of people celebrate there, and that is what that meeting usually is. Every Friday night - one, two, or three alkies celebrate, and their friends come and we always reminisce about the old days and the old guys. Dick S.'s widow was there tonight. It was good to see her.
When your home group is a 6:30 a.m. meeting, you end up celebrating your birthday somewhere else if you want any of your friends to come. So I will.
My daughter was at the meeting with me tonight. She got to say hello to the man who drove me to my first meeting - his sons babysat my kids that night... Now they are all grownups.
Time. It is magical when you are sober. Not my enemy at all. It is a miracle. A miracle.
11 comments:
When they're sober ones, memories are "something to remember!
And it is a spiritual happening to have your 25th Anniversary celebration in the room where you went to your first meeting. I'm going to do that MY next anniversary--it just never occurred to me
Comgratulations Mary!--well not for 25th, but for 24th and 51 weeks.
That picture is gorgeous- it looks like a watercolor painting.
I can only imagine celebrating 25 years anyway; I hope my first homegroup meeting stays there for years to come
I can't get over your daughter being there with you. God and his miracles just fill me with gratitude..and make me misty eyed.
I am not celebrating my anniversary at the room where I went to my first meeting. There is no longer an AA meeting held there.
mary I LOVE the painting!
I'm so glad you went there last night and how fitting to able to go back and celebrate your birthday.
I say celebrate as much and at as many places as you can--or want. It's a huge deal to stay sober, especially for 25 years!
Mary I just realized MY first meeting room is no longer in existence either--but my GROUP is, and I have become again a member.
NOTE: There is not one single soul left who was sober--in Naples--at the time I came in. Some with more 'sober years'?? but they have moved here more recently.
I found out that occasionally when some AA members move to a new city, their years of sobriety miraculously have doubled--overnight!!! True!
I think we all have an angel that gets us into that first meeting. How special you could share that with your daughter!
That picture looks more like a painting.
Celebrate at every meeting in Colorado.
Congratulations for making wise choices that change everything. One decision to get into a car, to walk into a meeting, to listen. Bet you never realized how your life would unfold.
Great painting that you did. And great thoughts about what it means to have your friends from the program with you.
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