Saturday, January 02, 2010

Second Day into the Year...

(The photo was taken yesterday on the campus where I work. I went into my office to get something and when I came back outside, I thought I could take some photos because it looked so pretty.)

I am madly preparing for an AA event to be held here at my house tonight. I am not mad, I am just working like mad. Happily working like mad. I guess I could say I am working like crazy, but I am not crazy either. So either way, I am just working a lot - not working my butt off either. I love to cook, I love to bake. I don't like to clean so much. People laugh when I say my house is a mess because it doesn't appear to be so, but I know it is. I know where there is dust - and quite a bit of it. And I know where things are hidden. Great quantities of things... like sacks of mail in my bedroom closet! Honestly, I get enough mail in one day to keep a recycling plant going. And this is AFTER I opt out of everything you can opt out of, including paper billing. So in December, I just didn't feel like dealing with every little piece of it, so I stashed it. I will deal with it later. But not today.

I love to have this event at my house. We answer the phones for the central office after hours. Usually in January there are a few calls. I hope there will be tonight. We get to visit and get a chance to know one another better, we get a chance to eat some good food, and we get a chance to help a still suffering alcoholic - or two, or three. It is a wonderful way to spend a Saturday evening.

I am so grateful to be a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous. How ironic it is that AA looks like the least appealing option when drinking becomes impossible - and yet, for me, and so many others, AA works and becomes something so much more than just a way to quit drinking. Yes, AA gave me the way to quit drinking, but it gave me so much more. I truly love my friends in the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. To see them scattered all around my home is a pleasure that is indescribable.

"Many an alcoholic who entered there came away with an answer. He succumbed to that gay crowd inside, who laughed at their own misfortunes and understood his." -- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 160.

8 comments:

mommaof3 said...

Happy New Year!
I love your pictures. I got a new camera yesterday, I can't wait to play with it!

Unknown said...

Your joy is contagious today! The picture is beautiful, peaceful and fits your mood so well.

namaste

dAAve said...

I see much irony in recovery. I bet a mad and crazy person would see it too.

(you'll notice I made no mention about that last sentence.)

Syd said...

Have a good evening. It sounds good. The photo is beautiful.

Regarding the fifth step, the young man wanted to talk so I let him. He had a lot to get off his chest.

Lou said...

I've seen those "gay crowds inside."
At Lambda.

Sorry, could not resist;)

Ed G. said...

We've been blessed to have many AA events at our house - I know exactly what you mean. Makes me happy I have this place.

Blessings and aloha and wishes for enough drunks to keep you entertained and sober...

Pammie said...

I don't like cooking, baking or cleaning. I do however love getting to know my fellows though, in a home atmosphere with someone else doing the cooking.
I hide mail too!
I thought AA was a bunch of weirdos and it turned out that I was correct...thank God.

Scott W said...

LOL @ Lou!

How I wish we could plug the newcomer into our brains so they could get a glimpse of how truly astonishing sober life can be.