Blogger has changed so much since I last used it, I can't even figure out how to post photos that are not already on the blog. So I will recycle for a while.
It is three weeks today since I retired. I find my perception of time is strangely altered. It feels more like 3 months. It feels like I am failing to do anything "meaningful" in retirement. Friends remind me that it has not even been long enough for me to recoup from all that working and driving. I had planned to just "chill out" for at least a month.
This morning I went to a meeting and heard the story, told for the first time, of a young woman who is sober just over a year. She is one of those women I have loved since I first met her. She came in over 3 years ago, but it took her a little while to "get started." It was so wonderful to be there and watch her as her story unfolded.
Telling your story for the first time is one of the most wonderful things.
When I was sober 4 months a friend called and asked me to speak at a huge meeting at a treatment center. I was horrified! I told him I didn't HAVE a story. I told him I had a "series of sleazy incidents," but they were not a story. Besides, I wasn't sober long enough. Thank God he argued with me, and pulled out the old "whenever anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of AA always to be there...". And suggested I was not being responsible. Well, I had to tell my story then.
I might have thought I was a lightweight before that night. But after telling my story, I knew without any doubt whatsoever that I belonged in AA. And that I needed AA. And that I wanted to be in AA. It was a magical moment for me. I think it is for others as well.
I am honored that I got to see that in someone else this morning.
"The age of miracles is with still with us. Our own recovery proves that!" -- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 153
