Sober Mother - Sober Daughter

OK, I swear, this is the last you will hear about my birthday... until next year. But I just wanted to write about what it was like to sit across the room from my daughter.

I was sitting with my old friend T., who saw my daughter and said "can this really be the little girl who used to trail behind you?" Yes, it is. My daughter sat down, and T. said "Oh my goodness, she looks just like you." Yeah, but a lot younger... T. said "that's exactly what you used to look like."

So my daughter bought a chip for me and presented it to me. That was pretty nice. I never thought I would live to see the day. Not in a million years...

I would never wish for a sober mother to have a sober daughter - that is, of course, unless her daughter is an alcoholic as mine certainly is. And then, if she is, my fondest wish for a sober mother is to have a sober daughter. And I have to say that mine is a seriously sober woman. Not in a million years....

What a wonderful meeting. There was a man celebrating 60 days, another with 90 days. One with a miraculous golden year. Another with eleven. And then there was me. I wanted to chair, which is unusual. I hate to chair meetings since I have to do that so much at work. I grabbed the clipboard and the big book and was ready to chair (at that meeting there is not a pre-ordained chair, it is all loosey goosey, which I don't really like). Usually the birthday person chairs. When the eleven year guy showed up, I asked him if he wanted to chair and he declined. When the one year guy came, I asked him, and he got that deer in the headlights look and told me he had never chaired a meeting before. I told him to come and sit next to me, and chair the meeting. Oh, it was wonderful. Every now and then there is a magical hour of an AA meeting and this was one of those.

A bunch of us went out for breakfast after the meeting. I got to visit with one of my oldest friends. I have known him since I got sober. He was at my first birthday and most of them since. Breakfast with my tattoo'd daughter, her biker boyfriend, my ga-zillionaire snotty friend (who would like to be my b.f.- but it aint happenin'), my militantly gay old friend who is running for sheriff, etc. What a group - only in AA! Now I am home.

I am hurting from my work out yesterday. I am going to put a movie into my DVD player and sit with ice packs strategically placed about my body and knit for my tiny unborn granddaughter. My son and his pregnant wife were talking about coming over today, but I haven't heard from them, I better call them and let them know that if they want to eat here, we better order something because mama isn't cooking today.

Would it be unbearably repetitive to tell you how grateful I am?

I would be grateful just to be sober a day. (because I could never do that left to my own devices)

I would be grateful to be sober a year.

Anything more than that is almost beyond comprehension.

But to have my daughter sitting in that room, as a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous...

Just takes gratitude and puts it into turbo drive.

Zoom Zoom