[bluidkiti]

February 22

Quote of the Week

"Around A.A. or in A.A.?"

When I slinked into A.A., I arrived just as meetings were starting, and I sat in the back of the room, near the door. When they ended, I made my escape before the final prayers and was driving out of the parking lot as the first smokers arrived at the edge of the sidewalks. I didn’t call any of the phone numbers people had managed to pass to me during my brief attendance, and I was horrified at the thought of fellowship. After a few weeks of being around A.A. in this way, I found myself drunk on my couch on a Monday afternoon.

When I sneaked back in after a particularly demoralizing couple of weeks, someone cornered me as I was once again making my escape and declared himself my sponsor. He offered to drive back to my house to help me “clean up” the place, meaning to pour all my liquor out and flush my drugs down the toilet. I declined. He got a promise from me to call him the next morning, and to meet him at a meeting that night, and to not drink or use in between. I thought he was pretty demanding, but I didn’t have any better ideas, so I agreed.

Over the next several months, my sponsor taught me how to be in A.A. He suggested we meet an hour before meetings to read the Big Book together. He then suggested I get three to four commitments at various meetings I attended during the week. Once we got to a meeting, he taught me to sit in the front row with him so that we wouldn’t be distracted. Afterward, we either thanked the speaker or reached out our hands to a newcomer. Today, I know there is a big difference between around A.A. and in A.A.