Saturday, June 30, 2007

The "meeting after the meeting"

So we think cheerfulness and laughter make for usefulness. Outsiders are sometimes shocked when we bust into merriment over a seemingly tragic experience out of the past. But why shouldn’t we laugh? We have recovered, and have been given the power to help others. P132

I have just had a really enjoyable Friday evening

Left work at 5pm
Had done it all thoroughly
Went to the gym
Went to get some food
Went to home group early
"ready for the newcomer/still suffering,
even if its not apparant that there is any"
enjoyed time with friends, fellows, visitors
catching up with the weeks happenings
joys, discoveries, same old, progress, procrastination

In our meeting room we have a kitchen
and its still is the place
where allsorts of "stuff" is discussed
Aswell as what can I get you tea or coffee, I caught words like
Ferrets and birds eyes!! on my way to and from getting some tea
people were laughing

After the meeting
15 minutes for coffee and a chat
then off to the local cafe for a bite to eat, coffee and fellowship

Sometimes there are no newpeople
tonight was one of those evenings
The topics that come up when this happens are varied
One of them tonight was
what it was like
bad kareoke, puking on partners after a night out, incontinence
how much laughter was there
no longer afraid or wishing to forget, there is no need

We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. P83

soo much laughter were we sober ?
about 7/10 one of us was post step 9
the others were somewhere between steps 1 and 5 also regular members
These are the Friday evenings I used to dream about
Nights like these, these fellows become more and more my friends
We open up, about what we like what we dont like
accept and then get the last train home
Tomorrow I will have no regrets or amends to make

I love my Friday home group
Its a right good Friday night out with me mates!!

a little gathering of men and women, happy in their release, and constantly thinking how they might present their discovery to some newcomer.P159

Oh yeh almost forgot about the actual meeting :-D
Step 7
Humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings
Its talking about our defects
Watch this space

Happy weekend all

We are sure God wants us to be happy, joyous, and free.P133

I agree. End of!!

All page refs Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous

2 comments:

An Irish Friend of Bill said...

there is some really great fellowship in aa. i still feel very connected to the people i did all that stuff with AGES ago. I particularly like the company of the more service orientated or newcomer orientated, but having said that I an learn from EVERYONE. I think I feel more a 'home' with the newcomer service type, but that's probably because that's what I'm used to, rather than any redeeming quality. It seems that every time i try to help somebody, I get something i really need to find out. I had that yesterday. I kind of made (what I thought was a really CRAP mini effort) to speak to the person who looked like they were suffering the most, and sure enough, they ended up telling me something REALLY useful (not to do with AA) that REALLY helped me out. how cool is that? They were only 4 months in and the shit had just hit the fan. that kind of stuff seems to happen to me ALL the time. I don't do much, but when i do, I get HUGE gifts of some sort or another. I feel like I do so little and get a TON of stuff back. So there you go. I'm just rambling as a way of postponing the gym by the way...
yeah. sound like a nice bunch you got there. reminds me of my first 5 years in recovery..

Syd said...

I've made new friends in AA and Al-Anon. It is great when someone asks for my number. I am always happy to get together and just have a nice meal and talk. It's so nice not to be alone.