Blog entry for:

regular meeting attendance as part of my new pattern of living.
no secret here, i have a bit of clean time, and am finishing another annual cycle. i have been clean now longer than any OTHER time in my life, including the period before i used for the very first time. i would love to take credit for that, BUT, and it is a ginormous one, it was not all my doing at all.
i had lots of help, starting with the POWER that fuels my recovery, and the fellowship of recovering addicts that have become my peers, my friends, my sponsees and my sponsors, yes i have had more than one. so before i start to sound anymore like some newbie starlet accepting an Academy Award, i will move on.
that help, i discovered quite early on, seems to be available at all times, but unless i stay in contact with the source of that help, in the physical sense, namely my fellow travelers on this recovery road, i cannot continue my journey. where on earth do i get to meet those helping hands? well when i first came to recovery, the answer was at meetings, and daily attendance ensured that i would see them on a very regular and periodic basis. the answer is still the same, at meetings! or sure i have social contact with lots of them, as well as business relationships as well, BUT the single greatest source of the power to stay clean, comes from those addicts who, like me, attend meetings regularly. as i stay clean, and the need to connect with those who share my affliction diminishes, my tendency is to stay away from meetings, and as i have discovered through painful experimentation, that is certainly not the answer. for me, three meetings and the same three meeting a week is a base line. more are certainly better, less can allow me to survive, but are not sufficient to foster my growth.
these days, it is all about me, and the reward i get from going to meetings is deeper relationships with my friends, opportunities to form new relationships with others, and sometimes even the chance to carry my version of our message of HOPE to someone who needs to hear it. so off to my Home Group meeting and into this brand new, chilly, damp and oh so fall-like Saturday morning.

∞ DT ∞