I traveled home to the DC metro area for the holiday. We spent Thanksgiving on the eastern shore which is about a 2 hour drive from my parents' home in Annapolis. Anyhow, I was feeling kinda squirrely (not like I was going to drink at all, but just sort of all weird and up in my head)...so I got online and was able to find a meeting at 8 am in the morning and it was a 4 block walk away at a local church. The meeting was awesome and had about 20 people at it. Just a bunch of other alcoholics at different stages of sobriety all dealing with mostly similar issues surrounding family and the holidays. The topic was character defects and of course I am very much working on mine (sometimes quickly sometimes slowly)....so it was highly relevant. There were a few people with less than a month sobriety who were really struggling and I felt awesome to be able to give them some encouragement based on my own experience and remembering Thanksgiving of 2008 and how different things are now after just 2 years. I have only been to a few meetings when traveling or out of town. This one was just perfect. I really needed that break from my family to get connected again. I also meditated while walking to and from the meeting. I passed a house on the way back with a sign mounted on the garage that said "Serenity Now." I sort of felt that was one of those little God sent things for just doing a tiny right thing on my part (looking after my sobriety over the holiday). I was and am so grateful AA is everywhere and it was so easy to find a meeting and be surrounded by likeminded fellows within minutes...
I have much to be thankful and grateful for. This was my 3rd sober thanksgiving and it keeps getting better (even though I still got issues lol). Hope everyone else had a good one!
Mark
__________________
Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
Thanks for sharing. It's always great to hit a meeting when traveling. My wife and I went to Melbourne Fl to spend some time w/ family, and hit a meeting while there. 10:00 on Fri, only about 10 people, but the meeting was great and I felt like I was able to make a contribution.
Glad to see your doing well!
__________________
Rob
"There ain't no Coupe DeVille hiding in the bottom of a Cracker Jack Box."
Thanks for sharing. It's always great to hit a meeting when traveling. My wife and I went to Melbourne Fl to spend some time w/ family, and hit a meeting while there. 10:00 on Fri, only about 10 people, but the meeting was great and I felt like I was able to make a contribution.
Glad to see your doing well!
Tried to pick up a pink chip since I never recieved one, but they didn't have them.
Guess they only have them in S. FLA?
__________________
Rob
"There ain't no Coupe DeVille hiding in the bottom of a Cracker Jack Box."
I traveled home to the DC metro area for the holiday. We spent Thanksgiving on the eastern shore which is about a 2 hour drive from my parents' home in Annapolis. Anyhow, I was feeling kinda squirrely (not like I was going to drink at all, but just sort of all weird and up in my head)...so I got online and was able to find a meeting at 8 am in the morning and it was a 4 block walk away at a local church. The meeting was awesome and had about 20 people at it. Just a bunch of other alcoholics at different stages of sobriety all dealing with mostly similar issues surrounding family and the holidays. The topic was character defects and of course I am very much working on mine (sometimes quickly sometimes slowly)....so it was highly relevant. There were a few people with less than a month sobriety who were really struggling and I felt awesome to be able to give them some encouragement based on my own experience and remembering Thanksgiving of 2008 and how different things are now after just 2 years. I have only been to a few meetings when traveling or out of town. This one was just perfect. I really needed that break from my family to get connected again. I also meditated while walking to and from the meeting. I passed a house on the way back with a sign mounted on the garage that said "Serenity Now." I sort of felt that was one of those little God sent things for just doing a tiny right thing on my part (looking after my sobriety over the holiday). I was and am so grateful AA is everywhere and it was so easy to find a meeting and be surrounded by likeminded fellows within minutes...
I have much to be thankful and grateful for. This was my 3rd sober thanksgiving and it keeps getting better (even though I still got issues lol). Hope everyone else had a good one!
Mark
Great share Mark
I LOVE hitting meetings when I am out of town, I always hear what I need, and I abuse the Program shamelessly when I travel LOL (making sure I introduce myself as being from out of town then hang out by the door as people leave) and I have made some of the best friends that way, and always get the "inside scoop" on where to go and what to see/do which is especially helpful when traveling in Europe/Great Britain/Scotland etc and have gone to have great times/great meals with my new friends
__________________
it's not the change that's painful, it's the resistance to change that is painful
Mark, I'm so happy you could be there for others, and to get a better measure of your own recovery. I love meetings out of town. I do a regular set schedule at home and away meetings remind me of about the roots of AA and how it functions. I get to see the similarities with clearer glasses, not fogged with the cloud of daily humdrum.
Today in meeting we read in the chapter "A Vision for you" about the founders establishment of the first two or three meetings and hope for a future that meant any needy person might find AA where ever he or she travels. Hard to imagine only a few meetings for the entire country. I think it must be around 120,000 registered groups today, based on figures for 2007.
My 60 day coin is gold, I just checked. Are the beginner meeting coins different? Or are there just different manufactors do ya think?
When they do the poker chips, it's pink...if they actually go to intergroup and get the ones with writing on them...it's gold. I have a gold one too.
They do this thing down here: "Here in South Florida, we use poker chips to denote various milestones of sobriety within your first year. This shows that we are gambling with our life. White chip: International sign of surrender. Who wants to give up the fight and pick up the white? Okay...keep coming back. Now the next chip is the first one you have to earn. It's good from 30 days to 60 days...it's the yellow chip. Anyone for 30 days? Keep coming back. And at 60 days, you earn the pink chip...." and so on and so on. That's "the chips." They didn't even do "the chips" at the meeting I went to in Maryland.
__________________
Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
