We had a meeting after the meeting last night. This used to be the norm in my early days and it really helped me a lot. I was able to share things here which I normally could not. Topics like religion, relationships are easily discussed at these informal meetings. No traditions and no concensus needed. Newcomers come out of their shell and talk. Friendships are also easily built. For example: Someone might say hey Joe I will pick you up tomorrow and these 2 people become lifelong friends.
Sponsorship also becomes very strong. I am very grateful to those older members of AA who spent their valuable hours with Gonee so that he may actually continue living again.
The meeting after the meeting was also very important to me in my early days, we'd go out most nights for dinner and many is the time we stayed up all night talking, the truth is, over the years, the "meeting after the meeting" became my life in many ways, these were the friendships I forged..I moved away from my fellowship and moved back years later, and my friends had all moved on to become husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, street kids became PHD's, and the meeting after the meeting became a province of the young(er) (the late nights anyway) but I follow them on Facebook, many of my old friends still network and they just had a 3 day get together in San Francisco and I was just looking at a bunch of group photos of them...they saved my life and became my brothers and sisters
I feel for those who don't have the benefits of the fellowship that I did, these are the people I grew up with, who held my hand during the good times, and during the bad, the people I visited in the hospital for births and deaths and calamities, the people I walk side by side doing this thing we call life, I'd say 99% of my true friends come from the meeting after the meeting, and for that I am grateful
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it's not the change that's painful, it's the resistance to change that is painful
yeah the meeting out of the meeting is a great time for me. Last night 100 miles from home. 1 hour meeting then half an hour chatting outside then me, a complete stranger, invited to a brothers house along with some others for supper. You don't get some guy coming up to you in a bar and inviting you home for supper do you?
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It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got. BB
I just have a really hard time getting into that. Like last night I attended my favorite meeting. About 40 people, I like everybody there, I'm OK with sharing, but after we close, everybody just clusters into knots and starts talking, and I'm standing there, and thinking "So I'm supposed to just walk up to one of these knots and say "YO"?" I usually just put my chair away, look around for a couple of seconds, and leave.
Sometimes somebody will ask me a question like "Are you going back to Albuquerque any time soon?", or "How's work?", and I usually just smile and say "Probably" or "Fine" and that's it. I guess those are invitations to chat, but I'm a little afraid of boring people.
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Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and unto God that which is God's.
Yes Gonee,as we travel around to an area meetings or meetings out of town other than our local home groups,some of the best recovery takes place on the hour drives home etc..Literature/traditions/how sometime the disease wants to have you feelin like you "need to sound right" in meeting, all leave, heart to heart sharing becomes the way and spiritual awarenesses pop all over the place!!! So good...(After all the Jacks are in their boxes, The Wind cries Mary!(Jimi's girlfriends middle name may '67)..........
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Selfishness-self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles.
Thanks...gonee for the topic.
I belong to the 30/30 club...which means, coming in 30 minutes before the meeting and staying 30 minutes behind -for those who are not member...just yet.
The meeting does go beyond the specified time frame and continues past the parameters of the parking lot, usually in an afterhours environment like a coffee house- for those who enjoy extended company.
I relish those times just as much as the meeting itself. Its when fellowship, beyond the scope of AA, really began for me and continues to be a blessing; today and every day, one day at a time -Thank God.
-- Edited by Mr_David on Friday 25th of March 2011 06:37:51 PM
-- Edited by Mr_David on Friday 25th of March 2011 06:39:30 PM
My sponsor often tells me she doesn't think she'd be sober today if it werent for those times around the kitchen table of another members house , sharing coffee and fellowship, and sobriety.
I dont know anyone in my AA area who gets together on a regular basis outside the meetings, it just doesn't happen anymore.
