Mar 31: Don’t Take Yourself So Seriously

Don’t Take Yourself So Seriously

“A little humour is good for the soul-regardless of how old you may be”. Or how long you have been sober.

I know sometimes I forget to have fun. I m so busy following the steps, the traditions , all my mantras I have learned before I joined A.A. and certainly all I have learned since I took my last drink. March 30, 2013….
My sponsor has heard it called the 13th step…No I am not adding to the steps.
In the 12 and 12 it refers to having a sense of humour. I don’t have a copy here in the USA, where I live for 5 months…. I have 3 copies back in CA…
I’m sure someone will tell me where it is….whoops don’t forget I’m an alcoholic I would prefer you suggest, where I can find.  I always found that funny that alcoholics don’t like to be told what to do. My brother never suggested I go to A.A…he told me and said he would be phoning me to make sure I was attending meetings……he scared me to death…. but when I went to that meeting I heard what I needed to do, and did what I was told to do….
A month later when I asked my dear sponsor to be my sponsor she said I had to phone her everyday…I said you’ve got to be kidding! She gave me permission to phone her. I always felt I was bothering people…I now know that if I was disciplined enough to phone her everyday, I took the program seriously and if I ever ran into trouble I would be in the habit of phoning her.
I know I speak for myself but I have heard hundreds of shares at f2f mtgs, in GROW meetings and in the B.B. I love it when I laugh.. it is funny now how I use to hide my drinking, how I worked so hard at controlling my  drinking thinking people didn’t know..
How I had to go to different liquor stores so the clerks wouldn’t know I had a “drinking problem”….I was an active alcoholic, of course I did all that.
When I was in the problem later in my life.. I always said I am not the smartest apple on the tree. My granddaughter said” But grandma at least you are on the tree”…..I had alcoholic behaviour long before I was an active alcoholic…
Anyways Tuesday was my real day to drink because the grandchildren had no activities so I would start cooking (I never liked cooking and was not good)… anyways I would start drinking and cooking. Don’t laugh you all know how that ended up..
I would look in the fridge in the morning to see what I cooked, was it burnt? I certainly couldn’t remember if I had eaten it or not. I was too embarrassed to ask my Grandkids or husband how dinner went….
When my sponsor suggested if I wanted to learn to cook I should take cooking classes! I informed her I didn’t want to learn how to cook…..
Getting back to meetings I hear how people hid alcohol in the trunks of their cars, filling up bottles with water so it looked like bottles were full…filling up bottles with vodka…I wish I could remember more “funny” stories….
Wow it took a lot of energy to hide my alcohol and hide my drinking…
 I was a member months before I took my last drink….that is funny… but not really because I know people come to meetings still drinking. They are in the right place. “As long as they have the desire to stop drinking” they can attend meetings…
I love the sign on the wall. “WE ARE NOT A GLUM LOT”
I look forward to hearing how you have learned not to take yourself so seriously. Thank you my dear GROW friends who have played a very important role in my life to help me stay sober…..GAIL