Topic for the week: New Beginnings
Sophie here, still an alcoholic.
Grateful to be part of GROW and part of AA.
Yesterday I celebrated a sober-versary. So happy to be sober and active in my sobriety.
I reflect back to coming into AA and what helped me then as a newcomer. I had no idea getting into that first meeting and finding the 12 steps would turn out to be a new beginning. All I could see and feel was what I had lost and what I would miss. Today when I get those feelings when I’m facing a change or a challenge I can remind myself that my Higher Power had something better for me then and that is true today.
So what helped you in your new beginning? Or are you at the beginning of your new beginning and still feeling like it’s an ending?
The Big Book describes being at a “turning point” and at the “jumping off place”.
What I know is that it was first the fellowship, being surrounded by unconditional love for the first time by fellow alcoholics who understood me despite being almost total strangers, that helped me stay with AA.
Next it was beginning to learn some of the program ideas and language. Things like “Just for Today” and finding out that it’s the first drink that kicks off my craving and itch for another and another.
And opening myself up to new ways of being and seeing and doing. Like picking up a daily reader and reading something inspirational each morning, first the AA Daily Reflections, and then discovering other daily reading meditation books.
After that it was connecting with a Higher Power, consciously recognising that AA was a Higher Power, and connecting with women who I could call or meet between meetings.
I found a temporary sponsor who began my on my journey with the 12 Steps.
Then I found my long term sponsor who in earnest showed me the Big Book and living the principles of each Step and each Tradition.
Learning the words to the Serenity Prayer and saying it regularly through the day was a new beginning too.
Being accepted as the replacement tea person at my Friday meeting was a new beginning too. Being trusted to organise the tea! And the biscuits! And turn up every week or make arrangements for someone to cover if I was sick or away.
These are the things I learned early on and helped build me a strong connection with AA, with the meetings I went to and with my local fellowship.
These are the things that have been my mainstay for my sobriety.
So what I learned in the beginning helps me stay balanced today.
Today I ask myself where am I in the Circle & Triangle of AA.
Where am I in my unity?
Where am I in my service?
Where am I in my 12 steps (program)?
I was taught about the 3 legged stool and how it won’t balance on two out of three or one out of three legs. So the triangle of AA is my 3 legged stool.
Any day I’m sober can be a new beginning of some sort. I’m learning and growing as a human being, as a sober woman, as lots of other roles in my life.
Remembering to restart my day with a prayer and some quiet time is always a new beginning. Being inspired to look up and see the butterflies or the flowers or the blossom in the trees, always a new beginning for me, helping me stay connected.
Please come in and share whatever is on your heart or mind for your sobriety today.
Or check in on the Circle & Triangle or
Thank you for being in the meeting and for having me be of service.
I can’t do this alone.