Hello fellow travelers! Mary, I am so excited to hear how well Patty is doing. She is strong and you are strong. Thank you for sharing with us as your example gives us all hope that we too can handle challenges and difficult times SOBER. And it will not only be OK, it will be way better than how things used to be when we were drinking our way through life.
So good to see Cherbear and WF and HG and Phil and Cindi and Dance and the whole gang here!
The convention was awesome and indeed a magical and spiritual experience for me. I can't even describe what the meeting was like on Friday night in the Alamodome. There were over 57,000 conference attendees the last I heard (the number may have gone higher) and I'm guessing most of them were in the dome Friday night. There were people from 90 countries represented. The meeting was simultaneously translated into 7 languages other than English. There were two men from Germany sitting to our left and two women from outside of the US (Eastern Europe somewhere I think) to our right.
The theme for this conference was "A Vision for You." They talked about Bill W and Dr. Bob's vision of being able to go "anywhere" and find an AA meeting and help for alcoholism - one alcoholic helping another. There were countries represented at this conference that I had never even heard of! I think the vision is coming to fruition.
The quiet time followed by the serenity prayer was amazing. The optional Lords Prayer was amazing. Gave me chills. More importantly, the message of hope in recovery was everywhere. The speakers in the meetings were just regular AA members like you and me, with the exception of topics where outside expertise was called for. (i.e. I went to one meeting on the subject of alcoholism treatment and the medical community so the speakers were doctors and social workers). Listening to all the different people - men and women from all places and walks of life - just solidified for me that my life without alcohol is full of promise, and that WITH alcohol, that promise can quickly go away.
One speaker who stood out was a man who started drinking as a teen like so many of us. He hit bottom in his twenties where he was "unemployed and unemployable." He wasn't exactly homeless but didn't exactly have a regular place to live either. In recovery, he ended up back in school and eventually became a lawyer. Today he is a judge. He continues to stay very involved in helping other alcoholics and up until he became a judge, did a lot of prison outreach.
There were so many similar stories. No matter where we are in life, there are lots of great possibilities unless we drink them away.
I enjoyed getting to know my local friend and traveling companion better. She has a strong message in her own personal recovery. It doesn't matter where we have been. As long as we don't drink, life can get better.
I'm looking forward to continuing my step work and continuing to seek opportunities to help others. Addiction to alcohol and drugs is just insidious - robbing us of everything while we're not looking. Cunning, baffling, powerful. I remain optimistic about some of the new things emerging in the medical community - Bac in particular and I appreciate following the journies here with that. Hopefully treatment options will continue to get better. I hope people will continue to see AA as a program that affords companionship and understanding from other alcoholics, and a way to learn to live sober (beyond the "stop drinking" part) that a drug can never provide. I thought it was interesting that the 30,000,000th Big Book was presented to a representative of the American Medical Association.
Meeting Phil and friend was a HIGHLIGHT of this trip!!!!!
Well, I'm off to a meeting! Thanks for listening. I'll keep comin' back.
DG
So good to see Cherbear and WF and HG and Phil and Cindi and Dance and the whole gang here!
The convention was awesome and indeed a magical and spiritual experience for me. I can't even describe what the meeting was like on Friday night in the Alamodome. There were over 57,000 conference attendees the last I heard (the number may have gone higher) and I'm guessing most of them were in the dome Friday night. There were people from 90 countries represented. The meeting was simultaneously translated into 7 languages other than English. There were two men from Germany sitting to our left and two women from outside of the US (Eastern Europe somewhere I think) to our right.
The theme for this conference was "A Vision for You." They talked about Bill W and Dr. Bob's vision of being able to go "anywhere" and find an AA meeting and help for alcoholism - one alcoholic helping another. There were countries represented at this conference that I had never even heard of! I think the vision is coming to fruition.
The quiet time followed by the serenity prayer was amazing. The optional Lords Prayer was amazing. Gave me chills. More importantly, the message of hope in recovery was everywhere. The speakers in the meetings were just regular AA members like you and me, with the exception of topics where outside expertise was called for. (i.e. I went to one meeting on the subject of alcoholism treatment and the medical community so the speakers were doctors and social workers). Listening to all the different people - men and women from all places and walks of life - just solidified for me that my life without alcohol is full of promise, and that WITH alcohol, that promise can quickly go away.
One speaker who stood out was a man who started drinking as a teen like so many of us. He hit bottom in his twenties where he was "unemployed and unemployable." He wasn't exactly homeless but didn't exactly have a regular place to live either. In recovery, he ended up back in school and eventually became a lawyer. Today he is a judge. He continues to stay very involved in helping other alcoholics and up until he became a judge, did a lot of prison outreach.
There were so many similar stories. No matter where we are in life, there are lots of great possibilities unless we drink them away.
I enjoyed getting to know my local friend and traveling companion better. She has a strong message in her own personal recovery. It doesn't matter where we have been. As long as we don't drink, life can get better.
I'm looking forward to continuing my step work and continuing to seek opportunities to help others. Addiction to alcohol and drugs is just insidious - robbing us of everything while we're not looking. Cunning, baffling, powerful. I remain optimistic about some of the new things emerging in the medical community - Bac in particular and I appreciate following the journies here with that. Hopefully treatment options will continue to get better. I hope people will continue to see AA as a program that affords companionship and understanding from other alcoholics, and a way to learn to live sober (beyond the "stop drinking" part) that a drug can never provide. I thought it was interesting that the 30,000,000th Big Book was presented to a representative of the American Medical Association.
Meeting Phil and friend was a HIGHLIGHT of this trip!!!!!
Well, I'm off to a meeting! Thanks for listening. I'll keep comin' back.
DG
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