A Meeting In The City.

I went to an Al-Anon meeting while I was in the city; I like to do this, I always seem to come away with an altered perspective, from hearing new viewpoints and ways to work the program. I've been to this particular meeting several times in the past, and found it very different from my home group. It's a large meeting, and there's always lots of humour.

The topic was Step 8. I found it interesting to listen to people talk about how they'd managed to work their way into that state of mind described as "became willing to make amends to them all."

One woman spoke about how she started her list with quite a few people in the "when hell freezes over will I make amends" column, but as she progressed in her recovery, other people seemed to become so much more reasonable.

I also try, when I go down to the city, to meet and have coffee with an old friend. He's been in AA about 5 years longer than I've been in Al-Anon, and I love to see him healthy and happy and doing well - I knew him when he was drinking. He's a testament to the miracle of 12-Step, and is quite vocal on the subject.

At one point on the divided island highway, as we were all barrelling along at high speed, I found myself wondering how many of the drivers were trying to text while driving - makes my hair stand on end to imagine that possibility.

I'm grateful for my life, and as always, happy to be home again.