Last week a guy who had just moved to the area attended our meeting for the first time. Afterwards he commented, “It is so nice to walk into a group I have never attended and feel immediately at home.” As good as it must have felt to him to say that, it felt even better to us to hear it. What greater compliment could a group receive from a newcomer?

His comment got me thinking about something that happened a few years ago in Hawaii, on vacation with my family. As we were driving down a street in Honolulu, I saw a McDonald’s restaurant. I wasn’t hungry, but I was curious. Would a Big Mac in Hawaii taste the same as one from my hometown? As I placed my order, I noticed that although the menu contained one or two items I did not recognize, basically it was like driving through my local McDonald’s. I discovered that a Big Mac is a Big Mac, no matter where you get it. Same patty, same bun, same sauce.

That’s how it should be with our Fellowship! No matter where we go, we should be able to walk into a group anywhere and feel immediately at home. In spite of minor variations in the ‘menu’ (format), we can feel instantly like, “I’ve been to this group before.” The room may be different, the faces may be different, but the message and the solution are the same—recovery! And recovery ‘tastes good,’ no matter where you find it.

So next time you find yourself in a city far from home for a few days, do what I try to do. Drive through a McDonald’s and get yourself a Big Mac (if that’s what you like), and then find a Twelve Step meeting and get a good helping of recovery to keep you going until you get home.