The other day I learned a crucial lesson. I was feeling in a confrontative mood and was inappropriately (for meeting time anyway) challenging one after another for their lack of sobriety and recovery. A good friend of mine went last and had a slip and sounded confused in his sharing. Being disappointed, I also let him have it.
I’m so grateful for SA for putting me on a spiritual path!
SA in Ft. Worth continues to grow in numbers as well as in sobriety. We have averaged around ten people per meeting all summer. Last Thursday, we had fifteen in attendance. This is an all-time high for us and hopefully an indication of things to come.
The Gooding SA Group is growing in numbers and sobriety. We have two meetings a week, and have also started one in Twin Falls, which will no doubt soon become independent of us, as there are increasing numbers in recovery in Twin Falls. It is exciting to see the changes in our lives as we surrender our lust and share together.
The SA Convention in July in Rochester, New York, was a beautiful experience for those of us able to attend. Feedback still being received indicates that nearly everyone who was there felt that we had achieved a spirit of unity and recovery that many of us had never seen before.
One of the workshops at the recent SA convention in Rochester was on the topic of meeting quality. Those workshop comments are listed below, without evaluation. It was not always possible to neatly separate the comments into those things that detract from good meeting quality and things that help, but this was the general scheme followed in the workshop.
In the May Essay “Food For Thought” column, an elaboration of SA’s sobriety statement was presented for member reaction. So far, only some eight groups and individuals have responded. This small sampling, inconclusive as it is, has created quite a furor. Apparently, people are either very much for it or very much against it.
The Riverside fellowship celebrated its first birthday as a group on March 7th. We also have had two individual sobriety birthdays and another coming up next week. God has blessed us with recovery and it’s catching! We have doubled our regular membership in the past few months and we have a new meeting in Redlands.…
…I’m only ten months in the program with half that many months of sobriety and I give thanks to God for steering me back towards life. The phone list, the literature, the meetings, most importantly the Twelve Steps and those that have gone ahead of us, give us hope.
I think this program is really good for me. I think SA when I get up and when I go to bed. To me SA is like the…song, You Light Up My Life. Thank you all very much. May God bless you all.
