July 9 - What about the Good Stuff?

What About the Good Stuff?

A member shares:

"The hand is always reaching out. The newcomer is always arriving. I want to always be here. Nothing ensures my sobriety more than intense work with another alcoholic/addict.
So my frequent contact continues to be the bright spot of my life. With 19 years and 8 months, I still feel like a newcomer. The promises say we will be amazed before we are half way through. What is half way through? It's daily F2F meetings for me. I've seen many who stayed away and then returned with a worser story. And many of them reported they were ok-sometimes for several years before they picked up and used. In fact they never thought they would drink or drug again. Their experience too, was and is there for me to take heed and learn from. I trust and pray that I have."

For me, lately I haven't been to many f2f meetings as life got very busy for me in the last few weeks. Things are settling down now and I will return to my meetings as I need to personal contact with others like me. It's amazing how I feel after just an hour with others in recovery. I always hear what I need to hear whether I know it or not. I do my best to share ESH to others so that they might hear something that they need to hear also. Even with life getting "busy", I've managed to stay tuned into my recovery online and having the responsibilities that I have taken, it helps keep me clean and sober for another 24.

What prompted me for this reflection today was a post from another member not too long ago that I came across today:

Another member shares:

"What about the good stuff ?????????

Sometimes people seem to forget what it was like when they came through the doors of recovery. They get some time ,and slack off on attending meeting's.

It's true that after your here for multiple years , you most likely don't need as many meeting's as you did in early recovery. After all , when you have been in recovery for multiple years " Life happens", and it tends to get good.
But what about being there for the newcomers ?

We learn that recovery is a "we thing" , and if we want to keep what we have , we need to give it away.

Life tends to get pretty darn good after you have been in recovery for multiple years , and we need to show up and share that message with others.
Even in groups like this , many people tend to slack off on posting and interacting on these message boards when things are going good in there life.

When you think about that, it is really a form of selfishness.
People were there to show us that life can be fun , and it does get better , and lots of good things happen over time "in recovery".

We need to share the blessing's of recovery , just as much as the struggles. The newcomers need to see and hear that recovery does work , and the possibilities are endless.

My wife is coming up on 22 years clean , and she still goes to meeting's , and its not really about her needs , nearly as much as it is about being a living example that the program does work , and passing on the wisdom and tools she has learned over the years.

It takes all of us to make this thing work , and we need to hear about the good stuff just as much as the struggles in your life."