Eighty One: Solitary Meetings

15F at 6AM at Ham Lake.

Did the Hazelden 24 Hour a Day reading, now trying to do some honest self-appraisal regarding my current contribution to AA. The reading itself advises newcomers to get past the assimilation stage and into Twelve Step work as soon as they are ready. In my case that was about 4 to 6 months into the program. By that time I was secretary of the Monday night meeting at St. Mark's in Barrington Hills, and sponsoring at least two guys I can remember (Tom M. and Keith W.). I must give credit to my sponsor at that time (Vince O.) for pushing my into those activities. Of course the opportunities also came along because I was totally immersed in the program, going to as many as 10 meeting per week.

But I digress. The point of this was to evaluate what I am doing NOW to contribute to the program that gave me the life I have today, and allowed me to appreciate and be grateful for all the wonderful folks who have helped me to have an abundant life, to wit: Mom and Dad; Claudia, Andy and Peter; Judy and Larry; Aunt Helen; Kurt, Al and Horst; and over the years in AA (in no particular order), Vince, Mike, Larry, Dane, Joe, Jack B, Doug, Al, Tom R, Hank, Jim, Jack H, Kevin, Ken, and others too many to recall at one time. And the result of that evaluation is not enough. As occurs to me so often when I am up here at the lake, I need to start a local AA meeting, but it is not prudent to do so until I can attend it regularly. And therein lies another blog entry.