I got up yesterday and went to a speaker meeting. I don't normally attend lead meetings, being a solid member of the ADD MTV generation, and horribly judgemental to boot. If anything lasts more than two minutes and isn't as fascinating as I am -- no mean feat -- then I can't be bothered to pay attention.
The guy who spoke is an old friend who had 5 or 6 years of sobriety when I first staggered into The Program. I've known him for a long time and always identified with his opinions and experiences. After I heard him speak, I knew why. We did a lot of the same things: the Marijuana Maintenance Plan, the collecting of sobriety tokens while not bothering to actually stay sober, the atrocious behavior in early sobriety while we were learning that there was a lot more to sobriety than just not drinking.
It's not that people in recovery don't have any problems. It's that we face them with such good humor and optimism most of the time. It really is a choice to look on the bright side of things, not something that you have or you don't. I felt good when I left. I felt like I was part of something amazing.
On the flip side of the coin the last week has seen some family struggles: an aunt passed away, a mother in law losing her independence, a father back in the hospital. None of this is good stuff but it's not half as bad as some of the participants are implying. I like how in recovery we buckle up and get to work when things are a pain in the ass. We don't sit around and bitch about.
Well, we do sit around and bitch about it but not forever.
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