Hello, all! I just got back from a AA conference in Canandaigua, NY - it was awesome! (as it is every year - I've gone every year since I've been sober) If you have never been to a conference or convention, please consider it. It is a wonderful retreat into some great sobriety, serenity and spirituality. This year it was especially important for me to go and I learned a lot more than I thought I would.
I am from that area, having just relocated to my current area less than a year ago. I have missed my dear friends horribly and it was truly a blessing and gift of this program that I have friends to miss and friends that even miss me sometimes! But I found when I went back there, it was a double pleasure to see them again, not just because they mean so much to me, but because I was given one of those beatiful times in sobriety when I can see my own growth.
At first moving out here was very hard. I knew it was the right thing, but the first few months really had me second guessing myself. Having been brought up in some solid sobriety with a pretty decent emphasis on service work, I jumped in here with both feet, now secretary for my district. I have since met some wonderful folks in my new location. And I really had to learn some acceptance - that this IS my home now. I had to accept that and live as if I believed it. And wouldn't you know....it IS my home now. I have had to stand more as a grown-up in AA and in other ways than I did in my old location. And I found that I actually finally have something to offer another person in sobriety.
In my old location, I almost never spoke up at meetings, because I figured I'd learned everything from them anyhow, so what was I going to say that they hadn't already said. But here, I've learned that we each filter those things through our own experience, strength and hope and that everyone has something to offer, something to contribute, including me.
Well, I only meant to say what a great weekend it was, so I've rambled long enough!
