The Lamp Lighting Life

What good will it do to keep quiet? Having found a way out of bondage, out of addiction, shouldn’t we be compelled to proclaim this to others?

Yes and no…but mostly yes. 😂

The founders of AA as well as those in the earlier Oxford and Washingtonian groups all saw the wisdom in shared experience. To cling to sobriety, it becomes necessary to find fellowship with fellow sufferers in this common way out.

Indeed, sharing our experience with others in an effort to help them as well as remember for ourselves is at the core of 12-step work.

We share our experience, strength and hope with each other. By doing so, we encourage others in this new way of life and offer ourselves to walk with them.

Are these outdated methods? These organizations, after all, are old.

More recent experience through the pandemic has highlighted the central truths that even the Washingtonian movement of the 19th century discovered-the recovering alcoholic needs the conviviality and fellowship that comes from shared experience.

We need others. We need to be around them. We need to share our experiences with them.

And they need us.

In fact, shared hardship binds us together faster and more fully than anything.

But, be cautious.

Especially in early sobriety. Don’t go spouting off to everyone you know about your newfound way of life.

This is why gathering together at meetings is so healthy—here is a place where all are welcome and can bond together through their shared suffering and the joy of sobriety.

Share in meetings, seek the guidance of those who are farther along, but exercise restraint.

The last thing people near you need is another promise of a changed life. Time takes time, and for now focus on sharing your hope with the newcomer behind you.

God, show me when to speak and when to seek.