Today's reading will come from "Having had a Spiritual Awakening" Chapter three. This was the meeting topic that I had prepared last Sunday when I got sick. Hopefully some of you got to read it last Sunday when I posted it, and have time to think about it's meaning.

A Change of Venue (11-9-2014)

Although I was brought up totally immersed in my church, choir, and youth group, I completely rejected the establishment once I left home in 1960. At last I was free from the dictates of my parents. I once worked out that I had sat through 1,000 sermonds and could only remember two! This did not seem very inspiring.
Consequently, I developed a very cynical attitude. Basically, I felt that I didn't need anything my church had to offer. Needless to say, I foudn the references to spirituality and God at Al-Anon meetings very uncomfortable. Becaue I was so desperate for help, I just tolerated the uncomfortable parts. I quickly learned to take what I liked
and leave the rest. After a while, I heard people referring to strange coincidences that indicated to them the presence of a Higher Power. As usual, I politely listened. In my typically suspicious way I simply put such things down to chance. Fortunately, I kept coming back. I even began to wonder if these strange coincidences were starting
to happen to me. I noticed little things that went my way, such as traffic lights when I was in a desperate hurry. I even received an unexpected promotion. One day I was being given a lift home from London and was in a desperate hurry to get to my Monday meeting. I didnt' say anything for a while but quietly calculated that I could get there
provided I was dropped off at the meeting place in town and not at my home. As the journey proceeded, I figured that I could make it, so I asked my friend and neighbor if he coudl drop me off at the church. Sure enough, theobvious response came back: "I didn't know you were into chruches." I thought, "Help!" I'm going to get dragged into a
conversation that I don't want here."

"Well, I'm not really," I said. "I just go to the odd meeting there, that's all. Anyway, what have you got on this evening?" I was desperately trying to change the subject.
"Oh nothing," came the reply, followed by a pause. Then he asked, "What sort of meetings are they?" Again I tried to think of ways to deflect the line of inquiry, fearing that I was going to break my wife's anonymity.
"They're just sort of a self-help group, that's all," I said, trying to change tack. "Anyway, this traffic is hopeless, isn't it? I think the best bet is just to scrub the church and head for home."
When he obligingly said, "OK," this time I thought I had succeeded. Then he paused while his mind rewound a bit. "But these meetings-what are they and what do you talk about?"
He won. I went on to explain, as sensitively as I could, what Al-anon was and how it had helped our family come to terms with my wife's drinking and her eventual leaving.
"Oh," he replied, "I had no idea." A long pause followed as my neighbor though hard. With a tremble in his voice, he began to describe a desperate and sad story of his life with an actively alcoholic wife, the story that we
in Al-Anon know so well. I interrupted him gently.

"Tell you what, you said you had nothing on tonight, so why don't you come to my place and we'll have a chat?" He accepted and I had my Al-Anon meeting after all. I recounted this tale at my next meeting and still very, very cautiously, mind you, put it forward as a "sign" of a Higher Power who knew I needed a meeting and that my neighbor needed help.
An Al-Anon friend who had listened intently to my short story was moved to cut in. "I don't' think that is a sign at all," he said, with eyebrows raised on his slowly shaking head. "I think that is positive proof!"
With that, my quest for a spiritual dimension ot my life moved forward one more step.

England.

When have my plans been rearranged by what felt like the influence of a Higher Power?

The website link to the group meeting room is http://www.12stepforums.net/chatroom2.html . There are other ways to join the room also. Using mIRC or other chat client, the server we are on is irc.chat4all.org, port 6667 which users will need to add to their IRC server list, and our room name (#alanonchat) to their IRC channels.

Hope you will join us.

Overcome

-- Edited by Overcome on Sunday 9th of November 2014 09:53:41 AM