Three of us met for coffee a couple weeks ago, “alumni” from a noon AA meeting in a church basement where we had met many years ago when we first sought sobriety. We hadn’t been together for several years. We’d gone different ways and changed in that period, one had moved to an assisted living facility, one had a death in the family, the other had retired and was traveling.  But what we immediately saw was that through the years, each of us had continued a very active participation in the AA Program.

We shared recollections of our time spent at this particular “five days a week noon AA meeting”. Usually, all three of us were present. Thirty or so faithfully attended but sometimes that basement floor was packed. We recalled our early AA meetings, the people who reached out to us as newbies, the laughter and support freely given to us by all ... to all.  This was an open discussion meeting...topics on all subjects: our hurts and successes, stories of how folks had worked the Steps, phrases from the Big Book, the whole gaggle of topics you find at any AA open discussion meeting. We applauded anniversaries of others whether years or a day. We shared fun and laughter and a special sadness for people we knew and worked with who had tried the Program but didn’t make it.

Our reunion reinforced all we had found and learned and accepted. For us, the Program had become a way of living our day-to-day lives, alcohol-free, but just as importantly as a way of working through life itself. We recalled times of difficulties we had confronted as we aged—normal issues a recovering alcoholic-and all of us-face in our lives—and yet, and yet, for us, sobriety prevailed frankly because we worked at it each day and followed the discipline of the Steps and went to meetings where of course others were walking the same path.  

We recalled our Twelve Step work of reaching others—one was the father and grandfather sponsor of many, another worked through the court system, the third spoke through substance abuse programs and in hospitals.

We spoke of meetings in other countries. AA, we agreed, was much the same wherever it was, language didn’t seem to be much of a barrier, after all, the readings while in a different tongue were from the Big Book or the “12 and 12” so we three all said we could easily follow.

Yes, this reunion was a grand time of laughter and recalling days of our early years in the Program. It reaffirmed what we are called to do in Step Ten—our belief in the importance of continuing to “work the Steps” of Alcoholics Anonymous.

We closed our gathering as we did all those years in that noon AA meeting in that church basement...

God, grant us serenity to accept things we can’t change, courage to change what we can, and wisdom to know the difference...and keep us coming back for it really works if we keep working it.

Jim A, and for M and P, St X Noon