To paraphrase a thought that comes to me whenever I am at a meeting:

“For where two or three are gathered together for recovery, Higher Power is there among them.”

I have recently moved to a new town and a new state. I often feel adrift. I don’t know how to get places without google maps. I don’t know where things are in the new grocery store. Most everyone is a stranger to me. Friendly, but a stranger.

The first AA meeting I went to away from my home group occurred when I was 7 months sober and driving across Canada with a non-AA friend. I had made a commitment to attend at least one meeting while on our trip. I was the only woman at the meeting I found by calling the AA office (no apps then). It was in a church basement, and I walked into roomful of only men. Most of them were smoking (tells you how long ago that was) and a few were smoking cigars! Trying to breathe in that room was awful and I thought about leaving but I was welcomed without question, listened too, and supported in my newfound sobriety, so I stayed.

Since that day, I have been welcomed in many different rooms. I have gone to meetings in Mexico and others in Canada. One year I drove across the US twice and went to meetings in many states. During the pandemic I was on meetings with people from other countries. I even have found a way to stay in a virtual meeting that has been my home group even though the meeting is located far from me. On vacations I like to go to local meetings as I know I will be received with a “Hi Libbie” when I say my name and that I am an alcoholic. I also will most likely find out about great places to see and restaurants to go to and sometimes even offers to take me places to see. Going to a meeting has always been a way to easily get to know a place with REAL people who live and work and stay sober there.

So here I am in a new place. It is a big change for me, moving 1500 miles from where I have lived for over 40 years.  I feel insecure and lost a bit of the time. Will I make friends? Will I be happy here? And then I got the list of meetings in the area.  There is a women’s meeting walking distance from my new home!

I started crying when I got to the church where the woman’s AA meeting was about to start.  I was home, not a stranger, just a fellow sufferer who knew hope and sobriety and welcome were just moments away for me. We are a WE program and I am happy for it.

Libbie S.