Last week, Libbie S told us of her experiences finding AA and its warmth, fellowship, and support at meetings across the land she encountered in her many travels. I had the same experience, only mine took place when my wife and I had to move to an assisted living facility.  When we were deciding on the move to our new home, I asked if an AA group met regularly there but, alas, there was no such regular meeting. Later, after we moved in, we were socializing before dinner with a large group when someone behind me tapped me on the shoulder, I looked. Someone had placed an AA coin on my shoulder and disappeared. Grabbing the coin, I looked around and across the room and spotted a smiling vigorously waving gentleman. From that moment, every time our paths crossed each day, we ‘held” an AA meeting. What joy we experienced.

The Program brought us a release from our addiction, but it also brought us a way to live life with serenity, a way to reach out when the road suddenly takes an unpleasant turn. Oh, I suppose there are others like us living here perhaps still walking the path of the addict, but I now know the Program reminds us to accept people as they are with the joys of life itself.

That smiling face across the room was David D. During the year and a half we were both residents of Traditions of Lebanon, the time we spent focused on laughing, verbally poking each other, tracing our own paths to and into and now living with the Program, and the self-inflicted messes of our Country. As his wife continued her decline, we spent time sharing our personal feelings. When he left, he gave me a couple of “AA books” I did not have, including “As Bill Sees it.” But what made the gift even more meaningful and personal was the fact that this was the book he carried when he first came to the Program and carried it to those early meetings. But the wonderfulness of it all is that he had recorded in that book statements made by the “old-timers,” which as you probably will recall were usually uttered in a stolid voice. The sayings he noted in the book are ones which struck a note with him as something to remember. Apart from family gifts, it’s about as personal a gift as I have received.

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With this meditation, I bid Red Door adieu. I’ve written enough. That door of red is always open so please join in carrying the good news of the Program’s easier softer way of dealing with our addiction.

Jim A. St. X Noon.