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                            A.A.  

        Adventurers' Anonymous!!!

The people in AA will often tell you that recovery will give you a life beyond your wildest dreams. It's a phrase found in our literature. We will hear it quoted often in meetings. But what exactly does it mean?

It means just what it says!

During our drinking careers, in those infrequent times when we weren't drinking, we didn't tend to dream big dreams. We were too busy hanging on, sometimes by a mere thread, to our jobs, families and reputations. 

But when we drank during our drinking days our dreams were grandiose, world-changing, powerful - and pointless. They never came to fruition, because as soon as we briefly sobered up we'd fall into the hopelessness of alcoholic depression.

Then came AA. There we met people living their dreams and over time we began to dream some dreams of our own. We started to recognize our obligation to give ourselves the best life that we could.

For some that meant going back to school to complete our education. For others it was learning a new skill set

 - from learning to swim to driving a car -

(and just about everything in between). 

For me it was taking on the challenge of a new career after nearly 30 years as a journalist. Later it meant writing a book, and then another book, and then a few more. Some have enjoyed an amount of published success, others just live inside my computer. 

I've also lived in three different states and two countries during my time in recovery, with all the adventures inherent in those moves. 

Most recently it's about producing this weekly blog on recovery. After all, my second biological clock is now ticking louder than ever, and before it stops altogether, this venue lets me pass along a few of the things I've learned. Sharing my experience, strength and hope with others is one of the things I've learned to do in AA. 

Doing so helps keep me - or any of us - sober.

But what if you're not feeling the adventure? What if your recovery has hit a dull spot? What if everything seems a bit flat? 

That's when you get out your shovel and dig deeper. It says in our literature there's much more gold to be had for those who seek it. 

The Big Big Book (Bible) puts it this way:  

"Knock and it shall be opened unto you." 

Or as we say in AA: "It works when we work it."

Consider working ALL the steps if you haven't yet done so. Or consider working them again. After all, you are now no longer the person who did them the first time. More insights may be just waiting there to help you toward having your own great adventures.

Get to more meetings. In this time of zoom we can attend meetings 24/7 anywhere in the world. There is no excuse left for ducking a meeting, especially when we remember our meetings are the medicine we take for what ails us. We now have a ready-made pick-me-up anytime we need one. How great is that?

Do you ever have the feeling you should be further along in your recovery than you are? That the people around you in a meeting, some with a lot less sober time than you, are enjoying a better quality of life than you? 

Well, there you go, "shoulding" on yourself again.

 So stop it. It isn't true.

 If you are working your program to the best of your ability you are right where you need to be.

Some of those around you are still "faking it till they make it," others - the smooth talkers - just have a more practiced gift of gab. 

I knew one man (one of the best friends I've ever had) who talked-the-talk of AA better than anyone I've ever heard. His glib tongue helped a lot of people get and stay sober in recovery. But he, even after years in the rooms, never managed to stay sober for a longer stretch than two years. 

It takes more than talking-the-talk.

 It takes doing-the-doing, every single day.

There are many in recovery who are truly enjoying their lives to the max - find them. Stick with the winners. They are the AA Adventurers, the ones willing to keep on growing no matter what. 

(Especially when they don't feel like it.

It's odd, but true, that once we come into recovery we can soon think we'll always feel wonderful, that we can wave our AA magic wand at any problem and watch it vanish. 

We expect to quickly be thin, fit, and physically healthy, have completely rational thinking in all situations, and to happily enjoy a pink-cloud-miracle-filled spiritual life, one where God rolls up his/her sleeves and does for us what we are too lazy to do for ourselves.

Um ... it actually doesn't work like that.

We can so easily forget we spent years abusing our bodies and minds and ignoring (hiding from?) our Higher Power. That kind of damage can't be quickly undone. We heal bit by bit. And it doesn't happen overnight. It happens over time. 

(SLOW-briety!)

But heal we will if we continue to share honestly with our sponsors, go to lots of meetings (daily works very well), help other suffering alcoholics, stay connected to our AA friends and to continually deepen the commitment to our own recovery.

We all have bad days. 

And, like everyone else, bad days still show up in my life every now and then. 

But that's OK ...I used to have bad years!

I try to think of my challenging days now as pop quizzes from my HP, to see how well I might handle those less-than-lovely situations these days.

 (Usually I find I could have done much better. Once in a blue moon I get to give myself a gold star.)

Recovery really is all about living one day at a time - and in finding the gift hidden for us in every single sober day. That's when a life of adventure can really take off. People I've known during my own recovery have achieved amazing things in their sober lives - 

like:

Got their licenses back - driving or career; got their kids back - either legally, emotionally (or both); have taken up skydiving; learned to fly airplanes; switched careers; gone to work at sea; built themselves a boat; built themselves a house; 

taken up gardening; painted pictures; did animal rescues; learned photography; tennis; yoga; hiking, roller skating, even mountain climbing; 

Joined in sea rescue efforts; went camping, became litter pickers;  raised money for charity; started their own charity; learned to dance; joined a choir; organized community events, got married; had children; learned to cook; became political activists. 

Many of these people did multiples of these adventures and even more! And with every adventure their lives expanded, their confidence grew, and their self-esteem blossomed.

 That's what quality recovery is all about!

AA truly does stand for more than the name of our program, because Adventurers Anonymous also fits us perfectly. 

Go find your own adventures  - starting today!