AA Meeting Reflection

Upon finding my spot, I was introduced to the group by an older woman, whom was eager to invite me in to listen to their story. The group were equally as welcoming as she was. While attending the AA meeting, I felt as though I couldn’t help myself but feel very sad for the group while listening to some individuals overcome substance abuse addiction while others relapsed. My thoughts throughout the meeting was how I thought each one of them were courageous to share their stories and amazed on how similar some stories were. My impression on the leader who took leadership of that meeting was very sensitive and ran the meeting very diligently. The meeting opened up with the group reciting the Serenity Prayer. My thought at that moment was wondering
whether or not they recited this at all AA meetings. Towards the end of the meeting, I came to figure out that they open and close the meeting reciting the prayer at most AA meetings. One comment that caught my attention was when a gentlemen talked about being clean for one week. He mentioned people in his life did not give much importance to it. However, he thought it was an enormous step for him to sustain his sobriety for one week. In addition to the sharing of the stories and readings, there was a portion of the meeting where they gave each individual who was clean a key chain. To me, I thought this was a good aspect to motivate individuals to continue making progress towards their goals. I felt as though they were a unified family. Every one listened to what the other person had to say and appeared to be in support of each other.