Are we having fun yet?

[Caressa2]

"In time, we can relax and enjoy the atmosphere of recovery."

Basic Text, ppp. 53-54

Imagine what would happen if a newcomer walked into one of our meetings and was met by a group of grim-faced people gripping the arms of their chairs with white knuckles. That newcomer would probably bolt, perhaps muttering. "I thought I could get off drugs and be happy."

Thankfully, our newcomers are usually met by a group of friendly, smiling folks who are obviously fairlycontent with the lives they've found in Narcotics Anonymous. What an enormous amount of hope this provides! A newcomer, whose life has been deadly serious, is strongly attracted by an atmosphee of laughter and relaxation. Coming from a place where everything is taken seriuosly, where diisaster always waits around the next corner, it's a welcome relief to enter a room and find people who generally don't take themselves too seriously, who are ready for something wonderful.

We learn to lighten up in recovery. We laugh at the absurdity of our addiction. Our meetings - those rooms filled with the lively, happy sounds of percolating coffee, clattering chairs, and laughing addicts - are the gathering places where we first welcome our newcomers and let them know that, yes, we're having fun now.

Just for today: I can laugh at myself. I can take a joke. I will lighten up and have some fun today.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Ironically, it was the laughter and the casualness of the people at the first meeting outside of recovery that made me want to run and hide. It was loud and it reminded me of walking into a bar on a Saturday night. What I didn't know was that it was caused by a natural high not a self induced one.

My two friends stood on both sides of me and took my arms and very pursuesively made me go in and said, "It is okay, it is a safe place."

I also remember walking into a meeting one morning and everyone was doom and gloom, and I looked around and thought, "Gee I feel good, if I stay here I can't guarantee I will stay that way, so I left." When I left I met two people from the program that I knew and had two mini meetings.