I’ve been sober 14 months today and this little testimony popped up in my Facebook memories. It’s from a year ago and I hope to encourage others by sharing.
Several times in my adult life I’ve been to AA. 3 or 4 times because I had to go through the court system and another handful of times from just knowing I had a problem. In all those times, I’ve never earned a sobriety coin until today.
So today I headed off to my AA meeting excited to have “honestly” reached 2 months clean and sober. I even chuckled to myself because it was Friday 13th and there was even going to be a full moon tonight. Also, there was a line of thunderstorms headed my way for this afternoon with tornado watches. How fitting I thought! Friday the 13th represents the bad luck I’ve had with drinking, the full moon represents the craziness that comes with drinking, the thunderstorms represent the trials and tribulations that come with drinking and the tornadoes represent my life spinning out of control from years of drinking.
I waited patiently at the beginning of the meeting for the words, “Is anyone here celebrating an anniversary?” My hand shot up and I said 2 months today. She called me up and again I waited patiently for my long-awaited first coin only to be told they had no 2-month coins. I laughed and said well give me a 1-month coin because I didn’t get one of those anyway. I think she was somewhat embarrassed for us both and she handed me 2 for each month that I’ve been sober.
I just wanted to share all that because I thought it was kind of funny. And not having the coin (which never happens here at this place) for my 2 months of sobriety is another example of my life. For me, that represents the devil trying to steal my joy for doing good. In the past and even now, whenever I’ve tried to do good in life, that nasty old devil is trying to ruin things. But praise God for providing an answer to my problem! Because another member, who just so happened to come in late, had an extra 2-month coin and was able to give it to me.
Now you might be wondering why I didn’t collect a coin for the first month when it was time? To be honest, I didn’t know for sure I could do it much longer and I didn’t want a coin as a reminder, showing me yet another disappointment in failing to stay sober. But the more I go to meetings, the more I gain strength from others, who help me to learn the tools, to stay sober for one day at a time.
©David Ritter