गोइंग तो एनी length

7/13

Yesterday I attended an AA meeting in a tiny village at Alert Bay, BC. It was a wonderful reminder of a lot of important things. First, a reminder that I need to continue to be willing to go to any length. I had already tried unsuccessfully to look for AA in Alert Bay online with no luck so was not holding any hope for a meeting while there. Then as we were walking outside of town I saw a woman drive by in a van with the name and logo for Alert Bay Treatment center. My mind stuttered over it but figured I had blown any chance as I watched her drive away. A few minutes later Bill said, "there it is again...I know your dying to stop her....go ahead...." So, I waved my arms to flag her down. (This is a tiny town ) She pulled right over, a little startled I think and I said I was visiting from Seattle and wondered if there was any AA in town. It turned out she was only borrowing the van and had no affiliation with the treatment center but she knew where the "AA house" was. She rattled off some directions and we happily seyt off. Unfortunately following directions in an unfamiliar place given y a local has never been my forte I proceeded to get a bit lost. Somehow though I stumbled over the treatment center so I just walked up to the door to ask. There was a woman on the pay phone by the front door who told us that the Sundays AA had been a few hours ago but that Monday at 7pm there would be one at "Sunshine House" and pointed us in the right direction. Shoot and darn. We were planning to leave the next morning.

The next day their was a high wind warning in the Strait so we decided to stay another day. I was able to ask the Harbor Master if he knew where Sunshine House was and turned out he had worked for years for the little hospital across the street form there and knew exactly where it was. Armed with better directions at 630pm I was off walking through town to find my AA meeting.

The other important reminder was that I need to be open to where God would lead me in this new phase of my recovery. The Sunshine house had no AA sign or symbol and no one was there when I arrived. After waiting in the weedy lot for 20 minutes a young native woman walked up, singing with her head plugged into an ipod. I walked over and asked if I was at the right place for an AA meeting. She smiled and I knew I had found it! The members slowly trickled in and began taking seats in a circle of old tattered chairs in a nearly empty house.

I was the only non native person in attendance. I was also one of four people over the age of 25. There were two old native men and two middle aged native women and everyone else was young and currently enrolled in a 6week inpatient program. Turned out that Alert Bay is the only native treatment center in the whole of BC. These "kids" were from reservations from all over BC.

They were very welcoming if a bit shy. I didn't ask but I got the distinct feeling that they rarely if ever get visitors. The topic of the meeting was fears and there was a great deal of discussion regarding the fears of getting out soon and going home to friends and family who would still be drinking and using. Fears I could of course relate to and having been through inpatient myself 4 times!!! i had plenty of experience strength and hope I could readily share.

I was very impressed with the way members of the group were actively combining a traditional AA program with their heritage of naive customs and spirituality. There was a great deal of reference to family connection and the impact of alcoholism and drug addiction culturally and generationally. They were actively relying on main stream AA along with traditional native spirituality to find strength in their own fellowship and within their own communities. The eldest member was some sort of leader though I am not sure of the capacity. He may have worked for the center but it seemed more like he was from the local neighborhood. There was reference to his leadership of their spiritual practices of sweating and of a cleansing done in a course of days by being washed in the waters of Alert Bay at 5am! Brrrrrrrrr. It seemed like it was an optional exercise and there was a lot of reverence to it.

It was a great meeting and as always I walked away from it richer than I had arrived, proud of AA and more aware of the ability of AA to transcend beliefs and differences. I thought with great gratitude of the richness of Seatles' 1000+ meetings and was reassured that i they can find recovery with just three meetings a week then for me too all is possible. AA miraculously transcends borders of time and place for me and countless others.

Love, kat