I am back from this weekend's NA convention. The event was held in a small mountain village in the Swiss alps. It was very nice, not so many people, a very family kind of thing.
Last night after the main meeting we had the cleantime countdown and did it in a new fashion which I first saw last year at the same event. In the past cleantime countdowns usually really annoyed me, with people clapping and cheering harder and harder, the shorter someones cleantime was. I get all that "the newcomer is the most important person stuff" but I never really liked it. But this countdown was different. The room was cleared of all chairs and everybody was asked to stand at the back end of the room, the countdown started with the longest cleantime. That person then walks forward, the others cheer. The countdown continues and as each ones number of years or months comes up, they walk forward and join the people already there. Much like it happens in real life. The "oldest" people walk first and the others join them. Of course everyone is received by hugs. Until everyone in the room is on the same side.
I really like it this way. Yesterday however, I was the first person to walk forward and although the room was cheering like crazy I felt sad. I was alone in the front. I was thinking "where are the others?" Where are the people that were there with me when we started? I know where most of them are. A few were too lazy or busy to come to the convention, some are still clean but just don't go to meetings anymore, some are using again and some are dead. I was so glad that the countdown continued and I could give a hug to people coming to my side of the room. It showed me again, how I need everyone and it showed me that it is my choice today where I want to stand.
Today at a meeting I shared about it. It was a very strange but beautiful meeting. They called it a "hiking meeting". The idea was that the group of germanspeaking people and the group of frenchspeaking people would each go hiking someplace and we just share about our recovery with whoever we are walking with. It turned out differently, we all walked together, the groups never separated. When we came to a clearing by a lake, someone just stopped and stared to share to everyone - in French. When he finished the next person shared in German - no translation. And on it went everyone sharing in their own language. It was beautiful. Everybody understood what people were sharing, maybe not always word by word, but everybody understood with their heart. Someone then put it into words: "Addiction and recovery know no boundaries or borders" - everybody nodded and she added: "and they don't go on vacation..."
Thank you for taking the time to read my share.
Tags: Convention Countdown Friends
