I knew the difference between sympathy and empathy but tonight I witnessed it first hand at a meeting.  The meeting had been taken up by someone sharing thier first step and into it came my sponsee feeling very sorry for himself.  I could see his obvious annoyance that he had no space to talk about his problems and he seemed unable to find anything positive to share at all.

After the meeting he was taken aside by two of the men who knew exactly what it was to have thier lives destroyed by addiction, one who himself had been to prison.  They did not give him sympathy but they did give him the strength of their own experience.  Gently they lifted him from the pit he had been digging for himself and gave him support and encouragement.  I watched with admiration feeling supported myself as I have been the one he has bombarded with phone calls and texts.  I have tried to encourage him to live each day at a time and to be positive but it has been an uphill struggle in the face of his panic.  Tonight I knew I was not alone but part of a caring fellowship.  I was able to leave him safely in the hands of these brothers and talk to my own sponsor for a while.  I thought I would share this because this is what recovery is about and it was so encouraging to see it working so well.   Thank God for my fellowship, I love those guys.