I walk into the 9 o’clock Saturday closed AA meeting through the handicap entrance with my cup of Starbucks decaf Americana with two Splenda and light whip and find a seat next to the door as I set my cane down beside my leather chair. I now remember that all of the leather chairs with arms were given to the Cosmos group when a dear friend in AA, Betty, died. Thank you, Betty, for making it so easy, so comfortable to sit for an hour each week. I wonder if I am the only one still remembering who bequeathed the money for the chairs in her will.  For the first ten years of sobriety I went to this meeting every day except on Sunday. Now I only come once a week to this Saturday morning meeting. I look around. I can count on my hands the people who were here when I came to my first meetings. What has happened to them all? Are they dead, like Betty? Did they die sober or did they drink again? I know many who left and drank. I am afraid that is the norm. I hear that only 10% of people who are alcoholics come to AA and that only 10% who come to AA stay. Is this true? It is sobering and scary. I look to my left where all the young women sit together in a line. They are beautiful. Only one was here when I came. I look to my right around a table at the back of the room where many of the older men sit. Two were here when I came.  I have had five sponsors. All have relapsed. Two have come back.  I hear a man speak who is celebrating 45 years in AA. He admits he rarely comes to meetings. His wisdom is less that the young man who speaks before him celebrating two years. Time in the program does not mean wisdom.   Earlier in the week I do remember talking with a woman with great wisdom whose son had relapsed after many years of recovery. Her words to her son: “It does not matter if you fall down. The problem is if you do not get up.”  This is wisdom. This disease is cunning and baffling, destroying lives by a slow painful death like a cancer that makes you think you do not have the disease. The meeting is almost over. I have heard wisdom. I have remembered wisdom. I have seen wisdom. As we stand and pray the Lord’s prayers, I also pray that God will help me to remember this wisdom for one more week, one more day.

-Joanna