Recently I was back in Seattle visiting family and friends. I found myself going to places that had been and were still very important to me and my recovery. I’m calling them shrines because they hold the spirit of God and my recovery in them even to this day.
St. Paul’s Church, Ballard neighborhood, Seattle: I went to my first meeting at this church – a woman’s meeting. I heard women laughing about the most terrible things they had done while drunk. I ended up laughing too and then realized I hadn’t laughed that wonderful way for a long time. The women became life-long friends and held me through that first year and for many years after that.
Greenlake, Seattle: The lake has a 2-mile walking path around it. I think I have walked it with recovery friends hundreds of times since I got sober. I particularly remember telling my first sponsor that I wanted the 7 years she had and she told me – great – do what we do in AA and in 7 years you will have 7 years. She also told me that biologically we humans have a completely new set of cells in our body EVERY 7 years! I try to remember that then I say, “this too shall pass” about something troubling me.
Seattle Kingdome: At 6 months of sobriety, I went to the opening ceremony of the 1990 AA/Alanon International Convention. I was scared to ask a few women if I could go with them. I felt safe in that huge crowd of over 60,000 people because I was pretty sure they were safe. I found myself saying out loud as the parade of countries started – “I am doing this! There is all this support for me!”. The Kingdom isn’t there anymore, but I see it in my mind’s eye whenever I think about that day and when I pass by where it was.
Stops Along the WAY: I spent 9 months traveling the US. I remember St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bisbee, AZ. I went to Easter service there and then to the luncheon and a meeting as well. Many Episcopal Churches have labyrinths outside and I walked them in Galveston TX, Sedona, AZ and in South Carolina. Now I walk one in my hometown of Green Valley, AZ.
When I arrived in the town that I grew up in, I went to many meetings. Most were in Church basements. The parish I grew up in was Our Lady of Perpetual Help. What surprise it was to find out that the AA meeting in my childhood church was more that 40 years old! It was a weird and wonderful time to attend meetings there while I was visiting my sister.
Part of the trip I housesat for a friend on Maui. There I went to meetings on the beach with rainbows overhead. I also did a 5th Step at The Place of Refuge on the Big Island. This historic sanctuary was where law breakers and defeated warriors could find absolution and protection. It was that for me.
Sacred Place now: When I told friends I was moving to AZ after 43 years in Seattle they wondered how I would do and how I would make friends? They were not in recovery. I told them of the sacred places that had supported me throughout my sobriety and how AA would help me find those places AND people wherever I went. I walked into my now Home Group – Sober Sisters – on the first Monday after I arrived. I was greeted and hugged and offered friendship and support. We sit at long table in a beautiful library in a Lutheran Church.
I only have to close my eyes, and I can be in that room or any other of the sacred spaces I have been to in sobriety. The crowds of witnesses in those places number in the thousands and I know I can continue to grow and live in sobriety another day!
Take a moment and let yourself connect with your sacred shrines of recovery – it will make your day and bring a smile to your face.
Libbie S
