Back to Life

We all sat around the campfire, bundled up against the falling temperature and cold breeze coming off the lake. We talked and laughed, sometimes falling quiet as we watched the setting sun and the fire dancing in the logs. I got up and walked over to the coffeepot to refill my cup. When I turned back toward the circle, I saw it. People silhouetted against a background of gold and yellow and orange and pink clouds, all reflected on the surface of the lake. And in the middle of the group, the red glow of the fire, a pale sister to the setting sun. Laughter and chatter floated over to me from the group, totally anonymous in silhouette. It was a picture of true AA fellowship. 



District 7, Area 25 (Kansas), was having its first district event in many years—a district meeting followed by a meal followed by a speaker. This was formerly my home district. I was even the DCM in the late 1980s. Back then, we had 10 active AA groups spread across five sparsely populated rural counties in the northeast corner of Kansas. We had district meetings regularly and we had a district picnic at least once a year. Some of us attended area meetings and were involved in service at that level. One of my goals as DCM was to get a representative from each group to attend one of our district meetings.  We finally achieved that at the last meeting before I rotated out. 



Then I moved to a different district. Over the years, I saw fewer people from District 7 at area meetings. I’m not sure what happened but eventually no one came. The names on the roster of district and group officers quit rotating. Some positions became vacant and stayed vacant. The number of AA groups shrank to three. There was no communication happening between the groups and the area and it was the same with GSO. Some said the district had become inactive, meaning it had dropped out of the larger AA community.



Then, a young man, J, came along. He showed up at an area meeting a couple of years ago. I was serving as area secretary and was thrilled that someone from District 7 had come. I welcomed him to the area and offered to be of help in any way I could. He was sober a few years and was already taking AA meetings into the county jail where he’d been a “guest” just a short time before. He’d caught fire with AA and the sheriff invited him to start bringing meetings into the jail after seeing the change in him. J had a sponsor and had worked the Steps, but he “wanted something more than that.” So when he heard about area meetings, he came. He didn’t have a clue about how any of it worked, but he wanted to understand it all. He asked me to be his service sponsor. 



We went through the Concepts. We went through the area service structure guidelines. He started contacting people in the district and arranged for a district meeting. I was invited to attend because, as he said, “I don’t know what I’m doing. Will you help us with this?” 



Of course, I would. Eight people showed up for that first meeting. They promptly elected J as DCM and then elected an alternate DCM and a secretary/treasurer and a corrections chair. And they discussed having a district picnic. Not bad for a first meeting!



The district got busy. The corrections committee has helped with getting literature into two county jails and is in contact with the authorities about bringing meetings into a new facility under construction. They’ve added a treatment committee and have started working with a center in the town of Atchison. J and his alternate DCM have gone on the road to visit AA groups, discovering new groups popping up, helping them get connected with all of AA. They’re now talking about having workshops on sponsorship or the Traditions—and more picnics. 



The first picnic took a while to get planned. J and his wife had a new baby and there was an incident at one of the jails. In other words, life happened.  But the picnic finally took place on a cold, late-October day. 



I attended because I was invited as the incoming delegate for the area, but I went also to listen and learn, not to lead or teach or anything like that. The district is walking on its own now and doesn’t need me to hold its hand anymore. So I drove the 65 miles through the glacial hills of Kansas, enjoying the beautiful colors of the grasses on the hillsides and the turning trees. I drank coffee, ate s’mores and burned hotdogs and listened and learned. 



An old friend of mine, R, showed up and we caught up on things, remembering AAs who’d inspired us in our early days and had now passed on. R is a deeply spiritual man and he shared tales of times when his God tapped him on the shoulder and led him to new adventures in ministry and in recovery, even at the age of 74. I watched another member, M, with her two-month-old son, happy in her recovery and happy to have her sponsor there as the speaker. K shared her story of catching fire with AA during her fifth prison stint, from a woman doing life who had found peace, freedom, dignity and grace through the program while incarcerated and who prepared K for sober life on the outside. K now works at the Veterans Affairs as a substance abuse counselor, and her former sponsor was paroled a few years ago. 



I went to support a district that’s coming back to life, and I walked away with one of the most profound spiritual experiences I’ve had in a long time. Once again, my Higher Power had so much more in store for me than I ever expected.