Each month of this past year we have focused on a recovery slogan. The slogans help to remind us of what’s really important, to stay in today, and can clarify our thinking. Our final slogan for this year is: “Keep Coming Back.” You will hear this slogan at nearly every recovery meeting you attend. Long time members will tell newcomers to “Keep Coming Back” as an encouragement to not give up and to take things one day at a time. It also reminds us that change doesn’t happen overnight. We have been affected by addiction over many months, years, and even decades, so our healing journey will also take some time.

When I first began attending Al-Anon meetings, I was looking for answers and quick solutions to my troubles. When I heard “Keep Coming Back” I felt like I was being let down. Why couldn’t they just tell me what to do? After awhile, I realized that there are no quick fixes in recovery (or in life for that matter). Listening to people share how working the 12 Steps has helped them, the various ways they applied the principles of the program, and the changes they had experienced, helped me to see that there are many roads in recovery. There’s no “do this” or “don’t do that” answers in Al-Anon meetings. I was free to take what I liked and leave the rest. And as I kept going back, I had greater realizations about myself and how I am affected by addiction. I was able to start practicing some of the tools I’d heard about, and began seeing some positive results.

“We know that Al-Anon is not a magic shop that makes all our problems vanish so that we can live happily ever after. Rather, it is a program through which we learn to better cope with our problems, celebrate our joys and our triumphs, feel all our feelings, and know that everything that happens – the happy and the sad alike – will eventually pass.”*

“In the beginning, and at each subsequent stage of recovery, our job is to do only what we can do. Sometimes that means bringing the body to a meeting and hoping the mind will follow. By acting on our willingness, we make room for a Power greater than ourselves to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We need only open the door to let the healing begin.”**

As we approach a new year, I hope that you will “Keep Coming Back” and experience greater freedoms and serenity.

* & ** How Al-Anon Works for Families and Friends of Alcoholics, copyright 2008, by Al‑Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Al‑Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., pages 102, 103