Saturday, April 26th
I wanted to flee my first meeting, but I felt surrounded and conspicuous.
At our first meeting, many of us felt as if everyone else was staring at us, probably judging us as defective — the same way we might have thought about ourselves. Surely, nobody else in the room had committed as many shameful acts as we had. We feared we might be ignored or ridiculed by others. Some of us felt “terminally unique” until the day we heard someone else tell “our” story and recognized that we did indeed have things in common with other SCA members.
If we want to make progress, we learn to reach out to others who share our disease. We develop the courage and trust to ask other members for help and support. We may be surprised at the support we get by showing our vulnerability. We see that others have taken the actions we fear, and they survive and even thrive. Their testimony provides evidence that trusting in a Higher Power works.
By sharing our stories and listening to others, we begin to feel accepted in this fellowship.
Instead of being shunned, I was welcomed and encouraged to “Keep coming back.”