T is for Twelve Steps

A to Z(ed) blogging Challenge - (my) Life in the TIme of CoVid-19   

T is for Twelve Steps

Peppered throughout my logbook are zoom meeting ids and passcodes for a number of Twelve Step meetings I attended in the last year. 

I began going to CoDA meetings (Co-dependent Anonymous) May of 2018, but by March of 2019  the meetings had gone virtual via zoom.  I miss the in person meetings, but the benefit of the zoom meetings is that you can meet people that you would never meet in person because they are zooming in from outside our area, often outside our province and even, at times, outside Canada.  

By June of 2020 I had connected with a small group of women and we decided to meet every Thursday evening via zoom to work through the twelve steps together.  It was not always easy.  Sometimes there were tears (mostly mine), but there was so much support and understanding.  We finished our step work in January but we continue to meet every two weeks to reflect on the Twelve Promises of CoDA.  

Around the same time a friend privately messaged me and suggested I might want to check out an ACA meeting (Adult Children of Alcoholics).  Something I had shared at a meeting made her think it might be beneficial to my recovery.  I started attending a zoom ACA meeting at the end of last May 2020.  Through that group I also heard about a group that was going to work the twelve steps together.  I have been attending that zoom meeting since early February 2021.  

I have also attended workshops in Australia, New Zealand, Toronto and Colorado on different topics such as Non-Dominant handwriting, and Inner Child work. 

The work is not easy, but, for me, necessary to my being more authentic in how I relate to others, and of course to myself.  

If it wasn't for CoVid-19 I would not have been able to attend these conferences.  If I only had the option to attend an ACA meeting in person I would have to choose between CoDA and ACA because the meetings local to me both happen on Saturday morning.  Thanks to zoom I can attend the ACA meeting on either Tuesday evening or Monday afternoon. 

Self-reflection is not for the faint of heart.  Step 4 asks us to take a fearless moral inventory.  My list had about fifty entries.  Very few of them were what I would consider positive traits.  My sponsor reminded me that an inventory is also our positive traits.  At first try I came up with four.  I am happy to report that the list has grown as I continue my journey.