I celebrated my third Al-Anon birthday with some of my Al-Anon friends yesterday, along with three other January birthdays. It's so wonderful to take a look back at our accomplishments as time moves forward.

Al-Anon has gifted me so many wonderful things...

It's brought me closer to my HP than any other thing I've ever tried before. Where before I used to give my HP some thought maybe ever few months or only when I was in a crisis, I now think of my HP every day, sometimes several times during the day, and at times, I even manage to pause for a moment and ask my HP for guidance.

It's allowed me the dignity to make decisions for myself. No longer do I run out to every person I know and ask them "what do you think I should do???" with important decisions. I have to think for myself. I can still reason things out with someone else, like my sponsor, but my sponsor and other Al-Anon members ultimately leave the decisions up to me.

It showed me how to "grow up" and be an adult, which allowed me to - hopefully - be a strong, rational, dependable presence in my step-daughter's life when she moved out to live with her father and I. I've formed a bond with her that I can hope will remain the rest of our lives, simply because Al-Anon taught me how to be there for her without meddling and interfering.

It showed me that it's perfectly okay to put my happiness first. It showed me acceptance. It gave me faith that no matter what, I'd be okay.

It showed me what real friendship and unconditional love is like in the meetings and with my sponsor. There's no guilting... "well if it were YOU, I'd do it for you!!" or "If you REALLY cared, you would do this for me!" No one tries to cajole me into doing something I'm not comfortable with. They respect "no" as an answer.

So, three years... here's to another three in the future, and then another three after that, and more after that.

Thanks, everyone. :)