I had the day off work today.  Weather was good.  Traveling was good.  Nothing to do but what I wanted to do for me.  I got my hair cut.  Shopped a little.  Then attended a noon F2F meeting at a local church that I usually can't make.  I arrived to see old friends from my old home group - all there because they, too, had the day off and could make the noon meeting.  I was surprised to see new people there, too.  People I know from our community but not from Al-Anon.  People who have touched my life in important ways.

 I almost found a reason not to go, but decided I had made the plan to attend.  I was going to carry through on my plan.  Had I avoided doing what I'd promised myself, I would have missed friends I haven't seen in years.  I would have missed the people I know from our community but not from Al-Anon.  I would have missed the greetings, the hugs, the smiles of folks who helped me through some incredibly challenging experiences in this life.  I would have missed the e/s/h of my friends and of my community relationships and the feelings of well-being that I carried with me to my car and back to my life.

Al-Anon fellowship is more than a way to deal with the disease that affects us all.  It is a way of personally experiencing the truth that we are not alone in facing the denial and the manipulations of this disease.  It is a way to personally experience belonging to a family that is always happy to see you no matter how many years or months or weeks you've been away from each other.  It is a way to lift our spirits and to hear the stories of change and new life that happens when folks truly learn and practice their program with each other.  

If I ever doubt that Al-Anon really helps, all I need to do is go to a meeting and listen to some old timers and some newcomers and even me, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it works if we work it.