Todays c2c talks about how important it is to 'keep coming back"- even when we might no longer live with an alcoholic or be directly affected by another's alcoholism in our day to day lives.

It points out that many people have been in the program for years and years and stay for the serenity they find and the people, as well as the consistency and the commitment the have made to themselves and their own growth. 

It points out that we can easily underestimate the lasting impact our experiences with alcoholism have had on ourselves and begin to skip meetings and start doubting that we need al-anon in our lives but for many of us, life starts to be unmanagable again and we learn that we really do need to keep coming back to continue to enjoy the gifts of the program.

"Just for today I will have a program. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it" (Just for Today)

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I know that when I came to see my al-anon journey as a life-long one rather than a 'race to the finish line' of recovery, it began to work much better for me. There's a lot of serenity to be found (for me at least) in knowing and accepting that life is going to be one long experience in learning and growing- I'll never arrive or become an 'expert' at life. And yet, again and again I find life starts to suck and I become disillusioned with it all and decide I can't really be bothered...only to finally realise that the tool iI needed was one I learned through al-anon...and then I figure, I might as well keep coming back and learning more of them because there will always be a next time, and another, and...