Embrace the Legacies: Our Spiritual Bridges to Expand the Future

Our pioneers believed that the Legacies—our Steps, Traditions, and later the Concepts of Service—were tools to expand Al-Anon’s message of hope and recovery to all those suffering from someone else’s drinking. Their early correspondence spoke about how the Traditions could empower the groups to grow.

When I attended my first Al-Anon Family Group meeting, I wasn’t concerned about Al-Anon’s worldwide growth. I wasn’t even concerned about my own growth. I just wanted the pain to stop.

I finally stopped trying to prove that I didn’t belong, but then I wanted each meeting to meet all of my needs. Topics that didn’t seem to be about fear, anger, or the Steps were not interesting to me; those service meeting announcements were really annoying. I didn’t want to know about any of that because I didn’t want to have to commit to anything else.

As I truly started working the Steps, I saw how the Al-Anon program was a spiritual guide to my personal recovery. And yes, the Steps were in the right order and every word was where it needed to be. My first lessons in true acceptance came after I realized the Steps didn’t need my help in rephrasing them or altering the gender of a Higher Power. Al-Anon was a safe place for everyone; each of us could take what worked for us and ignore what wasn’t helpful today.

I took the Traditions literally and not as spiritual guides. I didn’t understand that they were keys to harmony and unity, not rules to apply strictly without spiritual context. Yes, my group was autonomous, but if we chanted outside prayers or read from outside literature, it could affect Al-Anon and A.A. as a whole. Whatever my group wanted to do to prove our autonomy was irrelevant if it negatively affected a newcomer’s impression of the Al-Anon program.

The Concepts of Service were a turnoff because they were, after all, about service. I was still struggling with “our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern.” Now I was supposed to relate a Conference structure and a Board of Trustees to my personal recovery. I had been involved in all those outside organizations and they certainly were not spiritual.

I took many of my preconceived ideas into my first service meetings. I wanted to make motions before we talked about things. I knew Robert’s Rules of Order and believed that it needed to be strictly followed. But members (including my Sponsor) gently reminded me that this was Al-Anon and we didn’t have to do business in the same way that others did. We needed to talk to one another and reason things out. Maybe a motion wasn’t even needed and we could decide not to do anything—just listen and talk.

As I grew spiritually, my reliance on the Legacies became important to my recovery. The words of Bill’s essay on leadership in Concept Nine and Lois’s Committee description of how to deal with unreasonable people to avoid conflict in Warranty Four became checklists for what I needed to do to keep my serenity and maintain my spiritual health.

When I see a newcomer struggle now during a Tradition or Concept meeting, I make time to encourage them and confirm that similar topics didn’t always make sense to me—but the longer I came, the more I understood. The spiritual reality for me was, and is, that Al-Anon Family Groups has a roadmap for personal, spiritual, and business success. When I embrace the Legacies, they truly do provide me with the spiritual bridges that I need to expand my future.

As my understanding and recovery expand, my ability to carry a welcoming message to anyone, anywhere also grows. When I place the results in the hands of my Higher Power, the opportunities for Al-Anon’s growth are spiritually unlimited. I just need to “Let It Begin with Me.”

By Ric B., Executive Director
The Forum, December 2009

© Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc. 2009. All Rights Reserved.