Meeting Topic: AA saying or slogan “Don’t let the life AA gave you, get in the way of your AA life.”

Living Sober, like our slogans, was the perfect amount of nourishment/milktoast I could digest in early sobriety that would ignite me into remembrance of these sacred spiritual principles later down the road. Layer by layer, line by line, word for word, year by year. So once I could comprehend that, I was able to expand to accommodate this from the Big Book:

"Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do. People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we must not have it in our homes; we must shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide their bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn't think or be reminded about alcohol at all. Our experience shows that this is not necessarily so.

We meet these conditions every day. An alcoholic who cannot meet them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with his spiritual status. His only chance for sobriety would be some place like the Greenland Ice Cap, and even there an Eskimo might turn up with a bottle of scotch and ruin everything! Ask any woman who has sent her husband to distant places on the theory he would escape the alcohol problem.

In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure. If the alcoholic tries to shield himself he may succeed for a time, but he usually winds up with a bigger explosion than ever. We have tried these methods. These attempts to do the impossible have always failed.

So our rule is not to avoid a place where there is drinking, if we have a legitimate reason for being there. That includes bars, nightclubs, dances, receptions, weddings, even plain ordinary whoopee parties. To a person who has had experience with an alcoholic, this may seem like tempting Providence, but it isn't.

You will note that we made an important qualification. Therefore, ask yourself on each occasion, "Have I any good social, business, or personal reason for going to this place? Or am I expecting to steal a little vicarious pleasure from the atmosphere of such places?" If you answer these questions satisfactorily, you need have no apprehension. Go or stay away, whichever seems best. But be sure you are on solid spiritual ground before you start and that your motive in going is thoroughly good. Do not think of what you will get out of the occasion. Think of what you can bring to it. But if you are shaky, you had better work with another alcoholic instead!"

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So as long as I still have the capacity to be honest and am not seeking to just maintain my already existing spiritual health, but to grow, expand and build my spiritual muscles, then I can walk anywhere a free woman provided I have a legitimate reason for being there. What I'm finding for me, again, when I am absolutely 100% transparent and honest with myself, I rarely have a legit reason to be anywhere so I am home a lot! LOL!! In other words, if I have no real just cause for being there, I don't go. I am no longer interested in inserting myself into things that need not be or are a misalignment as a way to stay relevant. I love being home anyway so this suits me just fine!! 

Spiritual principle of Sufficient Reason-If every reality must have a sufficient reason, then human life equally has an ultimate reason and purpose. That humans are intentionally created for a relationship with God.