We dont have to be clean when we get here but, after the first meeting, we suggest that newcomers keep coming back and come back clean. We dont have to wait for an overdose or a jail sentence to get help from Narcotics Anonymous.
Basic Text, pp. 10-11
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Very few of us arrive in NA brimming with willingness. Some of us are here because we are court-ordered to attend. Some have come to save our families. Some come in an effort to salvage a career teetering on the brink of ruin. It doesnt matter why we are here. It only matters that we are.
We have heard it said that if we bring the body, the mind will follow. We may come to meetings with a chip on our shoulders. We may be one of those who sits in the back of the rooms with our arms folded across our chest, glaring threateningly at anyone who approaches us. Perhaps we leave before the final prayer.
But if we keep coming back, we find that our minds begin to open up. We start to drop our guard, and begin to really listen when others share. We may even hear someone talking with whom we can relate. We begin the process of change.
After some time in NA, we find that more than our minds have arrived in our meeting rooms. More importantly, our hearts have arrived, too. After that happens, the miracles really begin!
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Just for today: I will strive to listen with an open mind to what I hear shared.
I know I did not know what to expect at my first meeting,I went stoned , wanted to leave a half an hour into a one hour meeting . A guy came out and talked me into coming back in . He told me we could go and have some coffee after the meeting . He took me to my first 90 meetings in 90 days . It seemed to be working . Another man asked me if I wanted to go to a men's retreat up in Maine.After the retreat the whole NA thing seemed to be working . I know NA has taught me to be a person with feeling for others and almost socially acceptable.
