Requiem for a Meeting Well-Loved

LifeRing offers over 80 online meetings every week for people looking for substance use support. Our online meeting venues include an interactive chat check-in hosted in the LifeRing Chat Room. This is a fond farewell to one of those meetings. 

The Saturday Chat holds a lot of history for me. This was the very first LifeRing meeting and my first recovery meeting. I found this meeting through an online search – it was the only form of online meetings LifeRing hosted at the time. On Saturday, April 24, 2019, I finally found the courage to join this chat meeting. 

I was just beginning to address my addiction. was nervous, confused about what I was supposed to do, and desperately hoping for a warm welcome.  As it turns out, a warm welcome from the convenor  and the group was all I really needed. 3+ years later, I'm still sober and I'm even stronger because of the support of The Saturday Chat meeting.

I’m sad to see it go, but its passing will make no more than a tiny ripple. LifeRing offers two other check-in meetings scheduled on Zoom during the same time slot.

Yes, The Saturday Chat was a relic. One of the first "online" meetings ever held by LifeRing. The draw of Zoom meetings has contributed to The Saturday Chat meeting attendance to dwindle, but people still popped in and some stayed. For a meeting. For a month. For 3 years. And for one participant – 5 years. It’s time to retire this old workhorse.

There are other more robust text meetings still being offered:

• Tuesdays | 7:00pm to 8:00pm Pacific
• Fridays | 6:00pm to 7:00pm Pacific
• Sundays | 7:00pm to 8:00pm Pacific

LifeRing text meetings are a nice way for people new to LifeRing or just starting out on their own recovery journey to get their feet wet and learn about the "LifeRing Culture" at a gentle pace. Unlike Zoom meetings with their literal in-your-face exchanges, chat meetings move slowly allowing time to consider what was shared and time to offer thoughtful feedback. And a backspace key to erase any possible missteps. If only life were this easy!

Chat meetings have a strong core of people who have chosen to grow together and to be accountable to one another. They are a quiet testimony to the success of a LifeRing home group.

These meetings have no audio and no video. Just a keyboard and screen and a shared goal:  To be clean and sober and stay clean and sober. Not all of our stories are easy to tell or easy to read. There's sadness, there are slips and there are emotional setbacks, But there is also hope and joy and triumph.

One of the best things about chat meetings is the warm welcome shared between longtimers and new folk joining LifeRing for their first recovery meeting. Happens more often than one might think. The complete anonymity offered in a chat setting can be very attractive to newcomers and for the camera-shy. Chat meetings move at a mellow pace. This can be cathartic and serves as an easily attainable and comfortable way to "resocialize" after the Great Isolation.

I hope every person in recovery finds at least one meeting to hold dear – like a good friend you look forward to seeing every week. 

It’s hard to say goodbye to this old friend, but it’s time to move on. I’m still convening, still volunteering, and still grateful to The Saturday Chat meeting for showing me recovery can be a positive, rewarding experience.

BeesOut.

LifeRing is currently recruiting new convenors and co-convenors to support our growing recovery community. You can learn more about the requirements and the rewards of being a LifeRing convenor on Be A LifeRing Convenor.