​A True Sense of Family
The Christmas season has brought me to some eye-opening realizations.  Some, if not most, of these truths are painful.  As I continue working my Al-Anon program by getting quiet, reading Conference Approved Literature, calling my program friends and sponsor, I find that my pain signals some awesome personal growth and added maturity.
 
Friends in the program invited me to share the holidays with them.  We brought food and met in each other’s homes, just getting together in the warmth of the season.  While doing this, I overheard conversations of how cousin so-and-so, or uncle whoever, had called or written.  I began to think of my own family and the toll that alcoholism had taken on it.
 
Although I have so much to be grateful for today, I must look at the fatalities in my family relationships that have occurred over the years.  I must also be aware that even though I yearn for that feeling of family, it is not all that it is cracked up to be.
 
I don’t mean to say that others’ family relationships are not valid.  I just want to share that it is due to the Al-Anon families and friends of alcoholics that I have gained a true sense of family.  Where once devastation and severe depression made it feel like the hol-i-daze to me, I had to cover it up as well as I could with coping skills.  Now I have friends and family in these Al-Anon rooms from Christmas Eve through New Year’s.  Thank you for making this a good holiday season.

By Lynne K., Florida The Forum December, 1998
​Reprinted with permission of The Forum
Al-Anon Family Groups Incorporated, Virginia Beach, VA