The Bay Cities Area of Narcotics Anonymous serves as a vital resource for individuals and families affected by addiction throughout the coastal South Bay region of Los Angeles County. By coordinating local NA groups, maintaining accurate meeting information, and supporting area-wide service efforts, the Bay Cities Area helps ensure that anyone seeking recovery can easily find help. The area supports meetings in these communities Carson, Gardena, Hermosa Beach, Lomita, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, San Pedro, Signal Hill, Torrance, Torrrance, Wilmington, strengthening connections between members, promoting unity, and fostering a safe, consistent message of recovery for the broader community.
In retrospect, many of us realize that when we used, our ideas of fun were rather bizarre. Some of us would get dressed up and head for the local club. We would dance, drink and do other drugs until the sun rose. On more than one occasion, gun battles broke out. What we then called fun, we now call insanity.
Today, our notion of fun has changed. Fun to us today is a walk along the ocean, watching the dolphins frolic as the sun sets behind them. Fun is going to an NA picnic, or attending the comedy show at an NA convention. Fun is getting dressed up to go to the banquet and not worrying about any gun battles breaking out over who did what to whom.
Through the grace of a Higher Power and the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous, our ideas of fun have changed radically. Today when we are up to see the sun rise, it's usually because we went to bed early the night before, not because we left a club at six in the morning, eyes bleary from a night of drug use. And if that's all we have received from Narcotics Anonymous, that would be enough.
Many of us came to the rooms of NA battered and broken apart, full of secrets we planned to take to the grave. We couldn't keep a job. Our health was terrible. We couldn't bear to see that look in our parents' eyes one more time. But, hey, we're clean now. Yes! We are done with using and more than happy to move on.
But what's this "secrets keep you sick" thing we keep hearing? We just want to put the past behind us, and instead, we're encouraged to tell some sponsor about it? We can share some of it, but not that. Oh, hell, no! No one can ever know that. And "loving ourselves"? Does that mean I have to look in the mirror and say nice things? Is this a requirement?
For many of us, our sponsor is the first--and perhaps only--person who hears about our darkest actions toward others, our insane thoughts and behaviors, and our deep pit of self- destructiveness. The shame and self-hatred we feel are met with empathy and patience. Our sponsor's loving response and commitment to loving us helps us to understand, a bit at a time, that we are deserving of love. We start to organize the mess we made of our lives as we work the Steps. We know we can tell our sponsor anything, and we know we have to in order to stay clean.
Gazing at ourselves in the mirror and blowing loving kisses at our reflection is not a requirement of NA membership. But, after sustained exposure to the love and acceptance freely given to us by our sponsor, the thought of doing so might make us far less uncomfortable than it would have on day one.
