Laura McKowen - Push Off from Here: Nine Essential Truths to Get You Through Sobriety (and Everything Else)

The COVID-19 pandemic hit a few months after We Are the Luckiest came out. I was in the middle of traveling around the United States promoting the book when lockdowns began. I canceled my plans and watched alongside the rest of the world as all our institutions shut down: schools, airports, churches, banks, restaurants. Each of these closures seemed more surreal than the last, but I was shocked when I saw an email from my local Alcoholics Anonymous chapter announcing they would be closing the building until further notice. Id never seen this happen beforenot for New England blizzards, holidays, public emergenciesnever. Although I wasnt much involved with AA at that point, the availability and steadiness of meetings were still a comfort to me; any day of the week, there were multiple meetings available. It was a place I knew I could go, but also somewhere I could send others.

While I felt strong and supported in my own sobriety then, I thought of all the people who were newly sober or struggling and depended on those meetings to stay sober; those who would understandably relapse given this crisis and would have no place to go; those who would no doubt start drinking more heavily under the pressure of lockdowns and find themselves suffering alone. Of course, it wasnt only my local chapter of AA that closed downeverything was closing, everywhere. AA has millions of members worldwide who rely on those meetings to keep them sober, and for most folks, like me, sobriety is a matter of life and death. These were parents and children and siblings and teachers and healthcare workers and grandparents and caretakers and folks whom other people depended on every day.

Because Id already built a large community around sobriety through my writing in the years prior, I felt I could do something to help, at least until things returned to normal, which at that point we presumed would only be a matter of weeks. Without thinking about it too much, I decided one Saturday morning in mid-March to host a couple of free online sobriety support meetings over the weekend. I put together a simple sign-up page where people could register to be sent the Zoom information, announced it on social media, and broadcasted it to my newsletter list. I cobbled together a loose format based on what Id liked best about AA meetings: an opening statement about intention, a discussion topic or speaker, and then time for individual shares from the people attending (about their challenges, wins, and whatever else might be on their mind that day as it related to sobriety) with some guidelines. I also added my own elements: meditation, reading poetry or passages from books, and occasional feedback and commentary on shares. On Saturday, March 14, I hosted the first meeting.