By Ras M. of District 27

I used to smoke to stop time. I just needed a pause – from the oncoming crazy, and my subsequent flooding of anxiety. Of course, there would be the crazy again, 5 hours later. When I stopped smoking, I found it challenging to fill large chunks of time in order to replace my previous 5-hours-at-a-time escape plan. What was an MA addict in early to mid sobriety to do?

Enter The MA 420 Soberthon.

A literal 24-hour marathon of programming and good clean sober fun on April 20th, one of our fellowship’s more vulnerable and triggering days.

If you’ve ever raised your hand to testify when hearing the 12 Questions, imagine writing your own! Or meditating, doing yoga and dancing alongside your fellows to get all your emotions out! Right there in the comfort of your own Zoom!

It was the talent show for me. Still coming out of the daze and haze of failed attempts in the entertainment industry and smoking to cope, the talent show drew this restless comedy writer like an irritable moth to a lighter flame. I needed to express my pain in a 5 minute container, see and feel the support of others, cry during our beloved Andrea F.’s rocking sobriety anthems, croon along with fellows so beyond talented… it opened my eyes to who we all really had potential to be if we dug our heels into our recovery.

It was also the pet pageantry for all of us. This segment treated us to a reminder of just where the first source of unconditional love was and always had been. Celebrating our companions, having an “awww fest” and just giving and getting cozy cuddle puppy vibes and watching kitties parkour across laptops was medicine.

Hearing longtime speakers offered so much hope through our tears.They are the wise elders we addicts didn’t know we needed. They showed us double digits were possible. They said how. Spoiler alert: one day at a time. I am so grateful for those in Service who come together year after year to help us buy another 24 hours of time and space, and also fill our cups and our hearts.

Published in A New Leaf – April 2025