The Chicken Coop

The most attribution I can offer you for this story is that I listened to it on a tape made by a sober attorney from Chicago. I wish I could remember his name. He spoke here in Savannah at our pre-paid convention in 1999 so if any of you from here have those tapes perhaps you could fill me in on the right info.

I first heard this tape when I was about 2-3 years sober. It made an impression on me and I’m thankful I understood it. I’ll call him Frank because I know that name is somewhere in this story.

I’m also motivated by another of John B.’s excellent comments.

I’ll try to bring this to you the best I can.

The Chicken Coop

As Frank tells it, he had been coming to AA for 2 and a half years and had been to a thousand meetings. And “something” wasn’t working. He was ready to quit AA.

But one day around that time, he ran into an oldtimer with over 35 years sobriety in AA who said some things to him that saved his life. Frank told the oldtimer of his frustrations and about the fact that he was ready to quit AA. He said something like “I’ve been sober for 2 and a half years, been to a thousand meetings and I’m just not happy. I’ve got to do something different so I’m quitting AA.”

Fortunately, he waited for the oldtimer’s reply. The fellow said “Son, this is just my personal observation but there are two kinds of folks who come to AA and stay sober. One comes and does almost nothing and just stays sober. Then there’s the other type, the type like you and I. That person comes to AA and has to work their a** off to stay sober.”

“You see, the key word is change. And the way we change is through the Twelve Steps of Recovery. And they take work. Now, remember, this is just my observation. Consider this – you say you’ve been to a thousand meetings. Let’s use this example. Take a chair and put it in a chicken coop. Sit on that chair in the chicken coop for an hour a day for a thousand days in a row. Do you think you’ll change into a chicken?”

I continue to be thankful I heard this and it is one of many lessons that have led me to believe wholeheartedly that nothing changes if nothing changes, that meeting makers make meetings, that if I really, truly, want to be happy I have to work at the Twelve Steps and change. Change the bonehead who walked in who had to drink, to someone who doesn’t have to drink – today.