Candlelight Meetings

There is something about the candlelight meeting whether by recovery groups held at 11 p.m. going for marathon shares or the romantic allure of the candlelight dinner.

I look around and see the man holding back tears in the dark about his wife’s cancer. From his belt loop I can see the pink of the cancer fundraiser bracelet crying silently for hope for a cure.

There is something about how sitting in darkness with only the lights of candles as we bare our souls, unafraid of the faces looking back at us.

Then there is the candlelight service on Christmas Eve at any church where attendees light each other’s candles in unison as we all hope for a better year, thankful also for the year we just came from.

One time when my husband at the time and I were without electricity for several days he lit numerous candles and wrote a romantic entry in the journal we shared.

Some sit in candlelight meetings at their home group of recovery and ring in the New Year.

At the Alano Club in Santa Barbara, CA at their candlelight meeting they give out cocoa, desserts, and coffee.

In one town in Virginia candlelight meetings are held at midnight on Christmas Day.

At one Alanon meeting a candlelight meeting follows a luau.

In one Orange County meeting a candlelight Big Book study is held at 9:30 p.m. The Big Book is the nickname for the textbook of a recovery group.

Ben, who survived a brutal South Florida hurricane, reflects on his experience with candlelight meetings in recovery following a natural disaster.

“The meetings there carried on though in candlelight which was great,” he said.

Christina S., a recovering alcoholic, and her husband wanted to hold a candlelight meeting monthly at their home but didn’t want to go through the hassle of registering as a group which is what is required by recovery groups’ headquarters in New York City.

Karen, also in recovery and a member of the office staff for the recovery group where Christina attends, said she could list the meeting in their newsletter with day and time, alleviating the trouble of the couple actually having to jump through the hoops.

“When the fog started to clear I looked around me and saw a room chock full of dope fiends. Candlelight meeting. They’d laugh sometimes. And mostly, they were listening,” said one recovering person. “After the meeting they kept doing it. Apparently it wasn’t an act. “