12-Step meetings abound all over the world, and Nuevo Vallarta is no exception. Yesterday evening I was able to attend a speaker meeting a few blocks from the hotel.

It could have been a meeting anywhere in the United States, except the group has more transient members because it’s in the middle of a resort area. While many of the members knew one another, several of the were visitors only spending a few weeks before returning to their homes in the U.S. and Canada.

The speaker - a woman from California - spoke for 15 minutes, and then picked gratitude as the topic. The subject resonated with the group and several of those who shared spoke of their gratitude in being able to find sobriety before their disease destroyed them.

As I left the meeting to return to my hotel I was awash in my own gratitude – thankful for being able to spend two-weeks in such a beautiful place with someone I love. I close this with the recognition that – had I not found sobriety – I would be alive today. Let alone have the resources to live the life I do today.