Last week I did something I haven't done before: I forgot my sponsor's 48th sobriety birthday. And for a while I was beating myself up about it. Then I decided that being angry at myself wouldn't accomplish anything. So I accepted that I had screwed up and wrote him an apology.
Now some might think I'm making too big a deal of it. But it was a a big deal to me because I'd never before forgotten it. I'd always gotten him a nice chip and arranged a speaker meeting for him to talk about his recovery. But this year just slipped right by me. I felt really dumb.
And I probably wouldn't have remembered even now, but I got a text message a few days ago from him asking if I was okay. That was probably the embarrassing part. But I didn't even make a pretense of an excuse, because anything I'd tell him would sound really lame. Plus he'd always taught me about being honest and straight up.
We're going to have lunch this Friday. And I might give him the chip I purchased for him yesterday. Or, I may present it to him at a meeting this next Sunday where I can also publicly apologize for missing such an important anniversary. We'll see.