My meeting attendance was quite good, almost right up until I ceased involvement. I was always perplexed by the amount of guilt that people had and the need we had to justify why we weren't there. But once you eliminate the guilt it was so easy to just not go and you felt so good.
Even now, I feel so good not to go, not to have to rush home from work or skip dinner or to put on a tie and jump in a cold car and sit under the bright lights for 2 hours. I didn't mind the meetings sometimes but the schedule was just too demanding.
These days when I meet a JW and they ask about why I am not there, or what they can do to help me come back, I just say my reasons for not going are "personal and private" and that I feel much better with things this way. Many that don't go to meetings feel guilty and down about that, but when you feel good about not going they are somewhat perplexed. You just aren't supposed to feel good, but they feel pretty good too when a speaker doesn't show or a meeting is cancelled due to bad weather.
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