January 6th, 2009
God Bless Jim Croce…
January 06, 1990. Under God’s guidance Alcoholics Anonymous not only tugged on this “superman’s cape” but yanked it off exposing to me the fallacies of my then belief system.
Today I am grateful. I don’t have everything I want but I surely want everything I have. What I have is priceless.
R.I.P. Matt M. I’ll continue to attempt some level of repayment for this debt of gratitude knowing I’ll never repay enough. Thank you Rick T. You will always be a light for me.
And thank you all for all the opportunities you keep giving me to practice these principles.
Share This
By Mark -- 0 comments
January 5th, 2009
But I cannot tell you I have another recovery. It is possible I will only be given this opportunity once and I am taking it for all it is worth!
“For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then faith would be dead indeed. With us it is just like that.”
I’m grateful this works for me. As does this;
“Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. To me these experiences are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them.”
That’s right - the Twelve Steps work. Well. They save lives. Then make us better human beings.
Priceless.
Share This
By Mark -- 0 comments
January 4th, 2009
I hear it all the time - “just do the next right thing.”
Each time I hear it I want to scream (and I have many times) “where are you getting this from?”
Today I can use my memory (in its current condition lol) and go back to those early months in sobriety to consider what I knew about the next right thing. My next thought is amazement at why we have the audacity to tell newcomers to do this without telling them to make damn good and certain that they communicate with their sponsors before they do the “next right thing.”
If they know how to do the next right thing why are so many coming to us with court papers??? If they know how to do the next right thing why do so many come to us with DUI’s??? Heck, the next right thing would be to not pick up the next drink of alcohol, right? Or, put the keys in the ignition when you know darn well you’re intoxicated?
Once again, from “That Ain’t In The Book,”
Just do the next right thing
Page 86, paragraph 4: “We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision.”
Page 87, paragraph 1: “Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas.”
To repeat: Absurd actions and ideas.
Profundity Pushers…
Share This
By Mark -- 0 comments
January 3rd, 2009
From “That Ain’t In The Book,”
“We must change playmates, playgrounds, and playthings”
Page 100-101: “Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do. People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we must not have it in our homes; we must shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide their bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn’t think or be reminded about alcohol at all. Our experience shows that this is not necessarily so.
We meet these conditions every day. An alcoholic who cannot meet them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with his spiritual status. His only chance for sobriety would be some place like the Greenland Ice Cap, and even there an Eskimo might turn up with a bottle of scotch and ruin everything!”
Which is effectively telling us that saying, in AA, that we must change our playmates, playgrounds and playthings isn’t necessarily correct - to the Basic Text of Narcotics Anonymous, which tells us (pg. 16);
“The ultimate weapon for recovery is the recovering addict. We concentrate on recovery and feelings not what we have done in the past. Old friends, places and ideas are often a threat to our recovery. We need to change our playmates, playgrounds and playthings.”
Thoughts?
Share This
By Mark -- 2 comments
January 2nd, 2009
Significant January Dates in A.A. History
from AA History Lovers at Yahoo! Groups;
Jan 1929 - Bill W. wrote third promise in Bible to quit drinking.
Jan 1940 - Akron group moves to new home at King School.
Jan 1944 - Dr. Harry Tiebout’s first paper on the subject of “Alcoholics Anonymous”.
Jan 1944 - Onset of Bill’s 11 years of depression.
Jan 1946 - Readers Digest does a story on AA.
Jan 1948 - 1st A.A. meeting in Japan
Jan 1951 - AA Grapevine publishes memorial issue for Dr Bob.
Jan 1958 - Bill writes article for Grapevine on “Emotional Sobriety”.
Jan 1, 1943 - Columbus Dispatch reports 1st Anniversary of Columbus, Ohio Central Group.
Jan 2, 1889 - Sister Ignatia born, Ballyhane Ireland.
Jan 3, 1939 - First sale of Works Publishing Co stock is recorded.
Jan 4, 1940 - 1st AA group formed in Detroit, Michigan.
Jan 5, 1939 - Dr Bob tells Ruth Hock in a letter that AA has “to get away from the Oxford Group atmosphere”.
Jan 5, 2001 - Chuck C. from Houston died sober in Texas at 38 years sober.
Jan 6, 2000 - Stephen Poe, compiler of the Concordance to Alcoholics Anonymous, died.
Jan 8, 1938 - New York AA splits from the Oxford Group.
Jan 10, 1940 - 1st AA meeting not in a home meets at King School, Akron, Ohio.
Jan 13, 1988 - Dr Jack Norris Chairman/Trustee of AA for 27 years dies.
Jan 13, 2003 - Dr Earle M sober for 49 years, author of “Physician Heal Thyself” died.
Jan 15, 1937 - Fitz M brings AA meetings to Washington DC.
Jan 15, 1945 - First AA meeting held in Springfield, Missouri.
Jan 19, 1943 - 1st discussion for starting AA group in Toronto.
Jan 19, 1944 - Wilson’s returned from 1st major A.A. tour started in Oct 24 1943.
Jan 19, 1999 - Frank M., AA Archivist since 1983, died peacefully in his sleep.
Jan 21, 1954 - Hank P who helped Bill start NY office dies in Pennington, New Jersey.
Jan 23, 1985 - Bob B. died sober November 11, 2001.
Jan 24, 1918 - Bill marries Lois Burnham in the Swedenborgen Church in Brookyn Heights.
Jan 24, 1945 - 1st black group St. Louis
Jan. 24, 1971 - Bill W dies at Miami Beach, FL.
Jan 25, 1915 - Dr. Bob marries Anne Ripley.
Jan 26, 1971 - New York Times publishes Bill’s obituary on page 1.
Jan 30, 1961 - Dr Carl Jung answers Bill’s letter with “Spiritus Contra Spiritum”.
End of Jan 1939 - 400 copies of manuscript of Big Book circulated for comment, evaluation and sale.
Tags: AA History, alcoholics-anonymous, gratitude, Recovery
Share This
By Mark -- 4 comments
January 1st, 2009
One day at a time…
Sure, its nice to make all those wonderful plans, goals and resolutions - isn’t it? You sure sound good!
Um Hmmm - until roomie brings the meeting back to reality. :)
Okay, my God doesn’t have a problem with me making plans. That’s because He reserves the right to change them when He feels it is necessary for the reason He feels it is necessary, because He loves me.
Understand? Got it? LOL
Yeah, I know, it sounds nice to romanticize all those good things we’re aiming for this coming year. Heck, I hope we all achieve every last ounce of happiness we can.
It’s just not reality to give the impression that all you have to do is stay sober and do a lot of praying and it will all come your way. It just doesn’t happen that way.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Share This
By Mark -- 0 comments
December 30th, 2008
We sit in meetings, we offer others our experience, strength and hope, we share the stories of our lives.
Why?
I think the last paragraph of the preface of the Fourth Edition says it well;
“All changes made over the years in the Big Book (A.A. members’ fond nickname for this volume) have had the same purpose: to represent the current membership of Alcoholics Anonymous more accurately, and thereby to reach more alcoholics. If you have a drinking problem, we hope that you may pause in reading one of the forty-two personal stories and think: “Yes, that happened to me”; or, more important, “Yes, I’ve felt like that”; or, most important, “Yes, I believe this program can work for me too.”
We’ll be waiting for you…
Share This
By Mark -- 0 comments
December 29th, 2008
Earthlings will not be able to understand this…
From Chap. 11 “A Vision For You”
“For most normal folks, drinking means conviviality, companionship and colorful imagination.
It means release from care, boredom and worry. It is joyous intimacy with friends and a feeling that life is good. But not so with us in those last days of heavy drinking. The old pleasures were gone. They were but memories. Never could we recapture the past. There was an insistent yearning to enjoy life as we once did and a heartbreaking obsession that some new miracle of control would enable us to do it. There was always one more attempt - and one more failure.”
I might add - ad infinitum… the failures seemed to be neverending themselves.
I’d like to suggest that if your drinking is no longer convivial, if your drinking has chased all your companions away, if your imagination is as exciting as a pet rock, you might not be “normal” and you might have a problem with booze.
There is a way out! BTW - Normal? It’s a setting on a washing machine…
Share This
By Mark -- 0 comments
December 27th, 2008
Just a thought this am…
“Is my brand of AA so attractive that other drunks want it?”
From Silkworth.net;
Tradition Twelve: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
- Why is it a good idea for me to place the common welfare of all AA members before individual welfare? What would happen to me if AA as a whole disappeared?
- When I do not trust AA’s current servants, who do I wish had the authority to straighten them out?
- In my opinions of and remarks about other AAs, am I implying membership requirements other than a desire to stay sober?
- Do I ever try to get a certain AA group to conform to my standards, not its own?
- Have I a personal responsibility in helping an AA group fulfill its primary purpose? What is my part?
- Does my personal behavior reflect the Sixth Tradition – or belie it?
- Do I do all I can to support AA financially? When is the last time I anonymously gave away a Grapevine subscription?
- Do I complain about certain AAs’ behavior – especially if they are paid to work for AA? Who made me so smart?
- Do I fulfill all AA responsibilities in such a way as to please privately even my own conscience? Really?
- Do my utterances always reflect the Tenth Tradition, or do I give AA critics real ammunition?
- Should I keep my AA membership a secret, or reveal it in private conversation when that may help another alcoholic (and therefore me)? Is my brand of AA so attractive that other drunks want it?
- What is the real importance of me among more than a million AAs?
[Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc.]
Share This
By Mark -- 0 comments
December 25th, 2008
TO ALL MEMBERS
Greetings On Our 10th Christmas
1944
Yes, it’s in the air! The spirit of Christmas once more warms this poor distraught world. Over the whole globe millions are looking forward to that one day when strife can be forgotten, when it will be remembered that all human beings, even the least are loved by God, when men will hope for the coming of the Prince of Peace as they never hoped before.
But there is another world which is not poor. Neither is it distraught. It is the world of Alcoholics Anonymous, where thousands dwell happily and secure. Secure because each of us, in his own way, knows a greater power who is love, who is just, and who can be trusted.
Nor can men and women of AA ever forget that only through suffering did they find enough humility to enter the portals of that New World.
How privileged we are to understand so well the divine paradox that strength rises from weakness, that humiliation goes before resurrection; that pain is not only the price but the very touchstone of spiritual rebirth.
Knowing it’s full worth and purpose, we can no longer fear adversity, we have found prosperity where there was poverty, peace and joy have sprung out of the very midst of chaos.
Great indeed, our blessings!
And so — Merry Christmas to you all — from the Trustees, from Bobbie and from Lois and me.
Bill Wilson
[Source]
Tags: 12th-Step, 12th-tradition, 1st-step, 1st-Tradition, Christmas-message
Share This
By Mark -- 4 comments
Recent Comments