We provide a refuge for recovery where those suffering from addiction can heal with the love, help and experience of others who have recovered through spiritual principles.
We recovered alcoholics are not so much brothers in virtue as we are brothers in our defects, and in our common strivings to overcome them.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 167
The identification that one alcoholic has with another is mysterious, spiritual---almost incomprehensible. But it is there. I "feel" it. Today I feel that I can help people and that they can help me.
It is a new and exciting feeling for me to care for someone; to care what they are feeling, hoping for, praying for; to know their sadness, joy, horror, sorrow, grief; to want to share those feelings so that someone can have relief. I never knew how to do this---or how to try. I never even cared. The Fellowship of A.A., and God are teaching me how to care about others.
As Blog administrator I don't often post articles but this one from Frank Bruni at the New York Times is a must read for people like us. I hope you find it as interesting as I did, and if you do please share it with your friends.
Drinking and Drugging
By FRANK BRUNI
New York Times
Published: February 19, 2012
"CRACK is wack."
Remember that phrase? I heard many people repeat it last
week as they appraised the waste of Whitney Houston's later years and flashed
back to her 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer, when she uttered those immortal
words. She was bristling not at rumors that she abused drugs but at
insinuations that she turned to cheap ones. With album sales like hers, you
didn't have to suck on a pipe.
Sawyer wanted to know what Houston was on. Everyone wanted
to know what Houston was on, and news reports after her death took unconfirmed
inventory of the pills in her hotel suite, wondering if they represented the
extent of her indulgences.
No. By many accounts, Houston also drank. More than a
little. In fact one early, leading theory about the cause of her death, which
won't be known until toxicology tests are finished, was that a mix of
prescription drugs and alcohol did her in.
Often it was while working on this Step with our sponsors or spiritual advisers that we first felt truly able to forgive others, no matter how deeply we felt they had wronged us. Our moral inventory had persuaded us that all-round forgiveness was desirable, but it was only when we resolutely tackled Step Five that we inwardly knew we'd be able to receive forgiveness and give it, too. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 58
What a great feeling forgiveness is! What a revelation about my emotional, psychological and spiritual nature. All it takes is willingness to forgive; God will do the rest.
************************************************************* Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day
In the story of the Good Samaritan, the wayfarer fell among robbers and was left lying in the gutter, half dead. And a priest and a Levite both passed by on the other side of the road. But the Good Samaritan was moved with compassion and came to him and bound up his wounds and brought him to an inn and took care of him. Do I treat another alcoholic like the priest and the Levite or like the Good Samaritan?
Meditation for the Day
Never weary in prayer. When one day you see how unexpectedly your prayer has been answered, then you will deeply regret that you have prayed so little. Prayer changes things for you. Practice praying until your trust in God has become strong. And then pray on, because it has become so much a habit that you need it daily. Keep praying until prayer seems to become communion with God. That is the note on which true times of prayer should end.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may form the habit of daily prayer. I pray that I may find the strength I need, as a result of this communion.
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Thought for Today
"After you ask for guidance--Listen!"
--Barbara Ann Kipfer **************************************************************** Buddha/Zen Thoughts
Patience is the sprouting of religion, firmness its root, good conduct is the flower, the enlightened heart the boughs and branches, wisdom supreme the entire tree, the "transcendent law" the fruit, its shade protects all living things. Say then! Why would you cut it down?
"It's time. If you are to walk the path of heart, then it is time..." --Nippawanock, ARAPAHOE If not now, when? If not me, who? To walk the path of the heart is a great honor. Every human has the choice to walk this path, but very few will decide to make it. Why? Well, because you can't act and behave like everyone else behaves. You must be the person who will learn to look within. You must be the person who will be fully accountable for yourself. You must be the person who prays and meditates. You must be the person who will sacrifice. You must decide to be a Peaceful Warrior. What will you decide today? Oh, Great Mystery, lead me on the path of the heart.
********************************************* Keep It Simple
The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.---Sydney J. Harris
Come relax at Friendship House
Relaxing is one of the little joys of life. We can learn to take time from our busy day to chat with a friend, take a hot bath, or spend a few moments sitting alone under a tree. The busier we are, the more we need to take time to relax. When we rest, we stop fussing about the outside world. We find out how we're doing inside. While relaxing, we can best listen to our Higher Power. Our minds calm down. We put busy thoughts aside. Sometimes, we can almost hear our Higher Power say, "Stay quiet and listen! I have something to tell you!"
One of the assignments that we get quite often in this program is to write down the words that best describe our understanding of God. The ones we choose can tell us a great deal about our current spirituality. For many of us, however, the issue is not just what we think of God, but what we imagine God thinks of us.
In other words, if someone asked God for the five words that describe you, what do you think those words would be? Would they be positive? Or do you imagine that God thinks of you in a negative way? If that is what you believe, then your ability to pray will be adversely affected. The problem is that many of us were told that God judges and disdains us because of the kinds of things we’ve done. That belief will keep us from getting the benefits of this program. Our ability to pray and work the Steps improves when we believe that God always regards our persons in very positive and caring ways despite the worst things we’ve done.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I will come to believe that God sees me in positive ways and regards my person with genuine care. I ask my Higher Power to relieve me of negative beliefs that would keep me from having positive experiences in my daily prayer.
As I work through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous with sponsors and sponsees, I often think back to my childhood and the roll alcohol played in my early life. One of the things I remember about my old neighborhood in North St. Louis is that there was a tavern on just about every corner.
In the evening the families in the neighborhood would migrate to the stoop or front porch and social interaction of an urban area would begin. When I was at the home of my Grandparent's, which was just down the street from my own home, I found a way to put money in my pocket. The local men would pay me to walk to the corner bar and get the bartender to fill their beer buckets. If I made it back without spilling any of the precious liquid I got a nice tip.
In order to avoid spilling the beer I learned to sip the foam (head) off the bucket before I crossed the street. There was never a time that I did this that I didn't love the taste of the beer. I also liked the way it made me feel. I was somehow changed from being shy and introverted to being a teller of stories. In my Irish hood many people, especially the old ones, still spoke the old language and my Grandmother began to call me scéalaí (storyteller). I later learned that she may have been calling me a liar, an early indication of things to come.
By the time I was 9-years-old I had become an altar boy at my Parish church. My serving partner was the head Grandson of a St. Louis Mafia family Capo and we both learned about the perks of his status. We would get out of school to serve at funerals and we were the regular crew for the 6 A.M. weekday mass both of which took us out of class and the funeral tips were serious moneymakers for the time.
It was during this period that I started hitting the church wine every day. As I look back on it I see that it made life with the Nuns at school somewhat easier. This was the path I chose, the make it easy path, the try not to feel path, the path that I followed for the next 50 or so years until I walked into Friendship House and was ready to change and willing to do whatever it took to do to it.
What's your story? If you would like to share it please do, we'd love to hear it.
Friendship House is the place for new comers, old timers and all those in between.
Tell him exactly what happened to you. Stress the spiritual feature freely.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pg. 93
The marvel of A.A. is that I tell only what happened to me. I don't waste time offering advice to potential newcomers, for if advice worked, nobody would get to A.A. All I have to do is show what has brought me sobriety and what has changed my life. If I fail to stress the spiritual feature of A.A.'s program, I am, being dishonest. The newcomer should not be given a false impression of sobriety. I am sober only thought the grace of my Higher Power, and that makes it possible for me to share with others. ****************************************************** Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day Unless we have the key of faith to unlock the meaning of life, we are lost. We do not choose faith because it is one way for us, but because it is the only way. Many have failed and will fail. For we cannot live victoriously without faith; we are at sea without a rudder or an anchor, drifting on the sea of life. Wayfarers without a home. Our souls are restless until they find rest in God. Without faith, our lives are a meaningless succession of unrelated happenings, without rhyme or reason. Have I come to rest in faith?
Meditation for the Day This vast universe around us, including this wonderful earth on which we live, was once perhaps only a thought in the mind of God. The nearer the astronomers and the physicists get to the ultimate composition of all things, the nearer the universe approaches a mathematical formula, which is thought. The universe may be the thought of the Great Thinker. We must try to think God's thoughts after Him. We must try to get guidance from the Divine Mind as to what His intention is for the world and what part we can have in carrying out that intention. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may not worry over the limitations of my human mind. I pray that I may live as though my mind were a reflection of the Divine Mind.
****************************** Thought for Today
"While troubles will come, they are always temporary -- nothing lasts forever. Thus, there is the famous legend that King Solomon, the wisest man of all times, had a ring inscribed with the words, "This too shall pass".
--Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
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Buddha/Zen Thoughts
The one whose mind knows the clarity of perfect wisdom is never afraid or even anxious. Why? Because when being at one with the living power of wisdom, the mother of all the buddhas, that person has the strength to remain in a state of undivided contemplation even while ceaselessly and skillfully engaging in compassionate action. The wise one is enabled to act because of concentration on a single prayer: "May all beings never leave the path of enlightenment, which is their own true nature and is empty of separate self-existence."
-Prajnaparamita
*********************************************** Native American
"Parents have to demonstrate the value of trust, respect and honor." --Haida Gwaii, Traditional Circle of Elders Children learn more by watching than by listening. If we want our children to understand and value trust, they know it by watching how adults live their lives! If we want the children to be respectful, they will observe what the adults do and say to each other. We need to walk our talk. We need to remember the children are watching. Grandfather, help me learn these important values: Trust, Respect and Honor. ******************************************* Walk In Dry Places
Deadlines
Facing delays
The procrastination of our drinking years caused some of us to become compulsive and fearful about meeting deadlines. We fret and stew if we're unable to get things done when we think they should be completed.
Without being careless or irresponsible, we should remember that we're really living in a spiritual world on a spiritual basis. There are times when a delay even turns out to be beneficial because additional information or assistance turns up later on to ensure the success of a project.
It is part of mature living to keep promises and to meet the proper deadlines. Let's be sure, however, that we're not simply meeting unrealistic deadlines of our own making. We don't have to do this to atone for any failures of the past.
I'll look over my plans today to make sure that I haven't set any unrealistic deadlines for myself. I may be trying too much, too soon.
"At one time . . . every A.A. group had many membership rules. Everybody was scared witless that something or somebody would capsize the boat. . . The total list was a mile long. If all those rules had been in effect everywhere, nobody could have possibly joined A.A. at all, . . ."
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 139-40
I'm grateful that the Third Tradition only requires of me a desire to stop drinking. I had been breaking promises for years. In the Fellowship I didn't have to make promises, I didn't have to concentrate. It only required my attending one meeting, in a foggy condition, to know I was home.
I didn't have to pledge undying love. Here, strangers hugged me. "It gets better," they said, and "one day at a time, you can do it." They were no longer strangers, but caring friends. I ask God to help me reach out to people desiring sobriety, and to, please, keep me grateful!
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Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
"Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure
immunity from drinking as extensive work with other alcoholics.
Carry the message to other alcoholics. You can help when no one
else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail. Life
will take on new meaning for you. To watch people recover, to see
them help others in turn, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a
fellowship grow about you, to have a host of friends, this is an
experience you must not miss." Am I always ready and willing to help
other alcoholics?
Meditation For The Day
One secret of abundant living is the art of giving. The paradox of
life is that the more you give, the more you have. If you loose your
life in the service of others, you will save it. You can give
abundantly and still live abundantly. You are rich in one respect – you
have a spirit that is inexhaustible. Let no mean or selfish thought
keep you from sharing this spirit. Of love, of help, of
understanding, and of sympathy, give and keep giving. Give your
personal ease and comfort, your time, your money, and most of all,
yourself. And you will be living abundantly.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may live to give. I pray that I may learn this secret of
We have a saying in Tibet. "If you lose your temper and get angry, bite your knuckles." This means that if you lose your temper, do not show it to others. Rather, say to yourself, "Leave it."
-His Holiness the Dalai Lama
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Native American
"I started drinking more seriously, seeking refuge, seeking death actually, from a world that was feeling more and more unnatural to me. Following a painful accident related to drinking, I finally realized that I must decide whether I want to follow my grandparents or truly take up this life. Circumstances that followed led me to choose life."
--Barney Bush, SHAWNEE
My life is run by choices and decisions. Every choice I make today will carry with it the consequences of that choice. Every decision I make today will carry with it the consequences of that decision. The question I will ask myself today is, "Do I want to be happy or do I want to be right?" Which ever one I choose will have a lot to do with the consequences I will experience today. If today was the last day of my life, what choices and what decisions would I make?
Oh Great Spirit, guide my path today and help me see the value of choosing the Red Road.
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Keep It Simple
Love is something if you give away, you end up having more. --- Malvina Reynolds
Service is how we give love away. It’s the “self” of self-help. Service is not a duty; a gift that’s been given to us. We help ourselves by helping others. It’s how we make sure the program will be here tomorrow. We “carry the message.” It’s just one way we see how important we are to others. The world needs us. The world needs our love.
Prayer for the Day: I pray for help in making service a big part of my program. Higher Power, help me to “carry the message.”
Action for the Day: Which people could use a kind word and a little love? I will go visit them or give them a call.
