This News Just In From Our House Manager

Since the 202 Friendship House meeting on August 21st, we have taken in $1100.00 in membership dues and have 84 members current through the month of August. Whatever everybody is doing, KEEP DOING IT!!! It’s working! It’s all about AWARENESS! AWARENESS! AWARENESS!

Thanks for everyone’s support.

The Bottle - Gil Scott-Heron

The Bottle, she says she loves me, she tells me so, but I know better now.

Of Course there is Formula for Success Except Perhaps an Unconditional Acceptance of Life and What it Brings

 

THE ONLY REQUIREMENT

"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!

**********************************************

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

abundant living.

******************************************

Thought for Today

"Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional

acceptance of life and what it brings."

--Arthur Rubinstein

****************************

Buddha/Zen Thoughts

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

********************************

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.

*********************************************

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.

202 Membership Update

Thanks to all of you who have joined, re-joined and taken an interest in Friendship House. As of today we have 154 members, 81 members are current through the month of August and 27 members are paid up through the year. Let this circle represent what we can't do alone but we can do together.

Check the bulletin board on Friday for volunteer lists.

A Thank You Message From Stephanie

First of all, thank you to all that showed up for our Friendship House open house meeting this past Saturday. I have always known that people care(d) about 202, but to see the number of people that showed up was amazing, and re-energized my hope and commitment to 202. 

I loved the ideas that flowed from that meeting and I will tell you the suggestions have not stopped. I continue to receive phone calls and emails about what we can do to help 202 remain the "safe place" that it has been for so many people for so many years. 

I have a few months remaining on this Board of Directors and I will going non-stop to put in place some of the ideas that were given Saturday. The main one will be this blog site and the website for 202. Also, the gift cards, the community awareness and donations through individuals and corporations will be on this to-do list. It has been my hope and my goal that I will do everything I can for the House that saves my life on a regular basis. It is my safe haven, my place of comfort, my home away from home, and more than that...... you are my family.
 

Again, I appreciate the enthusiam and look forward to working with all of you in the days to come. We've got a lot to do and knowing that people are there to helps me to remember...... I am not alone.

THE DETERMINATION OF OUR FOUNDERS

A year and six months later these three had succeeded with seven more.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 159

If it had not been for the fierce determination of our founders, A.A. would have quickly faded like so many other so-called good causes. I look at the hundreds of meetings weekly in the city where I live and I know A.A. is available twenty-four hours a day. If I had had to hang on with nothing but hope and a desire not to drink, experiencing rejection wherever I went, I would have sought the easier, softer way and returned to my previous way of life. *******************************************

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought for the Day

You can prove to yourself that life is basically and fundamentally an inner attitude. Just try to remember what troubled you most a week ago. You probably will find it difficult to remember. Why then should you unduly worry or fret over the problems that arise today? Your attitude toward them can be changed by putting yourself and your problems in God's hands and trusting Him to see that everything will turn out all right, provided you are trying to do the right thing. Your changed mental attitude toward your problems relieves you of their burden and you can face them without fear. Has my mental attitude changed?

Meditation for the Day

You cannot see the future. It's a blessing that you cannot. You could not bear to know all the future. That is why God only reveals it to you day by day. The first step each day is to lay your will before God as an offering, ready for God to do what is best for you. Be sure that, if you trust God, what He does for you will be for the best. The second step is to be confident that God is powerful enough to do anything He wills, and that no miracle in human lives is impossible with Him. Then leave the future to God.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may gladly leave my future in God's hands. I pray that I may be confident that good things will happen, as long as I am on the right path.

************************************************

Thought for Today

Recovery
We have found that for us
recovery began with not drinking --
with getting sober and staying completely free of alcohol
in any amount, and in any form.
We have also found that we have to stay away
from other mind-changing drugs.
We can move toward a full and satisfying life
only when we stay sober.
Sobriety is the launching pad for our recovery.

Thought to Ponder . . .
Every recovery from alcoholism
began with one sober hour.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Absolute Abstinence.

*************************************************

Buddha/Zen Thoughts

Paradox of the Essenceless Self by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

But how, if the individual of the individual is pure, empty awareness, can a conventional self and a moving mind exist at all? Here is an example based on experiences we all have: when we dream, an entire world manifests in which we can have any kind of experience. During the dream we are identified with one subject, but there are other beings, apparently separate from us, having their own experiences and seeming as real as the self we take ourselves to be. There is also an apparent material world: the floors hold us up, our body has sensations, we can eat and touch.

When we wake, we realize that the dream was only a projection of our mind. It took place in our mind and was made of energy of our mind. But we were lost in it, reacting to the mind created images as if they were real and outside of ourselves. Our mind is able to create a dream and to identify with one being that it places in the dream, while disidentifying with others. We can even identify with subjects that are far different than we are in our life.

As ordinary beings, we are in the same way, identified, right now with a conventional self that is also a projection of mind. We relate to apparent objects and entities that are further mind projections. The base of existence (Kunzhi) has the capacity to manifest everything that exists, even being that become distracted from their true nature, just as our mind can project beings that are apparently separate from us in a dream. When we wake, the dream that is our conventional self dissolves into pure emptiness and luminous clarity.

*************************************************

Native American

"Whenever you take anything from the earth, remember to leave an offering."

--Joe Coyhis, STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE

We need to look at nature and its inhabitants as our brothers and sisters. Whenever we pick plants or herbs, we should leave an offering of tobacco. We should talk to the plants and ask their permission to use them. The plants will feel honored to be of service for each of them knows they are here to serve. Each of them knows they carry a special medicine and this medicine is about continuing the cycle of life. We need always to be grateful to our brothers and sisters.

Creator, I thank you for the opportunity of life.

**************************************************

Keep It Simple

 The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form.   ---  Stanley J. Randall

Trying to be perfect get us into trouble. Trying to be perfect means we're trying to control things.
We may be trying to cover up something. Maybe we aren't facing our pain. Maybe we've hurt
someone and we need to make amends.
We need to practice being human. Humans aren't perfect. In Steps Six and Seven, we face our human limits and our shortcomings. We then start the lifelong job of letting them go. To accept our human limits leads us to our Higher Power. We see how we need a guide in life. Our Higher Power makes a perfect guide.

Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, help me accept that I can't be perfect. Help me be a good human being.

Action for the Day:  Today, I'll list my shortcoming. I'll talk with a friend about them. I'll ask my friend to tell me what my good qualities are.

www.202friendshiphouse.org

RECOVERY, UNITY, SERVICE

Our Twelfth Step--carrying the message--is the basic service that A.A.'s Fellowship gives; this is our principal aim and the main reason for our existence.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE HEART, p. 160

I thank God for those who came before me, those who told me not to forget the Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity and Service. In my home group, the Three Legacies were described on a sign which said: "You take a three legged stool, try to balance it on only one leg, or two. Our Three Legacies must be kept intact. In Recovery, we get sober together, in Unity, we work together for the good of our Steps and Traditions; and through Service--we give away freely what has been given to us."
**************************

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

 

A.A. Thought for the Day

We have definitely left that dream world behind. It was only a sham. It was a world of our making and it was not the real world. We are sorry for the past, yes, but we learned a lot from it. We can put it down to experience, valuable experience, as we see it now, because it has given us the knowledge necessary to face the world as it really is. We had to become alcoholics in order to find the A.A. program. We would not have gotten it any other way. In a way, it was worth it. Do I look at my past as valuable experience?

Meditation for the Day

Shed peace, not discord, wherever you go. Try to be part of the cure of every situation, not part of the problem. Try to ignore evil, rather than to actively combat it. Always try to build up, never to tear down. Show others by your example that happiness comes from living the right way. The power of your example is greater than the power of what you say.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may try to bring something good into every situation today. I pray that I may be constructive in the way I think and speak and act today.
*******************************

Thought for Today

"But pain... seems to me an insufficient reason not to embrace life.
Being dead is quite painless. Pain, like time, is going to come on
regardless. Question is, what glorious moments can you win from
life in addition to the pain?"

--Lois McMaster Bujold, "Barrayar", 1991

 

***********************************************

Buddha/Zen Thoughts

Even though the training in ethics takes many forms, the ethics of abandoning the ten non-virtues is their basis. Of the ten non-virtues, three pertain to bodily actions, four to verbal actions, and three to mental actions.

The four verbal non-virtues are:

1. Lying: deceiving others through spoken words or physical gestures.

2. Divisiveness: creating dissension by causing those in agreement to disagree still further.

3. Harshness: abusing others.

4. Senselessness: talking about foolish things motivated by desire and so forth.

The opposite of these ten non-virtues are the ten virtues, and engaging in them is called the practice of ethics.

From "The Pocket Dalai Lama," edited by Mary Craig, 2002. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boston, www.shambhala.com.

***********************************************

Native American

"It's not the package and the wrapping which counts but what is inside, underneath the clothes and the skin."

--Lame Deer, LAKOTA

Our eyes and ears gather information that is fed to the mind, and we tend to form judgments, opinions and assumptions on what our perception is. We might see someone act a certain way, then label that person forever, not at all concentrating on what is inside the person. It matters not our height, our size, our facial features, or our gender. What matters is our thoughts. Good thoughts overcome all obstacles.

Great Spirit, let my inside contain Your qualities.