When one alcoholic/addict shares with another alcoholic/addict

[MajestyJo]

February 16

"If I want to be a leader, I have to do more than just find out in which direction the mob is moving and then get out in front of it ... Leadership involves significant sacrifice of personal goals and ambitions. A person really needs to have Tradition Two right at the center ... Personal pettiness just has no place in leadership."

Humbolt, Saskatchewan, February 1996
From: "I Wish You Well"
AA Grapevine

[MajestyJo]

February 17

"I am a student of life just trying to learn how the universe works. The most powerful lesson I have learned is that it all happens inside me. My perception of any situation is in my control -- I have a choice about which way my mind will react."

Pinellas Park, Fla., November 2006
From: "How the Universe Works"
AA Grapevine

[MajestyJo]

February 18

"Recovery is something like the restoration of a very old painting, covered over by layers and layers of darkening, distorted varnish ... Not all of the underlying pattern can be revealed at one time. What is uncovered, bit by bit and layer by slow, careful layer, are the things which are necessary and appropriate for me to know about myself right now."

Step by Step Book

Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, August 1992
From: "An Indescribable Benevolence"
Step By Step

[MajestyJo]

February 19

"Drinking is no longer a problem, but my thinking sure is. Writing a gratitude list puts the brakes on negative thoughts, turns me back toward the light, and helps me to see the beauty in everyday life."

Beginners' Book

New York, N.Y., January 2006
From: "Tools for Life"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

[MajestyJo]

February 20

"In the meetings I attend, newcomers sometimes ask me how I've been able to stay sober so long. My answer is always the same: every morning, the first thing I do is say three magic words -- God, help me."

Beginners' Book

Kissimmee, Fla., March 2006
From: "Small but Mighty"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

[MajestyJo]

February 21

"I use notes to remind me to seek my Higher Power ... On my desk, in front of my computer is the note: 'Good morning, this is God, I will be handling all your worries and concerns for today. I will not need your help!'"

Buffalo Grove, Ill., November 2013
From: "Note to Self"

[MajestyJo]

February 22

"Consider the problem of the fast-growing overseas centers just now emerging from their pioneering time -- how they have slowly gained the confidence of medicine, religion, and the press; how they have finally grown into unity through an ever better application of our Twelve Traditions; how they have tried to make good their desperate lack of language translations; and how they have well begun to cross all barriers of race, creed, or social condition."

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., October 1960
From: "Our Pioneers Overseas"
The Language of the Heart

[MajestyJo]

February 23

"The welcome I received in AA was real. Neither my youth, my race, my newness, nor my foreignness concerned them. All they appeared to see was that I finally admitted my powerlessness over alcohol. That was enough for them."

Beginners' Book

Port of Spain, March 2003
From: "What Do I Like Best?"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

[MajestyJo]

February 24

"The Italians have a neat way of telling someone 'I love you.' Their expression is 'Ti voglio bene' -- 'I wish you well.' It just seems to put things on a tangible level ... Quite often my prayer is nothing more than this little Italian phrase, 'Ti voglio bene.'"

Humbolt, Saskatchewan, February 1996
From: "I Wish You Well"
AA Grapevine

[MajestyJo]

February 25

"I expect to be 'on tap' but never again 'on top,' this being precisely the stance that AA hopes all its old-timers will take."

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., November 1961
From: "Again at the Crossroads"
The Language of the Heart



NOT BLEEDING DECONS!



Sorry couldn't resist, a few just about run me out of AA, trying to close my group Freedom of Recovery. Everybody thought with the gossip that was going around that I was holding the meeting in my home, when in fact, I didn't even live in the same building. The group bought more meeting lists for newcomers than all the other meetings in the city. I was hurt by it all that they would turn their back on newcomers just because they didn't like me.

[MajestyJo]

February 26

"I was told by a sober member of AA that if I wanted to stay sober I would need to do three things: get a sobriety date and don't change it, get a sponsor, and get a home group."

Beginners' Book

Glendale, Calif., March 2002
From: "Three Essentials"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

[MajestyJo]

February 27

"Today, I don't have the home, the husband, the three cars in the garage. I have one old clunker that takes me to meetings. I am not financially well off, but I have a peace of mind I never dreamed possible. My needs are always met -- and even some of my wishes. I am truly happy for the first time in my life. Thank you AA."

Beginners' Book

Milwaukie, Ore., June 1999
From: "A Lady After All"
Beginner's Book: Getting and Staying Sober in AA

[MajestyJo]

February 28

"We found that all progress, material or spiritual, consisted of finding out what our responsibilities actually were and then proceeding to do something about them ... We found that we didn't always have to be driven by our own discomforts as, more willingly, we picked up the burdens of living and growing ... We discovered that full acceptance and action upon any clear-cut responsibility almost invariably made for true happiness and peace of mind."

Celebrating The Language of the Heart

AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1965
From: "Responsibility Is Our Theme"
The Language of the Heart

[MajestyJo]

JUST FOR TODAY!

Baffling

from: "More about Alcoholism"

"But there was always the curious mental phenomenon that parallel with our sound reasoning there inevitably ran some insanely trivial excuse for taking the first drink. Our sound reasoning failed to hold us in check. The insane idea won out. Next day we would ask ourselves, in all earnestness and sincerity, how it could have happened."


© 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 37

- The Hoffelds

When I came into recovery, I knew there was a God and I knew I wasn't insane. After a year in recovery, I didn't know who God was, and realized I was insane. Thus started my spiritual journey, because I was so baffled because I was soooooooo sure!


!

[MajestyJo]

Just found this AA pamphlet in my stash of literature and thought, "How true this is. How often we compare and stay sick. How some have used just alcohol while others admit to other addictions such as work, food, gambling, drugs (all types), religion, exercise, excessive cleaning and order, and the list goes on. It has been my experience that those who have added crack to their already addictive behavior, hit a bottom so much faster than others, and yet it is one of the hardest to get off. There are so many 'new' drugs out there that were not a part of the scene when I was there.

How many 'pure' alcoholics are there out there! What makes you think you are different or do you?

Alcohol is a drug?

Posted in 2004

I have seen so many people die as a result of finding recovery and then substituting their drug of choice for other things, and end up going back out there and dying.

A friend of mine just died on the weekend. A long time friend told me she was a pure alcoholic, then admitted to having a problem with gambling and having to go and get help. She said, "But I am an alcoholic first!"

I just reconnected with a girl who I met in treatment 13 years ago, she just got her beginners tag in CA. She had one year in AA at one time. I had a call from a friend on Saturday, he had 18 months, and has been out doing research for four years. It was good to know he was still alive.

For me, I am an addict who used alcohol, just like I did many people, places and things in my life. (Relationships, my job and my bed, pills and volunteer work).