Dark Holidays? This One’s For You
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Tag Archives: alcoholic
Pause When Agitated?
As we go through the day we pause when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. Pause. Oh, no. Remember I’m a sprinter? Pauses break my […]
Functional Alcoholic Signs
It’s so tricky to diagnose that I had friends telling me I couldn’t be alcoholic, even though I knew I was.
What Do They Mean…Do The Next Right Thing?
Some people just naturally know what their NRT is. Do you?
Step 3: Part 6 The Director
It’s not my role to direct others. It’s my role to love them, support them by listening, and pray for them to find God’s direction
Step 3: Part 5 Lessons From The 70s on Willingness
My life lesson plan was handed to me with my bed tray at the age of 23!
Step 3: Part 4 Flat-Out Decision
The way out was to get a clue! I thought I was supposed to be in charge of my own life, so I was.
Step 3: Part 1 Connected
My life wasn’t happy, but I felt like I was in control. For some reason, that made sense to me.
Step 3: Self-willed and Controlling? Who…Me?
I don’t understand the intricate workings of denial, but I’m at the same time, well-acquainted with it.
Step 3: Examine Inconsistencies
Here’s the confession: When I’m doing well, it’s not really me doing it. It’s the power within.
Step 3: Remodel Me
My most traumatic experience with remodeling isn’t filed in a picture database anywhere …
Step 3: What’s Your Keystone?
Looking closely at this arch in Glendalough, Ireland, you can see there is no mortar…
5 Tips for Choosing a Recovery Sponsor
A guide, a mentor, a friend, a BB Nazi… so many choices!
Grandmas and Sponsors
People who are spiritual are helping others and leading interesting lives. They radiate a life-verve that is attractive.
Help Me VS Gratitude
What is implied by the ‘help me’?
12 Step Programs Aren’t Therapy
Guess what’s inside this AA meeting!
Cupcakes and Sweet Security
A month into Al-Anon I find that I am losing my job.
Not in My Wheelhouse
After cleaning out my wheelhouse I find I’m a little lonely…
Step 2: Digging From the Quarry of the Past
When I’m digging into the quarry of the past, I’m entering the insanity of mining my history…
Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain
My life would make a better movie than it does a life.
Step11: Where Are You From?
Possibly behind the presenting question is the thought: “You’re not one of us, are you?” I’m not sure why we react to ‘foreigners’ this way, but it’s human nature to try to align the ‘us’ from the ‘them’. We separate out the locals from the others like sorting through the box of puzzle pieces for the border.
STOP…GO…STOP!
So what do we do if we can’t trust our thinking?
Step 4: Column 5 Peeling Back False Beliefs
I spent a lot of time with my grandparents absorbing survival skills: some good, some bad.
Step 4: Column 4 Tattletale
So, what’s wrong with being a Tattletale?
Step 4: Column 3 Buddy Burner Gut Ignites
I’m a Fighter from a long line of Fighters. I don’t know what happens to you when you’re angry…
Step 4: Are You A Friend Among Friends?
I was not. I’m still learning. At one time I thought I had the perfect life but it was built upon the proverbial shifting sand of illusions about myself. The […]
Step 4: Column 2 The Cause Knot
Now that we have the first column naming people, institutions and principles we can move on to the second column.  (Refer to the Not Scary Resentments Worksheet of Step 4 in […]
Step 4: Dirty Urchins, Raggedy People and Drunks
Everything was dirty, broken, piled up and rusty. I kept gagging…
Step 2: AA Drifter Returns to the Bunkhouse of Childhood Faith
I have the clearest memory of childhood discussions and a collection of bunkhouse adventures with God. This skinless friend was more real …
Step 3: The Key To Making Decisions
Step 3 is not the action of turning our will and lives over, it’s deciding to do so. Let’s get specific. Which decision making elements do you usually use?
Step 3: Questions and Directions
There is something in me that rebels against familiar authoritarianism. Do I really want someone else to tell me what to think again? I hope not.
How Did I Set My Password For AA Serenity?
During early sobriety it seemed that all the characters around the table except me had a secret password that allowed them to log into a new life of peace and serenity. I’d never seen anything like these hooligans.
Step 3: I Can Skip This if I’m a Christian, Right?
The question I should have asked when I dropped into AA was, Is there a difference between step 3 and salvation for a Christian?
Step 11: Do You Meditate In Color?
This is my prayer corner. The colored pencils are from Iowa. I bought them at an art supply store when I started coloring during prayer. Bear with me. I can explain…maybe.
Is Your God Silent? Are you?
Before I got sober at the age of 55, I was trapped by an ice storm at an abbey near Dubuque, in NE Iowa. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. […]
Step 4: Fearless Moral Inventory Shortcut
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. That’s Step 4, perhaps the scariest few words Bill W strung together in this 12 Step program. It seems to me […]
No Disk
My addiction started harmlessly.
Step 3: Gargantua Tarantula
It’s 12 Steps, not 2. The Old Timers I love and respect are those who have serenity gained from taking all 12 and continuing to live in the principles.
Peace on Earth to (Sober) Men
Peace started for me during Step One when I admitted I was not all-powerful; that alcohol had me by the throat!
Victim Veins Revisited
You call it love. For years, all I wrote was bad, tragic and tearful poetry. Then life got better because I got sober and I gave up poetry. Suddenly, this […]
After Stepping Fourth!
The truth will set you free, to the extent that you recognize it and cooperate with it.
Forgiveness and Murder
Mary Johnson befriended the man who murdered her only son and then invited him to come live next door
Find a Retirement Home For Your Critic
What was the last critical statement that bothered you?
Listen With Your Eyes
Discerning reality is no easy task for addicts. Here’s a hint: Listen with your eyes. It works. When a person or activity is pulling me back into romancing of the […]
Lucky Unlucky Addicts
The following comment from Resentment Rats is too wonderful to leave in the archives of comments: So much lays beneath what we can easily see in ourselves. And how many […]
Peachy Contentment
AA Old Timer helped me see that I need to add some ‘fluff’ to my life
Prison Of Self
The above picture is from a recent trip to Scotland. The gate makes me think of how my old thinking has kept me imprisoned. I took this picture during a […]
Fear Epiphany: Pieces of My Peace
I had an epiphany yesterday. I’ve recently bought a new fifth wheel and requisite dually. Along with that comes more room to live and more financial pressure. (Did you catch […]
My Lower Power
I don’t feel like writing today so I’m going to. I’m going to write. I didn’t feel like walking this morning either, so I did. I walked. I’ve been doing […]
Forgiveness: One Weird Old Tip
If rejection were a mask it would be cruel, soulless and rigid: dead eyes and a mouth locked into a sneer.
Good Life 
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