Dark Holidays? This One’s For You
Ready for a different kind of holiday? This worked for me.
Ready for a different kind of holiday? This worked for me.
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 […]
It’s so tricky to diagnose that I had friends telling me I couldn’t be alcoholic, even though I knew I was.
Some people just naturally know what their NRT is. Do you?
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
My life lesson plan was handed to me with my bed tray at the age of 23!
The way out was to get a clue! I thought I was supposed to be in charge of my own life, so I was.
My life wasn’t happy, but I felt like I was in control. For some reason, that made sense to me.
I don’t understand the intricate workings of denial, but I’m at the same time, well-acquainted with it.
Here’s the confession: When I’m doing well, it’s not really me doing it. It’s the power within.
My most traumatic experience with remodeling isn’t filed in a picture database anywhere …
Looking closely at this arch in Glendalough, Ireland, you can see there is no mortar…
A guide, a mentor, a friend, a BB Nazi… so many choices!
People who are spiritual are helping others and leading interesting lives. They radiate a life-verve that is attractive.
What is implied by the ‘help me’?
Guess what’s inside this AA meeting!
A month into Al-Anon I find that I am losing my job.
After cleaning out my wheelhouse I find I’m a little lonely…
When I’m digging into the quarry of the past, I’m entering the insanity of mining my history…
My life would make a better movie than it does a life.
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.
So what do we do if we can’t trust our thinking?
I spent a lot of time with my grandparents absorbing survival skills: some good, some bad.
So, what’s wrong with being a Tattletale?
I’m a Fighter from a long line of Fighters. I don’t know what happens to you when you’re angry…
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 […]
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 […]
Everything was dirty, broken, piled up and rusty. I kept gagging…
I have the clearest memory of childhood discussions and a collection of bunkhouse adventures with God. This skinless friend was more real …
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?
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.
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.
The question I should have asked when I dropped into AA was, Is there a difference between step 3 and salvation for a Christian?
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.
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. […]
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 […]
My addiction started harmlessly.
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 started for me during Step One when I admitted I was not all-powerful; that alcohol had me by the throat!
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 […]
The truth will set you free, to the extent that you recognize it and cooperate with it.
Mary Johnson befriended the man who murdered her only son and then invited him to come live next door
What was the last critical statement that bothered you?
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 […]
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 […]
AA Old Timer helped me see that I need to add some ‘fluff’ to my life
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
If rejection were a mask it would be cruel, soulless and rigid: dead eyes and a mouth locked into a sneer.
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