OKaysez

 

I am currently reposting all 100 previously posted blogs that contain what I've learned about staying sober. Because AA has continued to work for a drunk like me since 1981, I know it can work for you. And I can promise you'll have some real adventures along the way!


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                 If you wish to contact me personally with your comments, my email is: o.kay.dockside@gmail.com



First posted - April 2021

Made A Decision

(9)

              Some Bits and Pieces Today, includes some topic

                          suggestions for Meetings

           

About Prayer:   “Most people don't pray, they only beg.”

About Meditation: “There is no such thing as a bad meditation. There are just different experiences at different times.”

                                                                            * * * 

Let no alcoholic say he cannot recover unless he has his family back. His recovery is not dependent upon people. It is dependent upon his relationship with God, however he may define Him.

                                  

Big Book Quote

                                                  * * * 

Letter follows that was written to a sponsee in her early recovery:

Dear ________:

“God don't make no junk” and God made YOU.

So to think you are not good enough, or unworthy in any way, is putting yourself ahead of God's own opinion of you.

 Look in the mirror and say, out loud, "I love you."

Do it every day until you like what you see.

Do it every day until you believe it.

 And until you do love you, remember

God loves you.

We in AA love you.

I love you.

 Self-love comes over time when we stay on track in our recovery. I know that you listen to AA taped talks, so do more of them. They'll build you up, unlike so much of the negative stuff to be found online.

 Stay safe and well. Keep on doing-the-doing.
Keep sober!

                                          

                                                                        * * *

 
For Those who Still Want to Drink

 I have seen a lot of people come into AA and then leave and return to drinking.

Some of them have died drunk.

Some of them have suffered permanent brain damage from that trip back to the hell of alcoholic drinking.

 And some make it back “into the rooms” to continue their sober journey.

Of those older, battered, and now wiser who do return, I have never once heard any of them say:

 IT WAS GREAT!

 I LOVED DRINKiNG AGAIN!

 MY FAMILY WAS SO PROUD OF ME FOR PICKING UP A DRINK.

 Nope, not a single one of them I have known personally has ever said that - or anything remotely like it - once they got back in the AA lifeboat.

                                                                        * * * 

 
 I once posted the following on my Facebook Page under the heading -  

Some good questions to ask ourselves:

 What is trying to emerge in my life?

What is my gift to share?

What is my purpose?

Why am I here on the planet? 

 And I got back this response from a fellow AA member still very new in recovery:

“Been fucking asking this all my life. Screaming out to God who am I and what do you want from me?”

 My response, based entirely on knowing how we ALL have a disease of perception:

 Perhaps your answers COULD be:

What is trying to emerge in my life?  Good Balanced Recovery

My gift to share? ... Good Balanced Recovery.

 Purpose? ... To learn to love myself, and teach others how to love themselves, and our planet.

 Why am I here? ... To love the planet, and all those on it, back to health by applying numbers 1,2, and 3, above.

 
                                                                                 * * * 

               If you think you have a problem with alcohol,

                                  you probably do.

    

                                                                            * * * 

When we are asked to chair on a topic it's always best to come up with our own ideas when we can,
but here are a few suggestions for when our brains draw a blank.

 1. Any of the 12 steps.

2. Gratitude

3. Service work forAA - and how it keeps us sober.

4. Sponsorship

5. Any one of the slogans ... one day at a time; first things first; keep it simple; let go and let God; etc.

6. Helping others in recovery. Reaching out to those in need.

7. What to do when we feel "stuck" in our recovery.

8. How do we greet newcomers and make them feel welcome and needed. (Especially important in these times of zoom!)

9. AA Literature. Why we need to read it.

10. Our favorites among the AA selection of books and brochures.

11. The many benefits of forming AA friendships.

12. Relapse. Alcohol is cunning, baffling, powerful - and patient!

13. Dealing with grief and staying sober.

14. The healing power of laughter - especially learning to laugh at ourselves.

15. Morbid reflection, how it leads to depression and how to avoid it. (Gratitude! Trust God. Help others.)

 ... and so on.

 
                                                                       * * * 

 

 How do I know if my spiritual experience is real?

 “... it is certain that all recipients of spiritual experiences declare for their reality. The best evidence of that reality
is in the subsequent fruits. Those who receive these gifts of grace are very much changed people, almost invariably
for the better. This can scarcely be said of those who hallucinate."

                  (From an AA talk by Dr. Bob  in 1960)
 

 
                                                                          * * * 

 
We alcoholics are sensitive people. It takes some of us a long time to outgrow that serious handicap.

                 Big Book, 4th Edition, pg. 125

                                                                                                     * * * 

 Let us resist the proud assumption that since God has enabled us to do well in one area we are destined to be a channel of saving grace for everybody.

           A.A. COMES OF AGE, pg. 232

  
                                                                               * * * 

                                        To help each other, is to help ourselves.


                                                                               * * * 

 And one final thought for today:

             It's easier to stay out of trouble than to                      get out of trouble.

                                                * * *