Anyone who has been around AA for awhile had heard a grumpy old timer share about the glory days when newcomers were told to, “take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth.” Or, they have heard the other, harsher version of this cliché, “Sit down, shut up, and hold on!”…
When I was new, I was told there were three things I had to have to get sober. A sobriety date. A homegroup. A sponsor. While the sobriety date is a bit of a “duh” to those who have been around, newcomers often don’t grasp the importance of having one or even what it means. It’s…
When I first came to AA, I looked around the room and thought my life was over. More importantly, I had vital questions, which needed to be answered right away, like these. How will I enjoy another Super Bowl without beer? How will I make it to a rock concert without weed? And, how can…
I always cringe when the meeting topic is “higher power.” While this is a bedrock concept of AA, it’s also one that is so vague; it can lead to self-centered sharing about personal religious history – missing the point presented in the Big Book. The point in the Big Book is to get sober everyone…
There are two sides to every coin. Good and bad. What is great about the sharing in AA meetings is that members can say whatever they want. Unless it is a “crosstalk” format, the share will go unchallenged providing a wide latitude for both the subject matter and style of delivery. The good here is…
Whenever the topic of Step 11 comes up, invariably someone will share about how they meditate. Their description often includes sitting upright, closing their eyes and focusing on their breathing to quiet their mind. While this sounds great and may be a great personal practice, it is not the type of meditation the Big Book…
So many of my troubles are routed in my seeing things wrongly and not through the lens of my higher power. Instead, I see things through the lens of “self” where I am at the center of whatever I am perceiving. Fear and ego are front and center in these perceptions and worse, these perceptions…
So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn’t think so. I think of the clichéd admonition, “Never fool yourself … and remember you are the easiest to fool!” This is why having…
Notice how this step said WHEN we were wrong, not IF we were wrong. As sure as the sun rises and sets, no matter how much spirituality we try to practice in our lives through our program, we are going to be dead flat wrong in our thoughts and actions. These errors will occur time…
In business, the term Return on Investment (ROI) is often invoked when trying to learn the value of a particular product or service. The goal of any investment is to have a tangible return. The larger and more substantial the return, the more justified is the investment. I have learned about another type of ROI that might…