Please, I pray I don’t go to that place where I believe I can live on yesterday’s sobriety…

Borrowed from last year;

Constant = Unchanged, Consistently recurring over time, persistent…

Page 20: “Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs.”

Page 73: “But they had not learned enough of humility, fearlessness and honesty, in the sense we find it necessary, until they told someone all their story… He is under constant fear and tension - that makes for more drinking.”

Page 155: “He told me how he lived in constant worry about those who might find out about his alcoholism.”

Recovery from a hopeless state of mind and body remains a “do what you don’t want to do” program. The Promises will materialize if we work for them!

TO ALL MEMBERS

Greetings On Our 10th Christmas

1944

Yes, it’s in the air! The spirit of Christmas once more warms this poor distraught world. Over the whole globe millions are looking forward to that one day when strife can be forgotten, when it will be remembered that all human beings, even the least are loved by God, when men will hope for the coming of the Prince of Peace as they never hoped before.

But there is another world which is not poor. Neither is it distraught. It is the world of Alcoholics Anonymous, where thousands dwell happily and secure. Secure because each of us, in his own way, knows a greater power who is love, who is just, and who can be trusted.

Nor can men and women of AA ever forget that only through suffering did they find enough humility to enter the portals of that New World.

How privileged we are to understand so well the divine paradox that strength rises from weakness, that humiliation goes before resurrection; that pain is not only the price but the very touchstone of spiritual rebirth.

Knowing it’s full worth and purpose, we can no longer fear adversity, we have found prosperity where there was poverty, peace and joy have sprung out of the very midst of chaos.

Great indeed, our blessings!

And so — Merry Christmas to you all — from the Trustees, from Bobbie and from Lois and me.

Bill Wilson

[Source]

And a few other boring characters…

From Mel’s article “Open-Meeting Bores”

The challenge? AA … “is greatly imperiled by the great blanket of boredom that stifles many meetings from coast to coast.”

Mel’s research and conclusion: “Having arrived at the conclusion that boring meetings and groups were caused by boring members, I began to look for some means of identifying just who these members really were. Surprisingly, they were the same fellows I have seen in my own bathroom shaving mirror from time to time.”

The first in Mel’s cast of boring characters;

Read more

Making use of the slogan “Live and Let Live” - from the book “Living Sober.”

“An ancient sage said that none of us should criticize another until we have walked a mile in the other person’s boots. This wise advice can give us greater compassion for our fellow human beings. And putting it into practice makes us feel much better than being hung over.

‘Let Live’ - yes. But some of us find just as much value in the first part of the slogan: ‘Live!’

When we have worked out ways to enjoy our own living fully, then we are content to let other people live any way they want. If our own lives are interesting and productive, we really have no impulse or desire to find fault with others or worry about the way they act.

Can you think right this minute of someone who bothers you?

If you can, try something. Postpone thinking about him or her and whatever it is about the person that riles you. You can boil inside about it later if you want to. But for right now, why not put it off while you read the next paragraph?

Live! Be concerned with your own living. In our opinion, staying sober opens up the way to life and happiness. It is worth sacrificing many a grudge or argument… Okay, so you didn’t manage to keep your mind completely off that other person. Let’s see whether the suggestion coming next will help.”

What a concept. Live a good life. Then the other person doesn’t affect you the same way.

I was speaking with a female friend yesterday. A couple of months ago her daughter gave birth to her first grandchild.

Not long after the baby was born the mother and, more specifically, the father, returned to their addictions. Mom could very well be a “social” experimenter but Dad is certainly one of “us.” He has come and gone a number of times in the last 9 years yet has not been able to remain clean or sober.

Within a short time, the baby’s parent’s had resorted to calling in bogus prescriptions for xanax, again. The law enforcement community here knows the father to the extent that he has been banned from filling prescriptions in any pharmacy in the county, yet they tried.

They were caught. Not exactly rocket science…

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To continue the “What A Concept” thoughts…

We return to “Living Sober” and page 12;

“We’ll meet some people in A.A. or elsewhere who won’t be exactly crazy about us, either. So all of us try to respect the rights of others to act as they choose (or must). We can then expect them to give us the same courtesy. In A.A., they generally do.”

I’m not so sure I want to develop expectations along those lines.

This goes on to say: “Usually, people who like each other - in a neighborhood, a company, a club, or A.A. - gravitate toward each other. When we spend time with people we like, we are less annoyed by those we don’t particularly care for.”

The interesting concept then follows;

“As time goes on, we find we are not afraid simply to walk away from people who irritate us, instead of meekly letting them get under our skin, or instead of trying to straighten them out just so they will suit us better.”

Yes, Micky/David/Patrick is a PIA. Walk away… what a concept! We can walk away from irritation.

Yeah, yeah…

Folks, please, if you find yourself in meetings where there is someone who never shares until the end of the meeting and then begins their sharing with “During this meeting I have observed blah, blah, blah,” then offers up some magnificent wisdom based on a few years away from a drink, that is a certain example of something you’ll want to leave there and take the rest. You might want to run it past your sponsor especially if it sounds like it applies to your case.

On the same thought - if you are approached by anyone, in a meeting environment, who promotes themselves to you as some form of “addictionologist” or therapist, please, I beg you, do your due diligence to discover everything you’d need to know about this “professional” before you accept a diagnosis or prescriptions from one. Get references, Google them, ask around, use whatever resources are available to determine that the person is someone you can trust your life, your physical well-being or your mental well-being to.

We had one of these here a couple of years ago. He came from Texas and managed to gather quite a few of our members as clients before he was discovered to have been run out of Texas and his credentials were bogus. It is possible he is in Florida now. Be alert - remember, constant vigilance is the watch word.

Yes, I’m being a bit facetious…

From “Living Sober” on page 11;

“To begin to put the concept of ‘Live and Let Live’ into practice, we must face this fact: There are people in A.A., and everywhere else, who sometimes say things we disagree with, or do things we don’t like.”

Ya’ think?

“Learning to live with differences is essential to our comfort. It is exactly in those cases that we have found it extremely helpful to say to ourselves, ‘Oh, well, Live and Let Live.’”

How often did you wind up with a resentment and drink at someone simply because you didn’t like what they had to say or they had a differing opinion and refused to see it your way?

“We have learned it pays to make a very special effort to try to understand other people, especially anyone who rubs us the wrong way. For our recovery, it is more important to understand than to be understood.”

I’m about to head off to “work.” Bleccchhh!

Yet, its at work now that I have been given the opportunity to watch someone who is keeping it green for me. He simply cannot, will not, whatever - stop drinking. All day, every day, through the night into the morning and so on and so on. At 9:15 am he has been unable to string two coherent words together to make a sensible comment over the phone and his workers are telling him to stay home. He owns the business!

Which brings to my mind one of the profundity pushers’ statements that will absolutely not work for me!

“I do a fearless, thorough, First Step every morning.”

I’m an alcoholic 100%, 100% of the time. I must live the First Step 24/7/365. Including when I’m at sleep. Sleep is not a cure for my alcoholism! It doesn’t go away overnight and then return each morning.

I must live this or I will die…

Last year we made an attempt to determine what is the message that we carry in Alcoholics Anonymous and received a couple of excellent responses;

Joe said: “The message that I carry is AA’s message. 12 steps which guarantee a spiritual awakening to be the result. My obligation is to try to share my experience with those twelve steps with other Alcoholics and to practice the 12 disciplines in all my affairs. Most important to me is that I be cognisant that this is AA’s program and AA’s steps! Not mine! My program is what brought me to AA! One path of steps which provide access to power. I do not gain power through the steps I gain access to power. All twelve steps, all day, everyday for a lifetime, to the best of my ability. This is not a program where I came to “not drink” one day at a time; it is a prgram, a design for living, that enables me to live one day at a time! That is the message I try to carry.”

Which really does work for me.

Jo said: “The message I attempt to carry is the program as outlined in the Big Book, found in the first 164, as filtered though my experience, strength and hope over the last 18 years.”

Which certainly also works for me. What I’d very much like to pass on to those who’ve begun reading here after those posts last year is what your perception is of what message we carry as sober members of Alcoholics Anonymous.

What Is “The Message?”