WalletPop has a story on the 20 Most Worthles Pieces of Junk. I went through the list and some of the listed items are unnecessary, for example #20 Rice Cookers. Others, #18 Polaroid Camera, #10 Books (books??!!) and #8 Ice Cream Makers and Bread Machines are items that I use or have used on a regular basis.
I can see why some of the items are on the list. I have had three rice cookers, all three given to me by my dad, and I have rarely used them. I have a bread machine that I use constantly for pizza dough. …read more

And ours too…
From the current online Grapevine issue – “A Child of Woodstock”, additional validation of many years of my adult life. Similar thoughts had been expressed to me well after the divorce when I had seen my ex for the first time in many months. She didn’t appear to be the person I had known and I brought it to my sponsor. His explanation was quite close;
“What is relevant here, as I began to realize slowly in AA, is that it was alcohol that made our marriage possible for all the years we stayed together. We drank as our …read more

Since I began writing here at A Dozen Steps one of the more controversial posts I’ve made was about a “Functional Alcoholic.” I feel I am able to speak on the topic because I was more than happy, as a newly sober person, to make claim that I had been influenced by alcohol in a “dysfunctional family” which had a lot to do with my drinking. That is until an oldtimer refused to cosign my bs and interrupted my sharing one night to inform me, in no uncertain terms, that the reason my family was dysfunctional was because I was …read more

If there were someone who could offer you an answer to something you’d been suffering from for a long time and hadn’t yet found a way out, what would you say to them when they presented it to you?
From the foreword to the Second Edition of the Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous;
“So far, upon the total problem of several million actual and potential alcoholics in the world, we have made only a scratch. In all probability, we shall never be able to touch more than a fair fraction of the alcohol problem in all its ramifications. Upon therapy for the alcoholic …read more

In touch with someone who has a terrible need to fight all the hard earned experience you’ve managed to put together and are attempting to pass along? You know, that person who denies you everything you’re about today despite the fact that you lived it? The lady or gentleman who continue to believe that their brain will conquer their disease?
Thankfully, our founders foresaw these people and wrote;
“Do not be discouraged if your prospect does not respond at once. Search out another alcoholic and try again. You are sure to find someone desperate enough to accept with eagerness what you offer. …read more

It is time to pay attention to ego. Plain and simple. Practice Steps 2, 3, and 11. Then, by God’s grace, be myself.
Referencing comments from the crosstalk topic and conference approved literature, there is a quote from one of my older posts that Glenn C. put together at Hindsfoot;
“I am trying to avoid sounding overdramatic about this issue, but an A.A. which no longer follows the traditional A.A. program laid down by the good old-timers, will lose its heart and spirit, and its power to transform human lives and lift lost souls out of the miry pit where they had …read more

You’ve asked for it – now you have it!
Obviously there are those who are so incredibly wrapped up in themselves that they believe it is correct and proper to speak down about a new beginner’s meeting simply because it was announced that the format would follow some level of “crosstalk.”
“Oh, I would recommend to my people they not go there – crosstalk is such a no-no.” (Paraphrased)
Yeah, I know I ought not take it personally. I was told by someone I respect to alter the announcement. I will – for the sake of the newcomer. But for those of you …read more

Service work will guarantee you another 24 hours will it? And you’re telling this to newcomers? Well, I think two-stepping usually carries an opportunity to get drunk along with it! That might be why they speak of it in the Twelve and Twelve…
Page 113;
“We temporarily cease to grow because we feel satisfied that there is no need for all of A.A.’s Twelve Steps for us. We are doing fine on a few of them, the First Step and that part of the Twelfth where we “carry the message.” In A.A. slang, that blissful state is known as ‘two-stepping.’ And it …read more

And I didn’t know it. Well, like I said at today’s meeting – it isn’t Perfect’s Anonymous…
September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. B5 media’s Health and Wellness Channel (check out B5’s new design btw) is taking the moment to present our collective individual experiences with the Twelve Steps. Or, we’re going to do the research needed to offer our readers valuable information on the Twelve Steps relating to a number of areas in the human nature.
If you are a new reader here are the Twelve Steps according to Alcoholics Anonymous. There are over 2000 other …read more

I’ve seen others write on this topic lately and I do find what we have to say about it interesting. It has become rare that I hear a newcomer told that they are in the right place at an AA meeting. Perhaps that is because of the proliferation of First Step meetings in this area. I’m not sure.
For me, the most important thing I want to remember is that when I do hear someone say this, currently, my belly barometer goes off. I.E. I get this instant feeling in the pit of my stomach that telling someone they are in …read more