"We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves"
Posted: January 10th, 2012 | Filed under: newsletter, unity |
6th Annual AA Traditions Study
This 12 week study uses the AA book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. New this year: a different speaker will share about the tradition being studied each week.
The Traditions study is being held on Sunday afternoons from 3:30 to 5:00 pm, beginning on Sunday February 3, 2013. Location: the Fireside Room at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, 100 Chapel Street, Nanaimo. This study is an Open Meeting; everyone is welcome. Bring your own tea or coffee. For more information, contact your home group’s general service representative (GSR), speak to Melinda (DCM) for District 7 or contact central office.
Posted: December 6th, 2011 | Filed under: newsletter, recovery, the aa grapevine |
The alcohol stops working and her Higher Power steps in
Give in! Give in! Just drink and die! I actually thought that would be the easiest way out—to drink myself to death. But it didn’t happen that way.
My life was in turmoil—I hated myself and felt I had arrived at a dead end. Alcohol became my way out. If I drank enough, I didn’t care anymore. Easy solution! So I began to drink daily, stopping at the package store every afternoon on the way home from work—of course, not the same package store each day. I wouldn’t want them to know I was a heavy hitter, after all. Too soon, half pints became pints and more, with bottles hidden under the front seat of my car. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: December 1st, 2011 | Filed under: events, newsletter, recovery |
It all started after a “Carrying the Message to the Older Alcoholic” meeting took place during the 11th International AA Convention in Minneapolis in July, 2000
When Claire J’s sponsor encouraged her to attend the first annual “Seniors in Sobriety” conference in Hawaii, Claire thought, “I’ve never been to Hawaii…sure, why not?!” The Hawaii conference was something new—an opportunity for retired, semi-retired and older members of AA to gather together in an international setting, to experience service, recovery, and unity in fellowship together. It was 2006.
Since that time, the Seniors in Sobriety conference has become an annual event, being held in various locations such as Arizona and New York. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: September 26th, 2011 | Filed under: newsletter, recovery, service, unity |
“No matter what I did I couldn’t change it. I was assured by my sponsor that I just needed to work the steps, clean house, not drink, go to meetings, and help others”
Thanks to my Higher Power and Alcoholics Anonymous I have two dozen years of sobriety. I went to an addictions doctor because I was concerned about my drinking. He said that if I was worried about how much I drank, that I was an alcoholic, and I should go to Alcoholics Anonymous.
He had me answer the questions in the pamphlet he gave me and then convinced me that my concern was justified. He called a woman from his 12th step list and I asked her if she’d take me to a meeting that night. She did and I have never had a drink since. The obsession was lifted from me entirely.
However, as soon as I stopped drinking I stopped breathing properly. I felt like I was smothering and was aware of every breath I took and of my heartbeat. Crazy-making! No matter what I did I couldn’t change it. I was assured by my sponsor that I just needed to work the steps, clean house, not drink, go to meetings, and help others. I did all that and more. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: September 20th, 2011 | Filed under: newsletter, service, unity |
About the ‘right of appeal’
The 12 concepts are groups of principals that have been developed out of long AA experience. They guide us all in our service to AA and form checks and balances to avoid power-driving on the one hand and heavy resistance on the other. The concepts can be found in the AA service manual, in short form attached to the Intergoup bylaws, and in illustrated form in a pamphlet through your home group.
Concept five says that throughout our world service structure, a traditional ‘right of appeal’ ought to prevail, thus assuring us that minority opinion will be heard and that petitions for the redress of personal grievances will be carefully considered. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: September 13th, 2011 | Filed under: newsletter, recovery, the aa grapevine |
AROUND THE TABLES of AA, I discovered early that the need to possess was part of my lifestyle. To love meant to possess, I thought. If I “loved” someone, I had to have complete possession. If the “possessed” didn’t bend, turn, kneel, or treat me with the precise amount of respect, love, adoration, or awe I expected, then, of course, they didn’t appreciate to the proper degree exactly what I was or what I was doing for them.
One day at a time, not taking the first drink, I struggled to rid myself of this defect. I realized I had to permit other people to regard me as they actually did and not as I thought they did or should. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: August 4th, 2011 | Filed under: newsletter, recovery |
“I never in a million years thought I could change the way I lived”
I never in a million years thought I could change the way I lived. I have done a lot of things that I’m not proud of, but more importantly I have accomplished a lot that I can be proud of.
I used to regret my past, but it has made me who I am today. I had abused myself for so long that it was finally time to put my arms up and surrender. The past 16 months has been amazing; I can finally hold my head up high and feel good about myself, and not worry about what other people think of me (cause really it’s none of my business anyway). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: July 23rd, 2011 | Filed under: newsletter, recovery, the aa grapevine |
“For years, I was extremely unhappy, wondering why things were always going wrong”
AROUND THE TABLES, sooner or later, we each are faced with a decision of honesty. Either we get honest or we get and/or remain unhappy. If we do not get honest, we face the terrifying prospect of drinking again. That’s obvious—to me, at least. But here, I am concerned with the miserable state that can continue for years without a drink or a drunk happening.
I was forcefully struck by the statement of an AA veteran that he had not taken a written inventory, nor could he see, “since this is not a program of musts,” why he should. Yet after long-sustained dryness, he is an extremely unhappy person, wondering why things are always going wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
