April Showers

[bald headed old guy]

April Showers

I had a message from FinallyRN, she is out for the weekend and will see us all on Monday!
Enjoy Life! I am!

[livingfree]

April Showers

Sat April 12 Post em

Sat March 12 Sticky note

"I wont go to Al ? Let it come for me ? and that?s how I survived"
Maasai 3-18-08

I saved this quote from our dear MWO friend Maasai. If you want to read his whole post you can find it on March Madness (Just starting out forum) March 18. I have not seen Maasai on MWO for quite awhile - and I am worried about him. He is full of so much wisdom and had a really great Al free run going for him.

Anyway - I'll paraphrase what he said. He said that one of the things that he counted as success for all of the AL free days he was having was that he decided he would not go to AL. If AL wanted him "let it come for me". And I took that that he would FIGHT AL off. He would not give in and go to AL. Wow - I loved that post. That's why I'm posting that now. I miss our Maasai - I hope he is ok over in Kenya and I'm asking my dear friends here to pray for him. Let's all have an AF day for Maasai. We won't go to AL today. He can come for us and we will resist.

For you our friend Maasai. We hope you are ok out there in this big world. We are praying for you.

Liv

[LVT25]

April Showers

Good morning Liv, I've been wondering about Maasai myself. I do hope he is ok. I always pray for everyone here, but I will send a special one up today.

[dexterhead]

April Showers

Good morning, all, errr, afternoon
I just saw that Maasai has been on the site today! I hope he reads this!!!

[Laurav]

April Showers

Good Morning Team!
It is a beautiful morning here in Portland, Oregon. We FINALLY had some sun yesterday and I spent most of the day in the yard. In the past I would have downed quite a few beers but yesterday I did not even feel like it. I did overindulge in Diet Coke and had a hard time falling asleep, oh the price to pay.
Anyway, hope you all are have/having/had a beautiful Sunday.

[livingfree]

April Showers

April 13 Post Em

April 13 Sticky Note

Have Courage

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear. Not the absence of fear.
"Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway."
-John Wayne

Liv

[dexterhead]

April Showers

Thanks Liv.:h:h Going to get back on board. Pray for me!

[tlrgs]

April Showers

i love the saying living. thank you

[livingfree]

April Showers

Hey Dex ~ I am going to pray for you - right now and everyday. I've just put you on my daily prayer list!! T. - thanks! Hope everyone has a great day!
Liv

[LVT25]

April Showers

livingfree;309834 wrote: April 13 Sticky Note

Have Courage

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear. Not the absence of fear.
"Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway."
-John Wayne

Liv

I know it's late, but had to tell you Liv, Love the John Wayne quote-I've not heard that one. Or maybe I did and forgot??:H I love the Duke!!:thanks:

:l --M

[livingfree]

April Showers

April 14 Sticky Paper

I normally won't do this to you ........ It's to long - but when I read it ... I thought "April Showers" was the place to share it. I hope you find something meaningful in it for your day
Liv

I Can’t quit or I won’t quit??


Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.

A Story from a 2 week “Quit” Clinic

A small gathering of people who had quit drinking were ending a meeting when all of a sudden the lady who requested anonymity arose and spoke. "Excuse me," she said loudly, interrupting the moderator in the middle of a story. "I wasn't going to say anything this whole program. The first day I asked you (the moderator) not to call on me. I told him I would leave if he tried to make me talk. I didn't want to burden anyone else with my problems. But today I feel I cannot keep quiet any longer. I must tell my story." The room was quiet.

"I have terminal liver cancer. I am going to die within two months. I am here to quit drinking. I want to make it clear that I am not kidding myself into thinking that if I quit I will save my life. It is too late for me. I am going to die and there is not a damn thing I can do about it. But I am going to quit drinking."

"You may wonder why I am quitting if I am going to die anyway. Well, I have my reasons. When my children were small, they always pestered me about my drinking. I told them over and over to leave me alone, that I wanted to stop but couldn't. I said it so often they stopped begging. But now my children are in their twenties and thirties, and two of them drink. When I found out about my cancer, I begged them to stop. They replied to me, with pained expressions on their faces, that they want to stop but they can't. I know where they learned that, and I am mad at myself for it. So I am stopping to show them I was wrong. It wasn't that I couldn't stop drinking - it was that I wouldn't! I am off three weeks now, and I know I will not have another drink. I don't know if this will make anybody stop, but I had to prove to my children and to myself that I could quit drinking. And if I could quit, they could quit, anybody could quit."

Then she turned to the two ladies in the back of the room, who actually had stayed quiet during this interlude. Suddenly she flared up, "The only reason I am speaking up now is because you two BITCHES are driving me crazy. You are partying in the back while everyone else is sharing with each other, trying to help save each other's lives. She then related what the young woman had said about her brother's death and how they were laughing at the time, totally unaware of the story. "Will you both do me a favor, just get the hell out of here! Go out and drink, drop dead for all we care, you are learning and contributing nothing here." They sat there stunned. The moderator had to calm the group down a little, actually quite bit, the atmosphere was quite charged with all that had happened. Those in the back kept the two ladies there, and needless to say, that was the last of the gabbing from the back of the room.

All the people who were there that night were successful at the end of the program. At graduation, the two ladies who had earlier talked only to each other were applauded by all, even the lady with cancer. All was forgiven. The girl who lost her brother also came for the graduation, also Alcohol free and proud. And the lady with cancer proudly accepted her diploma and introduced one of her children. He had stopped drinking for over a week at that time. Actually, when the lady with cancer was sharing her story with us, she had not told her family yet that she had even quit drinking.

The normal epilog:
You can’t quit for someone else, it has to be for yourself.


The actual Epilog: I normally say you can't quit for someone else, it has to be for yourself. This incident flies in the face of this comment to some degree. The lady with cancer was quitting drinking to save her children from her fate, to some degree undo the lesson that she had taught years earlier. The lesson that she "could not stop." It was that at the time she "would not stop." There is a big difference between these two statements. It holds true for all drinkers. The lady in this story proved years later she could quit too late to save her life, but not too late to save her sons. Next time you hear yourself or someone else say, I cannot stop, understand it is not true. You can quit. Anyone can quit. The trick is not waiting until it is too late.

[Laurav]

April Showers

Oustanding Liv!

[bald headed old guy]

April Showers

Stisky for April 14th

Hey! Good Monday to everybody! Glad to see so many smiling faces today!

"When people keep telling you that you can't do a thing, you kind of like to try it."
Margeret Chase Smith, first female US Senator

Every time someone (including our own inner voice) tells us we can't do something, remember Senator Smith's words..and go do it anyway!
Enjoy Life! I am!
BHOG

(I'll be back with more later..running a few hours behind today! Hey, it's monday!)

[FinallyRN]

April Showers

Good Morning all!
I'm back. Did you miss me?
I had a great time in Portland. ( Laura, I didn't know you lived in Portland!
wasn't it a beautiful weekend? )
My son will be going to the University of Portland, / School of Engineering. What a beautiful city, what a beautiful University.
More later.........busy day at work.

[LVT25]

April Showers

:upset:

Thanks Liv, I think we can quit if we want to, just like smoking. I also think it's harder for some, or maybe it is a timing thing. Just like my friend that recently died from acute liver failure. Didn't she know she was killing herself? She had baby grandkids?? Was it a case of it won't happen to me, or was she just so sad in her heart didn't care, or was she just too afraid to get help????

My ex is an alcoholic--he went to rehab more than once. I hear he is in a bad way.

My ex boyfriend is an alcoholic--it pretty much ruined his life.

Hubby and I drink too much---but not like them....And I have been able to cut WAY down without much trouble.

It is baffling when you think about it.