Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

[retteacher]

Hi AAers, MWOers, & Anyone Else: First, I want to welcome anyone who might have heard about this thread & are looking in on it. You don't have to lurk. It's not just for folks who go to AA meetings. It's for anyone interested in AA or abs as a way of life. Ask questions, make comments, respond to posts, whatever.

Lucy: I read your post from last week's thread. It sure was heartfelt. My best thinking got me nowhere. I kept lapsing & struggling. Finally, an embarrassing disaster brought me to AA. I got a sponsor, am working the steps, reading the literature, & doing what I'm told whether it feels comfortable or not. I've been going to meetings several time @ week & listening. I'm about ready to "join" a meeting (whatever that means). I'm trying to be more visible & am talking to other women on the phone. Yesterday, I sat down next to someone whose name I know & chatted before the meeting started. It sounds small, but it was big for me.

Don: Keep your chin up. All you can do is your best to support your loved ones. I have very aged parents, & it isn't easy.

Mary

[AAthlete]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

Who are the people we really like, and to be with? Most of the time, they are happy people, people who like themselves and others. Being happy is almost the entire secret of being likable. Though no person can expect to be liked by everybody, likable people have the inside track most of the time. How do we become happy and thus likable? We're continuously told that happiness cannot be found in property, power, and prestige. It is rooted instead in self-acceptance. In feeling loved and wanted, and in giving genuine service, maybe just in the form of very useful work.

Quote from 'Walk In Dry Places' from today that struck a chord with me. The neighbors had a party yesterday that we weren't invited to, and I stewed on it last night. After reading this quote this morning I realized I hadn't been working on being happy - that I had to an extent been going through the motions. Funny how we can fall into that trap and become resentful at other when the true problems lies in ourselves.

[Chief]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

I'm back and this is Day 1.

It's time to walk the walk....

Don

[Preciouspinot]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

I am still doing OK. My dad had a belated birthday party for me last night. I had told him, my mom and my sis who lives here not to serve me wine and told them what I was going through. Well, I got there and they did not offer me wine but it was flowing. They went through I don't know how many bottles. I did not have any cravings but I had plenty of thoughts and I felt a littlw awkward with my diet coke. After I went to a meeting and felt immediately better.

One message that stuck with me from last night's meeting was that we need to stick close to other alcoholics in recovery and really built a good network and support system. We cannot do this on our own. If we are going to meetings and going out in to the "real world" depending only on ourselves then, we are essencially sponsoring ourselves and then we are stuck with a really fucked up sponsor.

Sorry for the foul language but, again it struck me as funny and true and humor is helping me through this whole process.

[Preciouspinot]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

All hail to the Chief!

[tlrgs]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

awesome chief .. hows it going everyone ..

[retteacher]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

Don: So good to see you here. Drinking doesn't make anything easier. I've tried & tried to go through crises w/AL, & it only made everything much, much worse. Good luck. As you know, I've had loads of relapses, & getting back into abs is very difficult. It takes:
-courage
-committment
-support.
My heart goes out to you & your wife. You can be there for her in this difficult time. Good luck.

PPinot: Yes, if I were my own sponsor, I'd be in some very deep trouble. My own efforts were totally fruitless.

I'm going to one of my fav speaker meetings tonight. I'll be back.

Mary

[retteacher]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

PPinot: I too went to a wine event on Fri. & was the only person not drinking. It can be a little difficult. The biggest payoff is seeing everyone looking a little ragged at the end of the evening & knowing that I don't look that way. Mary

[Doggygirl]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

Hello all! First off, Chief it is so wonderful to see you here today. I was thinking of you while catching up on the tail end of last weeks thread and here you are. Still sending the most positive vibes possible to you and your wife and family.

Caysea I really appreciated your post yesterday. I will always feel a kinship with you as our anni's are close together and especially because you really inspired me about the value of exercise! I'm so glad to hear you are doing well. You are right - we are dealing with a life and death substance and that is so easy (convenient) to forget. I'm with you - the only reason someone else is going to jail for killing someone while drunk, while I am not, is luck. I have no idea why I have been such a lucky drunk, but I sure don't need to push my luck any more than I already have in my life.

Lucy, it's great to see you jump in on this thread and I am so happy to hear that AA is helping you. You are right - we all have to find whatever path works. Different paths for different people. I too am about a lot of the spiritual side of things, but I look around me at every meeting and see so much sobriety that I am willing to go with the flow in a desire to have what these people have. I do know that the AA materials and people really "speak" to me - something pops off the page almost every day.

PP it sounds like your Dad threw you a very well intentioned birthday party, and you ended up with a good day all in all. That is great!

Mary, thank you for kicking off the weekly thread - I always enjoy your posts! I'm with you on having an appreciation of what NOT to look like at the end of a wine filled evening.

Hello T!!!

Hi AA! I've been thinking about you too and how I always enjoy your wisdom filled posts. I like the quote you included from "Walk in Dry Places." I often relate strongly to something in that particular daily reading. Is that an actual book? If so, I should get a copy.

Yesterdays meeting was great. It's a new beginning with a new chair person for that meeting. The previous person was great but the new guy will be very good too, and it's a great group to study the steps and traditions with. We started yesterday with Step 1. Talking about when and how we all finally realized how powerless we really are over AL is interesting every time. So many of the people around the table mentioned how resistant they were to the notion of "powerlessness." Not ME!!!! Powerless? NO!! Seems like nearly everyone misinterprets that one prior to just opening our minds to AA. A new person showed up - it was his first ever AA meeting. He had so much in common with so many of us. The smile on his face by about 1/2 way through the meeting was so telling - he was clealry relieved to find people who totally understand what it means to battle alcohol addiction. That made me really appreciate the support and understanding I have found around those tables.

I went to a meeting this morning too but had to leave early for a doc appointment which I will post more about on the Daily thread.

Best wishes to all whether you are actively AA, just considering AA, skeptical about AA or just lurking for no reason at all.

DG

[okydoky]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

Just catching up. I read something that Gyco said about running into someone at a meeting and he believes they have the same nightmare. Isn't that the truth? I've actually seen 2 people I know and at first I felt humiliated but have come to realize, hey we have the same problem. And I feel a little closer to them now.

[Winefree]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

Hi all. Good to be here AF. It was a tough day for me, the cravings were bad, but went to an AA mtg and felt the comraderie. Talked with a few people after the meeting and had a phone call from one of the ladies I met the first mtg I went to when I got home. She must have ESP or something, since I was struggling. But go through, yippee.

Don, welcome back.

[Cinders]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

Hi, everyone.

I was extremely grateful for AA today. My SIL's news is not good. The tumor is much larger than first thought. They tried to cut the blood flow to it but the size required much anesthesia. It is larger than a golf ball.

She is on a ventilator and will be operated on tomorrow.

As I sat with my sponsor, she gave wonderful advice and we said the Serenity Prayer.

I do believe without going to the two AA meetings today and being with someone with such long term sobriety, drinking would have been my "solution."

I was blessed today.

I am still sad and scared for my sister in law but at least I stayed sober.

I will stay sober tomorrow and go to another meeting. I will pray for my dear sister in law.

Love,
Cindi

[retteacher]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

Cindi: Thinking of you. I understand your pain about your SIL. I've known my brother's wife since I was 16, so that makes it almost 50 years...a very long-standing relationship. My husb's sisters have been in my life for almost 40 years. These women are like sisters I never had.

Okey: I agree w/gyco about the pain of seeing someone from "outside" at AA. They're going through the same feelings I am. I saw someone last night who said: "I know you from somewhere but where?" It turned out to be an Alanon meeting.

I just got my first one month chip. It felt good to have everyone clap & congratulate me. Going up & getting that chip in front of 100 people really seemed to seal the deal. That's what I meant by "upping the ante" w/AA. I feel that there's no turning back now.

I have a meeting tonight & have been sitting w/a woman friend I met. Mary

[Preciouspinot]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

Really glad how that situation turned out Cinders. Take all the support offered. We love you!

[AAthlete]

Weekly AA Thread - Week of April 27 - May 3

Cindi, sorry to hear that you are going through such a trying time and my thoughts are with you, and Mary congrats on your 1 month coin - that's a great achievement.

Always amazes me how a meeting that seems like it is going to drag out instead turns into something truly inspirational. I was chairing the meeting this morning and because it is the last Tuesday of the month we will doing a Tradition meeting (which are usually about as exciting as watching the grass grow).

Anyway, one of the members of our meeting had just been sentenced to jail for a bunch of crap that he did when he was out drinking, and another one in our meeting is looking at possible 15 years for his offenses. It is inspirational to me that these people can now approach these events with peace and serenity and accept what society says should be their amends, instead of drowning their anger, bitterness and resentment in the bottom of a bottle.