"Chapter 5 "How It Works" page 67 FEAR--share

 "Chapter 5 "How It Works" page 67  FEAR

 FOOTNOTE: Now for the second part of our inventory.  This manifestation of our character defects is FEAR
“Fear” defined. Webster’s Dictionary defines “fear” as a feeling of alarm or disquiet caused by the expectation of danger, pain, disaster or the like (being found out, being known for what you know or think you are). It is said that the driving force in the life of most alcoholics is the self-centered fear that we will lose something we have or that we will not get something we think we need or want.
END
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Detachment--share

from the book  

A Life of My Own: Meditations on Hope and Acceptance

Detachment means "freedom from emotion."  Letting someone else's behavior determine how we feel at every turn is irresponsible. Our emotions should be determined by us, not by someone else. But no doubt we have spent years confusing the boundaries that separate us from other people. Whether at work or at home, we have too often let someone else's "insanity" affect how we behave and how we feel.  At first, it may seem insensitive not to react to others' problems or negative behavior. We may fear they'll think we simply don't care about them. Learning that it is far more caring to let other people handle their own lives takes time and patience. But with practice, it will begin to feel comfortable. In fact, in time it will feel freeing and wonderful.  I will work on detachment today, knowing that in time the rewards will come.

My share from meeting at StepChat 5/27/12

hello ,Donna S grateful  alcoholic from NJ
 grateful to be here today

 I remember when I came back into the rooms how shaky I was not knowing how or what really to expect except not to drink. I knew I didn't want to drink anymore I had enough. My last drunk I went into a blackout and got in a 5 car accident. I don't remember any thing except talking my way out of it.  I don't miss that life!!  

When I came in I didn't understand how someone changed or what this big book or step book meant . Yes it helped you but it was all words to me but after time by going to lots of meetings and learning to hang with others who had a honest desire to stay sober and listened to the people who had good sobriety. I was also hooked up online in a fobw chat room and met people there but my only issue was I didn't find the Power greater then me that they talked about, so I kept clinging to the wrong people but I also stuck close to the ones who had serenity/sobriety.  

Be Grateful

Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people
before meeting the right one so that
when we finally meet the right person,
we will know how to be grateful for that gift.

A New Life

Is sobriety all that we are to expect of a spiritual awakening?
 No, sobriety is only a bare beginning; it is only the first gift of the first awakening. If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go on. As it does go on, we find that bit by bit we can discard the old life -- the one that did not work -- for a new life that can and does work under any conditions whatever.

I Asked God.....

I asked God to take

away my habit.

God said, No. 


It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.

God said, No.


 His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary

A Power Greater Then Myself--share

I learned being around the rooms of A.A. for 4 years prior to coming back this time, that I had to find a power greater then myself in order to grow. I never got this when I first entered the rooms and as a result I was domed to repeat.

I thought I could find an easier way on my own, but as always my way got me drunk. Before entering the rooms this time I had what is know as a spiritual awaking.

Acceptance--share

When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.

We don't have to drink to die.

 We buried him yesterday. The County Coroner had published the required notices for next of kin and nobody had claimed the body. It was just myself and his sponsor, no preacher even, the county doesn't pay for those. 

Not much of a send-off, and not the one David had asked for. A cheap coffin, backhoe dug a hole, and that was it - another old AA gone. 

He had been sober over 20 years and in AA over 30, a stern and rigid man who tried to soften his edges and never could. 

He was a loner, a fringe-er, an isolated man at the edge of life's good things. He hung in there... and in the end hung himself. I don't know why; I can't know. 

I know there had been a diagnosis of senile dementia, and I know that the doctor had added cancer to the list. But, I've seen AA’s deal with such things before... I don't know why David decided he couldn't. 

Acceptance

Acceptance 

"And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.
When I am disturbed, it is because I find
some person, place, thing, or situation
- some fact of my life -
unacceptable to me, and I can find
no serenity until I accept that person,
place, thing, or situation as being exactly
the way it is supposed to be at this moment.
Nothing, absolutely nothing happens
in God's world by mistake.
Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober;
unless I accept life completely on life's terms,
I cannot be happy.
I need to concentrate not so much on what
needs to be changed in the world
as on what needs to be changed
in me and in my attitudes."






Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 417 4th Edition
Note: Dr. Paul O., author of these words, passed away 5.12.00.