hi everyone, ive never plucked up the courage to go to a meeting in person, ive been sober for 3 weeks and want to keep gping, thought this might help, thank you

Hi Mo,
Well Gee,
Why don't you try our online aameeting here at the club.
It's an on going AA meeting in which we each present a topic when the
urge moves us then we all jump in and share our Experience Strength and
Hope.
If you haven't gone to an outside meeting this is a good way to get
your feet wet.
BUT really you should try an outside meeting. Look up AA or Alcholics Anonymous in your phone book and call them.
You'll find them to be very helpful and friendly.
They will also tell you where the meetings in your area are and
probably give you someone to call or talk to.
Hope this works for you. You might also try our links page here at the club.
That might give you meetings to go to also.
See it's a lot easier if other people see you. They can tell by observing
you if you might need medical help or mental help to get a good start.
We really aren't a bad lot, after all we have ALL been exactly where you
are right now, so we ALL understand. It makes us a very empathetic group.
I wish you the best. Let us know how things go.
PamW

I can not pretend to know why you have not plucked up the courage to go to a meeting in person (who knows, maybe you're the senator or something,) but congradulations on your three weeks! I would like to share my expearience with in-person meetings. Evey meeting differs, but I have found those that I feel welcome and comfortable in. Most of the meetings are welcoming and comforting, in fact, when a meeting follows its suggested traditions, it is always welcoming for it is principles befor personalities.
I wish you luck and congradulate you on your three weeks.
Blessed Be!

When I got the courage to go to AA back in Feb, it's saved my life. I look back at where I was and where I am now is the promises coming slowly. My life is becoming full, even though I am financially bankrupt I am not drinking over it. The tables told me we'll love you until you learn to love yourself. I am getting there. First, I had to become humble and surrender. Hope you keep this going.

VickiLynn

Hey VickiLynn:

Remember, each night that you go to bed and your needs (food, clothes on your back, roof over your head) have been met for the day and you still have a nickle in your pocket...you are financially secure.

[SIZE=7][COLOR=blue][FONT=Arial]
Hey Mo,

Its an amazing thing if you can drag yourself to a meeting. Then ask for a little help. You will have so many new friends, you hardly believe it! We stay sober by helping anyone who asks for help!

Good luck

HI Chatti,

I appreciate your response. Each day is a struggle, but I am making it. I've had to come to a couple of major decisons today. One I have to make my car payment and forego my medical insurance payment. Even though I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, I have to get to work and pay bills. I am just praying that my higher power will get me through this nightmare. It's not about threatening my sobriety, it's about surviving.

Two, I did the loving thing today and told my boyfriend I had to let him go. Even though he says he loves me. He works in the trades as an ironworker, so when work comes he's gone. He blames that he can't do things because he doesn't have a drivers license, which is bull. I told him I deserve to be special and appreciated. I can't be the caretaker and forget about me. So in order for Vicki to do the next right thing, was to let it go. I refuse to be the beck and call girl. He made me feel cheap yesterday when I picked him up, we went to my house, did u know what and then he says he had to go grocery shopping and home. That sucked when I saw him for an hour, took him home at 1 and he didn't have to leave for work until 9. A relationship to me is 50 50 not 70 30. I've never said no to take him to a meeting or anywhere else, so it hurt quite a bit. He'll figure it out how to get to meetings, he did before meeting me, he'll survive without me and me him. It's just sad.

Vicki

youmight want to go to one and give it a chance and get a sponsior ethier way keep coming back it works if you work it good luck rdavis

Hi,

Going to your first meeting is the first step in a journey that will be beyond your wildest dreams.
Good luck to you. Keep coming back.

PattyW

Don't feel bad about your first Face to Face meeting, I don't know how long I sat in my car in the parking lot, watching all of these people going, finally someone knocked on my window and asked if I was there for a meeting, being my first I was scared to death, today I am GSR< Treasurer, coffe maker, floor sweeper you name it, anything to help, of the same meeting I was afraid to go to, start hanging out with the right people and the next thing you know, you'll be the one to knock on someone's window to help them through they're first meeting, keep up the good work, you can make it, these people may sound crazy at first, but were the only ones who understand us.

Keep checking back, you'll find some great people here as well that can help.

Doug C.

GET A SPONSER, GO TO MEETINGS, YOU WILL BE WELCOMED, NO NEED TO BE SCARED, EVERYONE THERE HAS OR IS GOING THRU IT. HIT 90 IN 90 IT WORKS

...

Hello, I have been dry for 3 days now. I still have abit of nervousness now, but 1 day at a time for me. Sometimes 1 minute at a time. Anyhow, my 1st time here, and hope you make it through the day, good luck

Nice. Best of luck to you.

Hi, with three weeks of sobriety behind you, going to meetings will give you the courage to continue. Fear is what kept us drinking, fearlessness is what we will gain by attending meetings, reading the promises, how it works, and by sharing with others.

Its my first time with this organization and Im a little nervous. My situation is different than most I suppose. I had a great childhood, my family is great, my friends are fantastic and none of them drink more than a glass of wine per month and never drugs. So where did my bad influence come from? I just like that fuzzy feeling I get when I drink, but not to excess. Two or three glasses and Im good. ????????????? How do you send this thing?

Hi
I have been sobar for a little over two years...The best thing I do in a day is go to a meeting...I have really learned to love them...

Loners and recovery.
Freedom and peace from the grip of alcoholism has been achieved throughout the world.
Many do not have the same opportunity's or luxuries often taken for granted.

For some the only way is thru study of A.A. literature.
Many do succeed by desire.
*Let no man say it cannot be done.

*PEACE - a problem for many, but obtainable.

"We cannot find peace if we are afraid of the windstorms of life."
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
(Psychiatrist and author of 'On Death and Dying')

My life always seemed so filled with difficulty. I seemed to have more than my fair share of traumas and losses. Why was I always being tested like this? It just didn't seem fair. I was so wrapped up in myself and the unfairness of my difficult life that I couldn't see that each of these harsh experiences had been opportunities for growth. Instead of bemoaning my fate and blaming people or situations for what seemed to me to be the cause of the current difficulty, I never looked at what part I had played in the whole situation, or the lessons I could learn from each of these experiences.

It has often been said that God doesn't give us more than we can cope with. What I realized later, once I'd come into the program, was that each of these experiences had been a unique learning opportunity for me; they were a chance to grow and mature. I had been too stuck in self-pity and blame that I hadn't seen the wonderful gifts that I was being given with each new life experience. When I was able to open myself up fully to the lessons that I could learn from life, I became a whole person. It was then that the promises of the program begin to be fulfilled in my life, and I began to know serenity and peace.

One Day at a Time . . .
I will look for what lesson my Higher Power wants me to learn from life. I am then able to grow and change, and by doing so, I will come to know serenity and peace.
Sharon S.

This is A.A an introduction to the recovery program.
http://www.aa.org/pdf/products/p-1_thisisaa1.pdf

A.A. fact file.
http://www.aa.org/pdf/products/m-24_aafactfile.pdf

*Read:Step One.
http://www.aa.org/twelveandtwelve/en_pdfs/en_step1.pdf
*Read:Tradition One.
http://www.aa.org/twelveandtwelve/en...tradition1.pdf
*Read:Step two
http://www.aa.org/twelveandtwelve/en_pdfs/en_step2.pdf
*Read:Tradition Two
http://www.aa.org/twelveandtwelve/en...tradition2.pdf
*Read Step Three.
http://www.aa.org/twelveandtwelve/en_pdfs/en_step3.pdf
*READ Tradition Three.
http://www.aa.org/twelveandtwelve/en...tradition3.pdf

Steps/Traditions Four thru Twelve.
http://www.aa.org/twelveandtwelve/en_tableofcnt.cfm

*Big Book On Line http://www.aa.org/bigbookonline/

*Communication with the General Service Office.*
http://www.aa.org/lang/en/subpage.cfm?page=26

*The International Journal of A.A.
http://www.aagrapevine.org/

(RESOURCE SHARE)
__________________
"What we do for each other is the history we leave behind about us."

Thirty-Six Tips For Working The Steps.
*newcomer or member review of the basics.

Step One
Admitted we were powerless over our alcoholism-addiction-dysfunction - that our lives had become unmanageable.

1. Admitting you're powerless over your alcoholism-addiction-dysfunction is one of the most powerful actions you can take, even though it doesn't seem that way in the moment.

2. The admission of powerlessness over an alcoholism-addiction-dysfunction is NOT an admission of powerlessness over everything in your life, although sometimes you'll hear people say that.

3. By and large, the unmanageability of your life is because of your alcoholism-addiction-dysfunction.

Step Two
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

4. Believing that something has more power than you do isn't hard when you look at your alcoholism-addiction-dysfunction.

5. How you define, or even if you don't define, your definition of Higher Power isn't very important in the beginning, and it will change over time.

6. Sanity is much more about balance than it is about anything like mental illness or madness - to be restored to balance makes a lot of sense.

Step Three
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood God.

7. Make a decision.

8. Turning our lives over doesn't mean we give up personal responsibility. In fact, it's a way of taking responsibility.

9. You are responsible for how you understand God... It's truly a personal decision and journey.

Step Four
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

10. Write your Fourth Step - use pencil or pen and paper, or a computer, but write it down - there's magic in writing.

11. Start with those things that are bothering you the most right now. This list provides many clues about the details your inventory should include. Work from the top down, going backward in time. As we write down something we remember, it will jog into place an earlier happening.

12. Expect to feel some fear writing your inventory... Fearless is about what you write, not what you feel. Total honesty is the key.

Step Five
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

13. Admitting your wrongs to yourself is about accepting yourself as you are right now, with your flaws and faults.

14. Reading your inventory to someone you trust is really about getting honest with yourself and one other person. It's about not hiding and discovering how human you really are.

15. Choose the person to hear your Fifth Step carefully, but choose someone.

Step Six
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

16. Look deeply inside yourself to discover if you're truly willing to let go... and if you're not, ask for the willingness.

17. Spend some time with this Step; it's often more difficult than it first appears.

18. Acceptance of the defect or shortcoming usually precedes the willingness to let it go.

Step Seven
Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

19. If a defect or problem seems to be sticking, look again at how willing you are to let it go. Try the little prayer over and over again.

20. Humility is also about accepting yourself - all of you, the good, the bad and the in-between. There's usually more in-between than anything else.

21. Humility has nothing to do with humiliation.

Step Eight
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

22. You made a list of at least some of the people you had harmed when you did your Fourth Step - start with those.

23. "All persons" means just that, everyone you can think of.

24. Keep your list handy so you can add to it when you remember additional people you have harmed.

Step Nine
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others.

25. Becoming willing to make amends isn't always easy, but it's always possible.

26. If you're afraid making amends will harm the other person or someone else, talk over you fears with someone you trust - it's really easy to fool yourself in this area.

27. The goal here is to tell the truth, not to be forgiven by the other person. If an old relationship can be set right, so much the better.

Step Ten
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

28. Step Ten helps us stay honest with ourselves, and helps to keep the "wreckage of the present" down to a "dull roar." Most often I found that it was my attitude that was wrong, it was just my head putting it on me one more time, and therefore an admission of wrong was to myself.

29. Being self-honest includes being aware of the good things we do as well as the bad.

30. An apology at the moment of need is best, but it's better to apologize later than never. "It is easier to eat crow while it is still warm."

Step Eleven
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.

31. It seems our Higher Power, however you define that, is always available - it's up to you to stay in contact.

32. Experiment with your spiritual practices. It's important to discover what works for you.

33. Expect your beliefs and relationship to your Higher Power to change over time.

Step Twelve
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to (name your alcoholism/addiction/dysfunction), and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

34. The spiritual awakening is automatic if you work the Steps.

35. Carrying the message is often subtle and more by example than anything else.

36. Practicing the principles takes lots of practice; it's hard to get worse at something we practice, especially if we do it every day (and all night too), one day at a time.

I hope these tips are of help to you.
(share) Barefoot's World.
__________________
"What we do for each other is the history we leave behind about us."

Dr. Bob's Last Message.
Presented at
The First International Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous
July 28 - 30, 1950 at Cleveland, Ohio

In Memoriam
Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith
August 8, 1879 - November 16, 1950
Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous

"My good friends in AA and of AA. I feel I would be very remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to welcome you here to Cleveland not only to this meeting but those that have already transpired. I hope very much that the presence of so many people and the words that you have heard will prove an inspiration to you - not only to you, but may you be able to impart that inspiration to the boys and girls back home who were not fortunate enough to be able to come. In other words, we hope that your visit here has been both enjoyable and profitable."

"I get a big thrill out of looking over a vast sea of faces like this with a feeling that possibly some small thing that I did a number of years ago, played an infinitely small part in making this meeting possible. I also get quite a thrill when I think that we all had the same problem. We all did the same things. We all get the same results in proportion to our zeal and enthusiasm and stick-to-itiveness. If you will pardon the injection of a personal note at this time, let me say that I have been in bed five of the last seven months and my strength hasn't returned as I would like, so my remarks of necessity will be very brief.

"But there are two or three things that flashed into my mind on which it would be fitting to lay a little emphasis; one is the simplicity of our Program. Let's not louse it all up with Freudian complexes and things that are interesting to the scientific mind, but have very little to do with our actual AA work. Our 12 Steps, when simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into the words love and service. We understand what love is and we understand what service is. So let's bear those two things in mind.

"Let us also remember to guard that erring member - the tongue, and if we must use it, let's use it with kindness and consideration and tolerance."

"And one more thing; none of us would be here today if somebody hadn't taken time to explain things to us, to give us a little pat on the back, to take us to a meeting or two, to have done numerous little kind and thoughtful acts in our behalf. So let us never get the degree of smug complacency so that we're not willing to extend or attempt to, that help which has been so beneficial to us, to our less fortunate brothers. Thank you very much."

Dr. Bob's Play
The following is the last portion only of a current (2002) play about Dr. Bob Smith, received from Barefoot Bill L., another "Barefoot" old-timer and friend.

It is performed by Bill McN., known also by his performance of "Moments: An Evening With Bill Wilson". The Dr. Bob play has only been performed a few times and is a must see. The play comes from the idea that Dr. Bob gets one last chance to say whatever he would want before his passing away (since his last talk, which was at the 1st International Convention of AA in 1950 in Cleveland, was only a few minutes long due to his illness).

Here is the ending which was requested from the performer. Please note that the conclusions, with poetic license, are Bill McN's assumptions of what Dr. Bob said in his final years. Also, Angel Anon is something he has played around with for the last 10 years beginning with a concept of self-less helpfulness that centered around an earlier idea he had called "Angels Anonymous". Enjoy! --- Love and Peace, Barefoot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Bob's Play
Final Act
Since Anne's passing and with my own failing health, I've been isolated and given plenty of time to gather my thoughts... to make some sense out of a disordered life. Now, the benefits of prayer and meditation have become immeasurable. During this process, using the Absolute of Love that I mentioned previously, I have gained a new insight that I would like to share with you. But first, let me state most emphatically that this is my insight. If you want one yourself, follow the process.

What process? Well the answer is pure and it is simple ... on a regular basis, seek through prayer and meditation to improve your relationship with your understood God, asking only for wisdom, courage and strength to carry out His will for you ... when known.

I have come to believe that I am made in the image of God. That image is at the very center of my being and resides inside the smallest atom, or particle of atom, that was my beginning. I call it my angel ... my angel anon ... most often unknown to me, but known always by God. It was formed by God's idea of me, and it is eternally good. It is a piece of God and it resembles Him.

I have been formed around that image and over the years, and through the circumstances I have shared with you in my story, I forgot that it was there. Again, it is the image of God; God's idea of me and placed there at the instant of my conception. This is true of every human being that was ever born and truer still for all that will come after you and I have long since gone.

As an infant this goodness is recognizable by those who choose to look for it and it can, and will bring out the goodness in them. It is called unconditional love ... total acceptance. A child for its mother and the mother's love for the child is the best example. Unearned, open and unconditional ... absolute ... it flows and animates the whole relationship.

And then, for reasons that are too many to list, the love gets distorted, clouded, and survival begins to take over. I began to see "through a glass darkly". I lost that joyous spontaneity that makes up the young child and I became fearful ... the kind of fear that transcended all the love I contained.

I wish I could remember when that fear began. Was it separation, a smack on the bottom to put me back in line, a disappointment, or someone's failure to fulfill a promise? Was it some overheard comment that slighted me and, worst of all, I found believable? I don't think I will ever know... and in all honesty, is it that important? What I do know is that I have to let that fear go if I am ever to find happiness and peace of mind.

But how, how do I do it?

Well, the answers are again just as pure as they are simple. First and foremost, I must stay sober. Then I must try to help others get sober. I must consistently ask for God's assistance in those two endeavors and accept his will for all of us ... not just me, but for all of us. I must practice love through an open and expressive attitude of gratitude for the benefits that have been given to me. I must witness to God's love and kindness in my own living experiences. I must give of myself ... mind, body and soul, on those occasions when the need is made obvious. I must be willing to accept that my help may not be welcomed and my efforts may go unappreciated.

I must walk humbly in the presence of my God knowing that "Of myself, I am nothing, all that I am comes from my Heavenly Father." I must continually let loose that little angel inside of me, that angel anon, the better side of my nature, through acts of spontaneous generosity to those that need it, and finally I must act with faith so that more faith will be given me.

And who said there are no musts in AA? My only regret is that I had to wait for so long to learn these simple lessons. I pray they come sooner for you ... remember; all you have to do is practice.

Finale: A voice is heard ...

When it was certain that Bob would not survive his illness, close friends approached him to ask his permission to build a monument to his and Anne's memory. Bob was humbled by their request but he declined, asking only to be "buried like other folks." So, as he wished, on a slight rise overlooking Akron's Mt. Peace cemetery, there's a simple headstone marked SMITH. This is Bob and Anne's place of rest.

Article 27 The Books and Materials Early AAs Read

Dr. Bob and everyone that knew him well in the early A.A. days spoke of the ... of reading he did. He read the Bible through three times and studied it daily. ... home of Dr. Bob's daughter, Sue Smith Windows, in Akron; and he saw them in the ...
http://www.recoveredalcoholics.net/p...s/bkmtaard.pdf

A little known fact.

"It is not well known that Dr. Bob was a Mason. Suspended in 1934, he gained reinstatement after being sober for some years. According to John Weldon, “The truth is that Masonry is a distinct religion that espouses teachings incompatible with Christian faith in the areas of God, salvation, and other important doctrines.”

Interestingly, the description of the Mason god, the Great Architect, is similar to the higher power worshiped in Alcoholics Anonymous. Masonic researcher Carl H. Claudy notes, “Masonry does not specify any god or creed; she requires merely that you believe in some Deity, give him what name you will…. A belief in God is essential to a Mason but…any God will do…”

__________________
"What we do for each other is the history we leave behind about us."

Quote:
If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone.
– Maxwell Maltz

Sometimes, we frantically adopt other people’s problems to avoid confronting our own. Hiding from ourselves and our problems solved nothing. Yet some of us are so frightened by the challenge life has thrown before us that we are reluctant to confront it head-on.

Most important is being able to face ourselves, especially when we are alone. We can’t always hide in the hustle and bustle of a crowd. But we can find a comfort level within ourselves, regardless of what we face. Then, when our spirituality is deepened and we understand our own struggles — and only then — can we assist, support, and share with others.

My awareness of myself has been enhanced by my new life circumstances. The deeper I did, the more soul I find. The more and I find, the more I can share myself.
(SHARE) by Chance.