Clean Sweep
Pick up a broom and give it a whirl!
Tag Archive: AA
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Get Your Feet Off the Wheel, Buddy!
Who’s in the drivers’ seat?
5 Tips for Choosing a Recovery Sponsor
A guide, a mentor, a friend, a BB Nazi… so many choices!
Grandmas and Sponsors
Grandma had a great recipe for bread…
NIP IT!
Barney Fife was right.
The 12 Step Workout: Use It or Lose It
We are sure God wants us to be happy, joyous and free.
Not in My Wheelhouse
After cleaning out my wheelhouse I find I’m a little lonely…
Step 1: Obsession and Al-Anon
Need help? TA DA! It was becoming an obsession, this helping habit of mine.
God As We Understood Him
Thinking, learning, figuring things out with my pea brain…
Step 3: Remodel Me
My most traumatic experience with remodeling isn’t filed in a picture database anywhere …
You Don’t Say (to an addict)
When you are a non-user talking to a substance abuser …
Hashtag Sandy
Just between you and me, I’ve always been a little crazy during and around a full moon….
Step 3: I Swore I’d Never…
Before AA I judged myself by my intentions, while the world was judging me by my actions.
Step 2: Digging From the Quarry of the Past
When I’m digging into the quarry of the past, I’m entering the insanity of mining my history…
Step 3: In 2 Deep
Even ‘normies’ suffer from it.
Step 4: Part 8 Talkin’ Trash and Sex
I grew up in the 50s–a time when sex education had not yet been invented.
Anxiety: Part 2 Hey There! Hold Down the Handle!
There’s a lot of ‘holding’ going on during the last three points.
Anxiety: Part 1 Pull on the Nail
Can you find something that weighs on your mind?
Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain
My life would make a better movie than it does a life.
Step11: Where Are You From?
Possibly behind the presenting question is the thought: “You’re not one of us, are you?” I’m not sure why we react to ‘foreigners’ this way, but it’s human nature to try to align the ‘us’ from the ‘them’. We separate out the locals from the others like sorting through the box of puzzle pieces for the border.
STOP…GO…STOP!
So what do we do if we can’t trust our thinking?
Step 4: Column 3 Buddy Burner Ignites
I’m a Fighter from a long line of Fighters. I don’t know what happens to you when you’re angry…
Step 4: Are You A Friend Among Friends?
I was not. I’m still learning. At one time I thought I had the perfect life but it was built upon the proverbial shifting sand of illusions about myself. The mental image of… Read More
Step 4: Column 2 The Cause Knot
Now that we have the first column naming people, institutions and principles we can move on to the second column. Refer to the Not Scary Resentments Worksheet of Step 4 in the side… Read More
Step 4: Why It Works Like a Sticky Trap For Rats of Resentment
Do you have an inexplicable feeling of pending doom? Do you feel deep down lonely…
Step 4: Column 1 Resentments, The Number One Offender
Take a good look at anything that riles you. What are your pet peeves?
Step 2: AA Drifter Returns to the Bunkhouse of Childhood Faith
I have the clearest memory of childhood discussions and a collection of bunkhouse adventures with God. This skinless friend was more real …
Step 3: The Key To Making Decisions
Step 3 is not the action of turning our will and lives over, it’s deciding to do so. Let’s get specific. Which decision making elements do you usually use?
How Did I Set My Password For AA Serenity?
During early sobriety it seemed that all the characters around the table except me had a secret password that allowed them to log into a new life of peace and serenity. I’d never seen anything like these hooligans.
Step 3: Whistling In The Dark
Do I miss drinking? Sometimes. I miss it to the extent that I’m still insane. I was not created for self-destruction but alcohol is a one way ticket to that insanity. It waits.
Step 3: I Can Skip This if I’m a Christian, Right?
The question I should have asked when I dropped into AA was, Is there a difference between step 3 and salvation for a Christian?
Step 11: Do You Meditate In Color?
This is my prayer corner. The colored pencils are from Iowa. I bought them at an art supply store when I started coloring during prayer. Bear with me. I can explain…maybe.
Is Your God Silent? Are you?
Before I got sober at the age of 55, I was trapped by an ice storm at an abbey near Dubuque, in NE Iowa. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. There are no… Read More
Step 4: Fearless Moral Inventory Shortcut
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. That’s Step 4, perhaps the scariest few words Bill W strung together in this 12 Step program. It seems to me that he could… Read More
Step 3: Gargantua Tarantula
In February I had thousands of dollars of unanticipated expenses: repairs to my RV and gutting the bathroom in my rental house. I charged motel bills while I waited for my RV repairs,… Read More
Step 4 Character Defects: Selfish
Selfish? Who…me?
Stepping Fourth!
The truth will set you free, to the extent that you recognize it and cooperate with it.
Forgiveness and Murder
I remember the high school field trip to the Butler County Courthouse because I nearly fainted climbing the steps! I had just been to the doctor and he had taken a vial of… Read More
Fear Epiphany: Pieces of My Peace
I had an epiphany yesterday. I’ve recently bought a new fifth wheel and requisite dually. Along with that comes more room to live and more financial pressure. (Did you catch that, the pressure?)… Read More
Angry Birds Words 2: Level Failed
The games of Angry Birds and Angry Words are both frustrating and fascinating time drains. Whether you are a wet alcoholic (still drinking) or a dry alcoholic (not drinking or in recovery), you… Read More
Off-The-Wall Extremes
The other day I stood in the 105 degree heat and tried to ignore the sun baking the top of my head as I took pictures for my other blog, The Fork. That… Read More
Fudgesicles and Fear
So when AA suggests a fearless moral inventory, it must seem to every newcomer that more is being asked of him than he can do. Both his pride and his fear beat him… Read More
Unhappiness: Part 2 Gerbil Wheel
The previous post lists the things that I find helpful when I’m feeling unhappy. Being unhappy is really just code for being self-centered. It seems to me that what I was doing to… Read More
Unique Self: Part 3 Question Yourself
B. You accept who you are by beginning to find your unique self. Before AA, I would have identified with this quote: Many of us go through life not clear about what we… Read More
