What Is God’s Will?
I no longer feel I have to ‘prove’ anything to you or to me
Tag Archive: Alcoholics Anonymous
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Get Your Feet Off the Wheel, Buddy!
Who’s in the drivers’ seat?
Confessions of an Albatross
Glancing down the hall towards the Al-Anon room…
God As We Understood Him
Thinking, learning, figuring things out with my pea brain…
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.
Step 4: Column 5 Peeling Back False Beliefs
I spent a lot of time with my grandparents absorbing survival skills: some good, some bad.
Step 4: Column 5 Character Defects and The Foul Four
Putting out of our minds the wrongs other had done, we resolutely looked for our own mistakes.
Step 4: Column 4 Ya But…
Ya but… (wheeze) the other guy is the problem! You’re just the victim, here.
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: 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: As Long As You’re Green You’re Growing…
as soon as you’re ripe, you rot! There’s a lot of ripe ones out there…
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 …
Self-willed and Controlling? Who…Me?
I don’t understand the intricate workings of denial, but I’m at the same time, well-acquainted with it.
Step 3: What’s Your Keystone?
Looking closely at this arch in Glendalough, Ireland, you can see there is no mortar. As an active alcoholic, my life was crumbling just like this keystone.
Step 3: What Grows in the Dark?
What keeps you awake at night?
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?
Step 3: Questions and Directions
There is something in me that rebels against familiar authoritarianism. Do I really want someone else to tell me what to think again? I hope not.
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.
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: Examine Inconsistencies
It was Spring. We were on a photo shoot, driving along a wondrous coastal road between the woods on our left and the Pacific on our right when these beautiful words fairly begged… Read More
Unconflicted and Better Than a Hallelujah
I agree with Chaz and his Unconflicted post. I am unconcerned about Bill’s personal life. He was a tool for getting the Biblical principles into our hands. I was not saved by him,… 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?
Step 3: Part 6 The Director
Before I ever heard of a Step 3, I reveled in directing the school play rehearsals. There was a sense of satisfaction in seeing my creative ideas take on life and play out… Read More
Step 3: Part 5 Lessons From The 70s on Willingness
In Step 3: Part 4 I asked how you would define ‘will’ and ‘lives’ in the wording of Step 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the… Read More
Step 3: Part 4 Flat-Out Decision
There’s something about flat-out that screams for attention, doesn’t it? One might think I took that position on the floor of the club to get God’s attention. Not so. I already had His… Read More
Step 3: Part 3 Decided to stop singing I Did It My Way
Are you ready for Step 3? It’s easy to find out. Assuming that we believe that we are alcoholic and can’t manage our own lives, we’re through with Step 1. Furthermore, if we’ve… Read More
Step 3 Part 2: ABCs of AA
What Bill Wilson originally penned and what ended up coming off the presses as the text-book for AA does differ, slightly. Sometimes editing changes are insignificant; sometimes they change the tone and blur… Read More
Step 3: Part 1 Connected
I was just staring at the slow green circle that is the icon for my internet connectivity. In letters beside it, just in case I don’t know, it says connecting. All right already…so… Read More
Peace on Earth to (Sober) Men
My life until I got sober was anything but peaceful. I lived on a steady diet of drama… well- executed and self-induced emotional trauma. But I wasn’t alone in my exciting life. I… Read More
Victim Veins Revisited
You call it love. For years, all I wrote was bad, tragic and tearful poetry. Then life got better because I got sober and I gave up poetry. Suddenly, this poem gushed forth… Read More
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
Find a Retirement Home For Your Critic
When someone is willing to dig deep for the reality of their lives and keep molding the truths onto steps that lead from addiction and pain to sane living and rejoicing, it’s called… Read More
Listen With Your Eyes
Discerning reality is no easy task for addicts. I don’t remember where I got it, but I have a tool that I wish I could give all my friends in recovery: Listen with… Read More
Lucky Unlucky Addicts
The following comment from Resentment Rats is too wonderful to leave in the archives of comments: So much lays beneath what we can easily see in ourselves. And how many people in life… Read More
Peachy Contentment
One of the great joys of having a job that keeps me at home is the freedom to read. I used to see people in ‘low level’ jobs reading a book between tasks… Read More
Prison Of Self
The above picture is from a recent trip to Scotland. The gate makes me think of how my old thinking has kept me imprisoned. I took this picture during a tour of the… Read More
