Stairway to Recovery

“You can’t always see the top of the staircase so just look for the first step.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Overcoming addiction (alcoholism) is simple, but not easy. Most people have a fear of labeling themselves or being labeled an addict or alcoholic. It is a natural response, we are losing what we believe … Read more

Try?

If we do not try, we will not know. -Ayya Khema, Be An Island Whenever I run a group on making the decision to recover from addiction, I always do an exercise in front of the group with a volunteer.  I ask the participant to try to take a coin out of my hand.  Ultimately, … Read more

BUT

Anything after “But” is bullshit! ~~Unknown I was once in a mutual support meeting and a guy shared about his struggle. The speaker responded with a few words of recovery wisdom. A cross-talk argument has now been engaged, the guy quickly began to defend himself and said “yeah but…” The speaker broke in and quickly … Read more

Why Yes?

“Say yes to everything” Seth Godin Early on in my recovery journey, I was told to never turn down an opportunity to speak, take a commitment, or help another person in their recovery journey.  I have followed that advice with two caveats. If speaking or that commitment would override a more important commitment I previously … Read more

In God’s Hands

It means really leaving the problem in God’s hands and not reaching out and taking the problem back to ourselves. Second, having given our drink problem to God, we must cooperate with Him by doing something about it ourselves. Am I doing these two things? Twenty-Four Hours a Day by Hazelden Foundation Over the years … Read more

Passion

“There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life.” — Frederico Fellini In August of 2012 I set out on a new venture,  My goal was to build a brick and mortar agency that utilized the recovery success principles I had been developing and refining over the course … Read more

Truth or Fiction?

I am loyal in my attendance, generous in my giving, kind in my criticism, creative in my suggestions, loving in my attitudes. Twenty-Four Hours a Day. Over the years I have heard so many “Truths,” “Facts,” “Musts,” in our Mutual Support Fellowship and quite frankly, there were times that not only did I believe them, … Read more

Chuck C Testimony to U.S Senate Sub-Committee Sept 27, 1969

Chuck C., a well-known early AA member in California, testified before the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Subcommittee in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 27, 1969. This is his testimony which has been copied from the official hearing records: Present: Senators Hughes, (presiding), Dominick, and Saxbe [members of the Subcommittee]. Also present: Senators Cranston and Murphy … Read more

Language

I met my lovely wife in 2007 in the Republic of Panama, Central America. She did not speak English and my Spanish was at a third-grade level, I could communicate but could not conjugate a verb for the life of me. Be that as it may, the first night we met we had a blast. … Read more