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#1 |
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Join Date: Aug 2013
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From the Book
If You Want What We Have: Sponsorship Meditations By Joan Larkin ---- 1 ---- Whatever happens at all happens as it should. Marcus Aurelius Antonius New Comer I came to this meeting, but I don’t know if I belong here. I just don’t know. Sponsor We have a saying: “Nobody gets here by mistake.” For many of us, this means that something inside us knows we need help and that we’re in the process of becoming willing to accept it. Some of us are drawn here thinking, at first, that we’ve come because of someone else’s problems; then we discover that we’ve also come for ourselves. Some of us sense immediately that we belong here; some come to this feeling over time; some never feel they belong. Our arriving at the first meeting can seem mysterious until we realize how unlikely it is for a person with no relationship to addiction whatsoever to show up here. Since you can’t decide whether you belong her or not, why not stay? Consider it a gift that’s been offered you, a chance to explore your relationship to addiction. You are entitled to be here. The only “qualification” for membership is a desire to quit our addictive substance or behavior. Unless you cause a disruption, no one’s going to ask you to leave a meeting. Relax, sit back, and listen. See if you identify with any of the feelings that you hear people share, whether or not their specific life experiences mirror yours. If you keep coming, more will be revealed in time. Today, I am where I’m supposed to be.
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Aug 2013
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From the Book
If You Want What We Have: Sponsorship Meditations By Joan Larkin ©1998 Joan Larkin ---- 2 ---- We know the truth, not only by the reason, but by the heart. Blaise Pascla Newcomer I’m not sure I qualify to be in this program. I wasn’t that bad – I hear stories that are so much worse than mine. Sponsor There’s a joke about a group of friends standing at their drinking buddy’s graveside with his widow, all of them shaking their heads and saying, “I don’t understand it – he wasn’t that bad.” Who qualifies for a Twelve Step program? The answer doesn’t lie simple in the quantities of a substance consumed or in the frequency of an unwanted behavior. More telling is whether or not we have a choice. It’s useful to make a list of times we remember using in spite of intention not to and a list of times when using took us places we never meant to go, made us do things we never meant to do. Perhaps we’ll recall many such situations, perhaps only a few. The number is less important that our willingness to look back at our memories, and the feelings accompanying them, without censoring ourselves. Something inside us brought us here; it’s up to each of us to take an honest look at what that was. Today, I look honestly at times when I have been powerless over this addiction. I acknowledge the ways it has made my life unmanageable.
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#3 |
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Join Date: Aug 2013
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From the Book
If You Want What We Have: Sponsorship Meditations By Joan Larkin ©1998 Joan Larkin ---- 3 ---- A man takes a drink, the drink takes another, and the drink takes the man. Sinclair Lewis Newcomer I’ve heard Alcoholics Anonymous members say, “It’s the first drink that gets you drunk,” and Overeaters Anonymous members say, “Don’t take that first compulsive bite.” It seems a little extreme. Don’t Twelve Step programs allow for the possibility of doing things in moderation? Sponsor There are numerous stories of addicted people who started with the idea that they’d have “just one” of whatever it was. Hours, days, or weeks later, they were still in the middle of a binge. Most of us, when we were active in our addictions, promised ourselves repeatedly that we’d be moderate, though we’d already accumulated plenty of evidence that we lacked the desire and the capacity for moderation. One we started using, no matter how seemingly insignificant the beginning, we were under the control of our addiction. We experienced a craving that no quantity of a drug or repetition of and additive behavior could satisfy. There are people on this planet who leave wine unfinished in their glasses and food uneaten on their plates. There are people who can do in moderation what people filling the seats at meetings couldn’t stop doing, once they started. But we are not those people. If we’ve suffered from an addiction enough to come here for treatment, why would we want to keep playing with denial? Today, I’m strengthened by accepting my need to take special measures to protect my health and recovery.
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#4 |
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From the Book
If You Want What We Have: Sponsorship Meditations By Joan Larkin ©1998 Joan Larkin ---- 4 ---- Later is now. Roseanne Barr Newcomer I guess I do have some addiction problems, but right now is a terrible time for me. I know you’d like me to be more involved, use the program more, but I need time—there’s something else I have to deal with first. I’ve tried talking about it at meetings, but no one really has much understanding of my particular problem. Sponsor I do respect the fact that there are pressing problems in your life and that you are going to have to face them. Addiction is, in one sense, a response to underlying issues we all have to deal with. And in addition to our inner problems, many of us enter recovery in the midst of some crisis—serious illness, separation, overdue taxes, even homelessness are situations some of us have had to face while newly recovering. I agree that your problems are real ones. But putting off recovery is not likely to help you with them. It may make things worse. While I may not be able to help with the specifics of your situation, I can be here to share my experience, strength, and hope as a person in recovery. Recovery is the foundation of my life today. I make it my highest priority, and as time goes on I find the help and strength I need to resolve everything else I have to deal with. If you, too, have the willingness to face your addiction and show up for your recovery, I’m willing to be here. Today, I let go of all obstacles to recovery.
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#5 |
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 72,675
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![]() From the Book
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#6 |
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 72,675
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![]() From the Book
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#7 |
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If You Want What We Have:
Sponsorship Meditations By Joan Larkin ©1998 Joan Larkin ---- 7 ---- Fortunately, time, rather than intelligence or study, eventually helps us see the other side of things. Newcomer I don’t think these meetings do enough. Some people come in with their health in terrible shape. Someone should be evaluating them! I think I should be getting vitamin B shots. I’m angry that such important things are being ignored. Sponsor You may very well need extra vitamins; nutrition sounds like something you might be ready to look into. You may want to see a doctor, a nutritionist, or both. I support you in your desire to get help with the ways you have neglected your health. And I understand that you feel angry at not being taken care of. One reason that this program works for me is that it respects my decision to seek help, if and when I choose to, from the people and institutions I trust. It doesn’t get into the business of dispensing medical advice, diets, vitamins, or exercise plans, any more than it tells me where to pray, how to earn a living, or whom to vote for. The group doesn’t hire experts to come tell us how to run our lives, and we don’t have to be covered by insurance to come to a meeting. Each of us here is an expert on just one thing; our own experience of addiction and recovery. You might say that we’re specialists! Today, I appreciate the gift of my experience. I add one new thing to my knowledge of how to take care of my health—physical, mental, and spiritual.
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#8 |
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From the Book
If You Want What We Have: Sponsorship Meditations By Joan Larkin ©1998 Joan Larkin ---- 8 ---- …that they may solve their common problem… ALCOHOLICS ANNONYMOUS PREAMBLE Newcomer When they say we’re here to solve our common problems, I’m really put off. Adults should be able to handle their problems on their own, shouldn’t they? Sponsor We don’t go to meetings to solve our “problems” but rather our “problem”—singular. Meeting address the problem none of us could solve on our own; the disease of addiction. I can identify with your discomfort at the thought of accepting help from a group of people. I’ve always wanted to think of myself as independent. Talking about what’s bothering me feels like I’m risking my pride, my privacy, and my autonomy. Deep down, though, I care a great deal about what other people think of me. I’m afraid that if they really get to know me, they’ll find out I’m not good enough. I’m afraid they’ll want more from me than I’m capable of giving. I’d rather believe that I don’t need others than risk being challenged or let down by them. I’m not alone in having these fears and resentments of others. Most of us who’ve resorted to addictive substances or behaviors have problems in our relationships with other people. When, through the help of other recovering people, we solve our common problem of addiction, we become truly independent. We’re free of our deadly attachment to a drug. We’re free to acknowledge our connections with other human beings. Today, I add the word “help” to my vocabulary.
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#9 |
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From the Book
If You Want What We Have: Sponsorship Meditations By Joan Larkin ©1998 Joan Larkin ---- 9 ---- Which way lay safety? Which way life? JACQUESE LUSSEYRAN Newcomer What would be the harm of using in moderation? The rest of the world does it. I have to admit that I feel deprived, even somewhat resentful. Sponsor When I was free to use in moderation, how moderate was I? Was my relationship with certain substances and behaviors easy and comfortable, one that created no problems for me or others? Was it easy for me to stop, once I get started? Was it easy for me to stay stopped, if I chose to? It’s easy to slip back into denial about the seriousness of my problem, once I’ve gotten some momentary feeling of control. Some of us consumed our addictive substances in smaller quantities than others did. Some of us are taller or thinner or shorter or younger; some spent more years in school; some can enjoy strawberries without breaking out in a rash. I can easily point to the differences between me and others; there are plenty! Or I can to meetings, listen and see if there are feelings with which I identify. The addictions that call to us will always be there, if we decide to go back to them. For today, there’s no hurry to return to old habits. Let’s keep an open mind, as we go through today without putting our recovery at risk. I look honestly at my previous life and remember what feelings and situations got me here. For today, I give myself the chance for recovery
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#10 |
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 72,675
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![]() From the Book
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#11 |
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Posts: 72,675
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![]() From the Book
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#12 |
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![]() From the Book
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#13 |
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 72,675
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![]() From the Book
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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#14 |
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If you want what we have we must go to any lengths to stay away from mind altering chemicals of any sort, even that which we can't drink, snort, or pull a slot machine...things maybe food, or compulsive spending...these are all a disease of the mind, body and spirit...Just for today , for this minute I have the choice to use the tools I have learned in the program, from others in meetings, from my sponsor and the fellowship...I can choose the joy of life, rather than the pain of active addiction...hearing a newcomer speak at his or her first meetings...is a gift we all need ...bringing me back seeing what it was really like...reading the BB and other literature, journalling , and working the steps in my life today...I am given the amazing opportunity to be alive and sober today...I shouldn't be here today..and it took me many back and forths before I wanted what you all have....change is not easy, nor is it impossible...when the pain of remaining the same , becomes greater than that fear of change...well nobody likes pain, I could "continue to the bitter end, blotting out my existence with chemicals, or I could humble myself to admitting I am powerless over those things. The hardest thing I did was say I am an alcoholic for the first time...If you want what we have , I was told what lengths will you go to? I drank everyday...had excuses (lies mostly) why I couldn't go to a meeting, its too far, too rainy or snowy I am too tired, etc....my sponsor would say to what lengths would you go to to get a drink tonight, or how many miles would you drive for your drugs? She had me there....I would have to go to any lengths for sobriety just as I did for my chemicals...and boy I sure did go any lengths for those!! Like I said I am grateful to all things spiritual and all of you who were instrumental in sobriety...and as they say, they say , the longer we stick around the more miracles we will see. Peace, Schell
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#15 |
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 72,675
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![]() From the Book
__________________
![]() "No matter what you have done up to this moment, you get 24 brand-new hours to spend every single day." --Brian Tracy
AA gives us an opportunity to recreate ourselves, with God's help, one day at a time. --Rufus K. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. --Franklin D. Roosevelt We stay sober and clean together - one day at a time! God says that each of us is worth loving. |
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