Sharing and Caring

[MajestyJo]

90/90 is good, but one day at a time, and living each day is more important. A lot of people project to the 90 and don't live in today. At the end of 90 there is no cure, there is no quick fix, I think the term was probably one of those 'old timer's' slogans or old tapes that refers to Step One, if you decide you don't like us, you can go back out and we will refund your misery.

I was one of the sick ones, I did two meetings a day for two years. Then with service and my program maintenance I was still doing 7-10 meetings a week. Now I am no longer as active in service if you don' count the number of times I come here, then I get to one or two meetings a week now that I have twelve years of living this program one day at a time.

A sponsor is important, the steps are crucial for serenity and sobriety, and the traditions have spiritual principles which we can apply to our own lives to help us with living. It helps within the groups, but it helps when you apply them to your home.

Monday at noon (est) we are doing Step One. To date we don't have a Monday night meeting, but I hope someone will be able to do one in the near future.

There are meetings every night. I am a recovering addict who used alcohol and pills to escape life, and I have a son who is out there practicing, and I have been going to Al-Anon for twelve years. Al-Anon helped me to find myself. It helped me see where my roots were and to identify old tapes and has been the basis of my recovery program. Twelve Steps are Twelve Steps, and it is about living clean and sober in today and letting go of the past, with a hope for a better tomorrow. Al-Anon and Nar-Anon help me with that. I am also an adult child of an alcoholic and the daughter of a mother who qualified for Overeaters Anonymous.

I am a recovering workaholic and just about any other program you want to put me in. My drug of choice is more. I can use anything to escape life and where I am at and not take the time to stop and look at me.

The First Promise says we will know a new freedom and a new happiness. I have the freedom of bondage from active addiction; but I was granted another great gift. I was given the freedom to be myself.

Written in 2004

When I am hurting, it is always back to basics for me, because it generally means I am not working my program to it's fullest.

I had a friend say once, "She went out and bought all the self-help books she could find, then she did a Big Book study, and found everything in there that she needed for living and for what she had spent time and money on, looking for 'outside' of the program.

Basics for me? Don't pick up! Don't use! Go to a meeting, talk to my sponsor, read my recovery literature from whatever fellowship material I need in today, apply the steps to my life and live the traditions so I can live with myself and my fellowman.

Keep it Simple! If sayings help you to remember all of the above, please use them. If you have some of your own, utilize them. It is about doing whatever works for you, in today.

I have twenty-two years of one day at a time. I sometimes hesitate to say I have that much sobriety, because some of those days my soundness of mind was questionable. I am clean and sober, but I strive for sobriety in today, this is a living program.

Through my Higher Power, my program is my anchor and foundation.