Mother's Day Share: What I said at an Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting Outdoors in Bidwell Park, Chico. "I'm Greg and I'm an Alcoholic..."

To set the stage: We are at a meeting at the Campfire Council Ring with about 50 people on a Hot Summer Sunday Morning. People Come from All Over Butte County... Much Wisdom There from Old Timers That Work Full Time and Go to One Meeting a Week. I had listened to Many People Talking About How They Had Become Friends With Their Mom Again... 

 I said:"My Mom was an Alcoholic and She Drank Herself to Death. I'm not sure when she died because I was Drinking a Lot that Decade. I didn't go to her Funeral. I missed that event. Thankfully, I'm at an AA Meeting... and I Will Not Drink Myself to Death."

 The words I spoke made everyone sad and it was silent for a while. Then the Next Speaker started telling her story of reunification with her own mother... and many other people told their own sad stories... and happy stories... 

[Looking Back, I Realize that Mom was in Constant Pain and She Was Self Medicating Using Alcohol. Certainly Her Choice. I Support Freedom of Choice. It's Sad That Her Doctor Didn't Prescribe Oxycontin... However, It's All History Now... I Feel Certain that Marijuana Would Have NOT Had Enough Pain Killing Effect to Be A Valid Prescription.]
At one of those Meetings in the Park someone spoke of the similarity between Ran Dass' - "Be Here Now" and Bill Wilson's - "One Day At A Time." I had the realization that it's really easy to "Be Here Now" when in a Marvelous Park with Friends but it's a bit more difficult to "Be Here Now" while doing something Unpleasant, Like going to the dentist... However, It's ALL Just "Grist for the Mill." If the World was ALREADY Perfect in Every Way there would be no Motivation to Go to Heaven. It's wonderful to listen to people who have an opinion about Ram Dass... So often People I meet are total experts at Professional Football or other subjects that are totally unimportant...

 I have found some Great Advice at Meetings. One time I went to a Meeting in Reno, Nevada on the way to the Burning Man Event. I did not own a Car and I got to Reno on the Greyhound Bus. After the meeting I was asking if anyone was going to Burning Man and If I Could Get a Ride... Many People Recommended that I NOT GO. They said I should go to the Alcoholics Anonymous Convention at the Nugget Hotel in Sparks. I attended that convention and There was a Bar B-Q Cook-off with a Janis Joplin Imitator singing... They also Played Grateful Dead Songs... I liked them so mush that I asked them where they were going to play next and they said "Tonight at Hyatt Incline North Shore Lake Tahoe." So I went there too... They were in the Room with a lot of Gambling Tables... Two Great Concerts for Free. I have never gone to Burning Man and Most Likely will never go. I guess it's designed for people that are much younger than I AM. It Sounds Like a Survival Test while Stoned on MDMA and 2C or other PHIKALS... With me walking, I probably wouldn't have brought enough water to survive and I would be trapped in a Psychedelic Nightmare World.  
Mom-Dad-Marty-Vanderlaan

Grandpa-Mom-and-her-brothers-and-sister

mom-and-Forrests-Airplane-Grandma

Vanderlaan-Martin-Gregory-Gary-Lea-Grandma-and-Grandpa

If You Can't Go To an AA Meeting, Here are All the Words We Read... "MEETING FORMAT", "The AA Preamble", "HOW IT WORKS", "MORE ABOUT ALCOHOLISM", "THE TWELVE TRADITIONS", "THE PROMISES" and Many Many More...

MEETING FORMAT
Hi everybody, welcome to the (day & time) meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, ________ Group. I’m an alcoholic and my name is ______.
Shall we open the meeting with a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer.
Read the preamble (What Is A.A.?), on the other side of this sheet.
Have someone read How It Works .
Have someone read The Twelve Traditions.
Have someone read More About Alcoholism.
Ask if there is anyone within their first 30 days who would like to introduce themselves
Any visitors from outside the area
Any birthdays
Anyone here for their first meeting ever.
Read The Announcements.
Ask if anyone has something to discusss, or suggest a topic. (If the meeting is large, ask that comments be kept relatively short.)
Pass the basket for our 7th Tradition around ½ hour to 45 minutes after the meeting has started.
Meetings are 1 ½ hours (ending at 1:30 PM, 7:00 PM and 9:30 PM ), but the group conscience can decide to allow the meeting to run longer.
To close, read or have someone read The Promises or other approved A.A. literature (such as page 164 of the Big Book).
Announce we will close the meeting in the usual manner.
Stand and recite The Lord’s or Serenity Prayer as a group.
Enter the amount of the 7th Tradition money collected, date, & time of meeting on the envelope. If there were book sales or H & I contributions, list separately. Turn in to the landlord.
Turn off coffee maker, fans, heater and lights. Make sure the hall is clean and ready for the next neeting. Confirm door is locked when you leave.

Keep Coming Back - Free Coloring Book Art by gvan42


The AA Preamble
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

One Day @ A Time - Free Coloring Book Art by gvan42

HOW IT WORKS:
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest. Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it - then you are ready to take certain steps. At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely. Remember that we deal with alcohol - cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power - that One is God. May you find him now! Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.
Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it!” Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
(c) That God could and would if He were sought.


MORE ABOUT ALCOHOLISM:
Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death. We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed. We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that were regaining control, but such intervals - usually brief - were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better. We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn’t done so yet. Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right-about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people! Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with or without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums - we could increase the list ad infinitum.


THE TWELVE TRADITIONS
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
2. For our group purposes there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every A.A. group ought to be full self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

THE PROMISES
If we are painstaking in this phase of our developments, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest is our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them. (pages 83 - 84)

THE SERENITY PRAYER:
God Grant me the Serenity to Accept the things I cannot Change, Change the things I Can and the Wisdom to Know the Difference.

Photo of Mom's AA Chico, CA. Meeting Hall...

This hall was closed by the city health department.
It was a miracle when it was alive... 
 It Was in the Haven Motel...

NEW LOCATION:
Mom's AA 
  • 2109 Esplanade Ste 110, Chico CA 95926 [MAP]
Mom's has meetings every day of the year... 
rain, sleet, snow, fire, heatwave, earthquake... 
they still have a meeting... 

AA Slogan - Free Coloring Book Art by gvan42

AA Slogan - Free Coloring Book Art by gvan42

A VISION FOR YOU
Abandon yourself to God as you understand God.
Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows.
Clear away the wreckage of your past.
Give freely of what you find and join us.
We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit,
and you will surely meet some of us
as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.
May God bless you and keep you - until then.
(page 164 of the book Alcoholics Anonymous)

Prayer of Saint Francis:

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace;
that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.
Amen.

Thank You! Free Coloring Book Art by gvan42
Thank You! Free Coloring Book Art by gvan42


MY MEDALLION
I always carry my medallion,
A simple reminder to me
Of the fact that I'm in recovery
No matter where I may be.
This little chip is not magic
Nor is it a good luck charm.
It isn't supposed to protect me
From every possible harm.
It's not meant for comparison,
Or for all the world to see,
It's simply an understanding
Between my Higher Power and me.
Whenever I doubt the cost
I paid for recovery,
I look at my medallion
To remember what used to be.
It reminds me to be thankful
For my blessings day by day,
And to practice the principles
In all I do and say.
It's also a daily reminder
Of the peace and comfort I share
With all who work the Program
And show they really care.
So I carry my medallion
To remind no one but me
That the Promises will unfold
If I let God work for me.
submitted by Roger... THANKX

Let us also remember to guard that erring member, the tongue and if we must use it, let us use it with kindness & consideration & tolerance.
Part of Dr. Bob's Farewell speech... Quoted from the book "Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers" a fine book.

"If you want that feeling of uselessness and self pity to disappear, quit being useless and pitiful." A favorite saying of Tom from Eureka...
The Touch of The Master's Hand...

'Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile.
"What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who will start bidding for me?
A dollar, a dollar" --then, "Two!" "Only two?
Two dollars, and who'll make it three?
Three dollars, twice;
"Going for three --" But no,
From the room, far back, a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loose strings.
He played a melody pure and sweet
As sweet as a caroling angel sings.
The music ceased and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said what am I bidden for the old violin?
And he held it up with the bow.
A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two?
Two thousand! And who'll make it three?
Three thousand, once; three thousand twice;
And going, and gone!" said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
"We do not quite understand
What changed its worth?" Swift came the reply:
"The touch of the master's hand.
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scattered with sin,
Is auctioned off cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A "mess of pottage," a glass of wine;
A game -- and he travels on.
He's "going" once, and "going" twice,
He's "going" and "almost gone."
But the Master comes and the foolish crowd
Never quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that's wrought
By the touch of the Master's hand.

One Day @ A Time - Free Art by gvan42

Thank YOU! - Free Coloring Book Art by gvan42

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"Keep Coming Back" Embroidered Baseball Cap for sale.

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