NOV 30, 23 .. COUPLES IN RECOVERY

 My wife and I regularly attend a local "Couples Group". 

Only couples attend and both members are "In Recovery". That is to say, each of us is in AA, Al-Anon, or both. 

Isn't life full of surprises! I thought that Al-Anon was spelled Alanon. When I wrote the word Alanon, it was underlined in red.

So I "Googled" Alanon and found out it is spelled Al-Anon!

"Goes to Show You" the more you know, the more you know you don't know it all!

Out of all of the meetings we have attended world wide, this is the first Couples Group meeting we have ever known about and it is easily one of the best meetings we have attended anyplace in the world. 

Let's regroup here.

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A word about Al-Anon. 

I quote the first sentence of Chapter 7, page 89, of the AA Big Book..

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE shows us that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics.

Get it? Because we are working with, and sponsoring, other alcoholics, pure and simple, we in A.A. can benefit from Al-Anon.

If you are interested, the below link will tell you more about Al-Anon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Anon/Alateen

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Till We Meet Again, Let's Not Drink Today!

Arizona.

Alaska.

SEP 28, 23 .. CHAPTER FIVE IN THE BIG BOOK

The above "Sobriety Chip" was given to me by the weekly 2pm afternoon meeting of The Laughlin Group, located in Laughlin, Nevada.

Chapter 5 in the A.A. Big Book

There is no question of the importance of the Big Book. Written by William G. "Bill" Wilson, it is the cornerstone of our personal recovery from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. 

I believe that the reading of the first three pages of Chapter 5 in meetings began in Los Angles, California. Over the years reading these pages has become quite popular. My experience is that possibly 80% of meetings I have attended read these pages.

We all talk about, and many meetings read, The Promises in the Big Book. The Promises of Step 9, on pages 83 and 84 of the Big Book are what we mean.

I have actually had people ask me : "What does it mean when we say that we will be amazed before we are halfway through."

It means this : "We will be amazed before we are halfway through making our 9th step amends." The 9th step promises don't just happen because you are attending A.A. Meetings. They begin to happen when you begin actually making your 9th step amends.

THE PROMISES AT THE BEGINNING OF CHAPTER 5 OF THE BIG BOOK pages 58 - 60.

1. Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.

2. 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.

3. But there is One who has all power -- that One is God.

4. Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

5. Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps..

6. God could and would if He were sought.

Some very important words in Chapter 5.

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.

What do we have that a newcomer would want? First, get a plug in the jug and STOP drinking alcohol. Once we get some measure of sobriety (or at least we have stopped drinking alcohol) this changes. What we really have is a design for living!

To get this design for living, we work the 12 steps of A.A.

These words of wisdom are valuable : 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.

It works IF you work it!

Wishing you all a happy, joyous, today! 

It works IF you work it!

APR 27, 22 .. IT'S IN THE A.A. BIG BOOK .. BUT WE AREN'T A GLUM LOT

IT'S IN THE A.A. BIG BOOK ..

BUT WE AREN'T A GLUM LOT 

Yep, it is right there on page 132 !!

A good friend in Kingman, Arizona, sent me the below text. I really got a chuckle out of it.

A Texas State Trooper pulled a car over on I-10 about 62 miles west of Kerrville Texas. When the Trooper asked the driver why he was speeding, the driver said he was a Magician and Juggler and was on his way to West Texas to do a show for the Shrine Circus. He didn't want to be late. 

The Trooper told the driver he was fascinated by juggling and said if the driver would do a little juggling for him then he wouldn't give him a ticket. He told the Trooper he had sent his equipment ahead and didn't have anything to juggle.

The Trooper said he had some flares in the trunk and asked if he could juggle them. The juggler said he could, so the Trooper got 5 flares, lit them and handed them to him.

While the man was jugging, a car pulled in behind the State Troopers car. A drunken good old boy from Ingram, Texas, got out, watched the performance, then went over to the Trooper's car, opened the rear door and got in. The Trooper observed him and went over to the State Car, opened the door asking the drunk what he thought he was doing.

The drunk replied, "You might as well take my butt to jail, cause there ain't no way I can pass that test!"

NOV 11, 20 .. A.A. BIG BOOK .. APPENDIX II .. SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE .. HERBERT SPENCER 'QUOTE'

 One of my own personal favorite quotes in our A.A. Big Book is found at the end of  APPENDIX II .. SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE .. pages 567 and 568.

I quote :

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance --- that principle is contempt prior to investigation."

                             -- HERBERT SPENCER

Below is a link to the entire Appendix II

https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/en_bigbook_appendiceii.pdf

I find this to be an absolutely outstanding piece of knowledge. Its truth to be sound and (in my opinion) very accurate.

I will begin with the following Rhetorical Question : 

What is the work of an obscure 19th-century British philosopher doing in Alcoholics Anonymous? The Big Book was written by a group of Americans, including Bill Wilson and other early members of AA (many relatively uneducated), and was published in 1938. The Spencer quotation is one of the few references to outside thinkers in the entire book. How did it get there?

                                                         The Newport Institute

Rhetorical Answer : 

“Contempt before investigation” was penned almost a century earlier by another British philosopher, William Paley, whose book Evidences of Christianity contains the following sentence: “Contempt prior to examination is an intellectual vice, from which the greatest faculties of mind are not free.” Paley was writing about Romans who scoffed at early Christianity.

And despite the (apparent) fact that Herbert Spencer did not write the above words, my opinion remains unchanged after I (following his advice) explored this statement.

IF any of you are interested, please click onto the below links and make your own decision.

Herbert Spencer Quote references.

https://anonpress.org/spencer/

https://www.thefix.com/content/contempt-prior-to-investigation-AA-Herbert-Spencer8042

The below is a link to a fair number of references (including the above two) about Herbert Spencer.

https://www.google.com/search?q=herbert+spencer+and+aa&rlz=1C1EKKP_enUS712US712&oq=Her&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j46i67j46i20i131i263i433j46i67i175i199l2j69i60j69i61.4326j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

And I will wrap-this-up with a big Thanks to Michael DeG a close personal friend whose ears perked up when (over the phone) I was telling Michael about the above discussion.