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The Mondex Group (14)
Total Group sobriety 277 Years
October
Mike W. 23 Years October 11th
Al H. 11 Years October 18th
Esther 12 Years October 25th
Celebrates anniversaries weekly, on the dates given above.
Eating meeting is the last Tuesday of each month at 6 PM.
The Nomad Group (20)
September October
Ron D. 14 yrs Smitty C. 25 yrs
Bob B. 1 yr Dallas P. 15 yrs
John G. 13 yrs
Al H. 11 yrs
Celebrates on the last Thursday of each month.
The Steps to Serenity Group (14) – no celebrants
Celebrates last Friday of the month
The Survivors Group (37)
September October
Bill E. 19 yrs Esther N. 12 yrs
Calvin C. 3 yrs Barbara P. 2 yrs
Larry W. 2 yrs
Jim A. 2 yrs
Celebrates the 2nd Thursday of the month.
The TGIF Group (?)
August Belated – Martha S. 30 years
September
October
Ron D. 14 years
Fred O. 21years
Joe S. 2
years Smitty C.. 25 years
Sally C. 27 years Evelyn S 18
Pat A 5
years
The TGIF will now celebrate on the last Friday of each month.
The Traditional Recovery Group(6)
October
Ernie Y. 36 yrs
John B. 21 yrs
Celebrate last Thursday of the month.
The Women to Women Group (?) – no response
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A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING AS THE RESULT OF THESE STEPS
When I joined A.A 20 years ago I had little idea that I was beginning a spiritual quest. My five year spiritual journey began with the second step, “Came to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.” Without this belief no growth was possible.
Next, I made a decision that I was going to learn how to turn my will over to the care of God. Having made this decision it was necessary for me to examine myself and share my findings and feelings with another person.
Then I was ready to have God remove my shortcomings and humbly asked Him to remove my defects of character that stood in the way of my growth. This of course led to my cleaning up my past by making amends to those I had harmed. I was then ready to take daily inventory of myself and to seek through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with God.
During this 5 year quest I very gradually had a change in personality which as it grew became “profound.” Wow! I had a spiritual awakening and it was the result of the 12 steps.
For the next 15 years I continued using the maintenance steps so that I could keep in a good spiritual condition for as it says on page 85 of the Big Book “We are not cured of alcoholism. What we have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.” The spiritual awakening or profound personality change has dual benefits: It keeps me sober and it opens my eyes to the beauty and splendor of the world around me.
I pray that I may never become complacent. I don’t want to forget how much I need this fellowship.
Howie B
THE PROMISES AND ME
When I first got sober, my sponsor said that if I don’t drink and do all the AA suggestions, the following are the promises or rewards that I would receive:
I thought I was doing pretty good and was pretty happy when I was drinking. That was because I overlooked the terrible hangovers, but today I can look back and realize - I know a new freedom and a new happiness.The first years were horrible all I wanted was to drink. Thank God that craving has left me! Besides losing the craving, I no longer regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. This was hard, my life has been painful to remember, but making direct amends has helped me to accept these things and now I comprehend serenity and know peace. God has given me the courage to face the trouble caused by my disease.
All my troubles made me go way down the scale, but today I see that my experience can benefit others. Now that I’m free of my old self, I recognize the good within and I want to share this with newcomers. I extend my hand and the miracle happens, I get healed, my problems vanish, and that feeling of uselessness and self pity disappear; and I become interested in other people and their problems and I lose interest in selfish things. As I work to help others, my self seeking slips away. Consequently, my whole attitude and outlook upon life changes.
For years I looked for a miracle, something earth shattering; however, rather than this - now I have a sense of well being and a feeling of peace. My inner turmoil has disappeared and I have entered into a new dimension of hope, love and peace. I think this comes in direct proportion to the sincerity, depth and devotion with which I practice the twelve steps of AA.
These steps have helped me lose my fear of people and of economic insecurity. When I was drinking, my only concern was to have people think highly of me. Somehow I felt this wasn’t all there was to life, but I couldn’t accept it.
When I came to AA, I learned to change resentment into acceptance, fear into hope and anger into love. I begin and end my day with thanks to god, who generously shed his grace on me. He’s also doing for me what I cannot do for myself. He has given me the strength, courage, and guidance to meet my responsibilities in life, as that I am now able to reach out and help others stay sober and grow. With God as my guide, great events have happened and I have found happiness, serenity, and sobriety. I have not had to drink or use a mind-altering drug since 11-10-93.
Connie G. Grateful Recovering
Alcoholic
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Record of HELPLINE calls stopped in December of '04(?). The following is a record of calls since June 5th 'thru August 17th '05.
As a result of going to
The InterGroup Mtg. I have a new HELPLINE volunteer who will
relieve me after September.
Peter F. |
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AA
Old-timer's Prayer
submitted by Peter F.
endless details and give me wings to get to the point. Remind me to guard confidences and to keep still when I feel that it is necessary to share
information "just for some one's own good." Release me from the need to straighten out everybody else's thinking and program.
God, I ask for the grace to listen to newcomers. Please help me to remember the patience with which others listened to me when I was new.
Please seal my lips to giving advice, and help me to remember to share my experience, strength, and hope. Remind me that my purpose is to fit myself
to be of maximum service to You and the people around me.
Help me to remain teachable, God. Teach me (again!) the lesson that, occasionally, it is possible that I may be wrong and remind me of the
freedom that I gain when I am able to promptly admit it and make amends where necessary. Help me to remember the difference between making amends and saying I'm sorry.
Help me to be a worker among workers, a friend among friends, and a drunk among drunks. Keep me from being a bleeding deacon, God, and help me to walk the path towards being an elder statesman. Keep me ever mindful that I cannot manage my own life. I don't want to be a saint, God, show me the way to seek you so that I may continue to grow
Keep me free of gossip, character assassination, and judgment. Remind me that although I have humbly asked, my character defects and shortcomings arise when I least expect them. Help me to walk with serendipity, to see good things in unexpected places and talents in unexpected people and give me the grace to tell them so. Help me to see that You love each of Your children, and that You do not need my opinion of them or suggestions on what they might deserve.
Help me to be willing to accept Your answer to my prayers, whether or not it is the answer that I thought I wanted. You know that I have trouble with acceptance sometimes, God, so there are times when You will need to help me to be willing to be willing. Show me how to walk through life with grace, dignity, and my head held high, carrying Your message and practicing these
principles in all my affairs.
And God, thank You for the people that You have put in my life. My family, of origin, and of AA. My sponsor, my sponsees, the people of my home group, the person who first reached out their hands to welcome me to the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. I know today, God, that I could not have walked these steps to get from where I was when I walked in the door to the person that I am today, if it were not for the blessings You have given me through Your precious children.
Thanks, God! anonymous
The Twelve Concepts (Short Form)
Concept 3: To insure effective leadership, we should endow each element of A.A.—the Conference, the General Service Board and it’s service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives—with a traditional “Right of Decision” AA Service Manual – pg 13
| Promises Editor: Sally S. email: bikersal@cfl.rr.com Please have any and all announcements, articles, personal stories, etc. into me by October 15, 2005 to be included in the November/December printing. Reminder: as to keep conformity, all celebrant info goes to Peter F. @ 446-8801 or peterflaherty@bellsouth.net. |