I recently attended the funeral of a friend who lived a life filled with giving unconditionally to those in need, often in desperate situations. His family found many copies of this poem in his home. I had never heard it before and found its message piercing, moving, powerful. It offers a perspective on the valueContinue reading “What Is Priceless About Our Struggles – Poem You, Too, Must Weep By Anonymous”
Category Archives: Heroic
Gratitude & More Fully Participating In Our Lives – Atlas Of The Heart – Brené Brown
If you go to p.107 of the Twelve & Twelve, Bill W makes this provocative claim: “Life is not be endured or mastered” Although he doesn’t attempt to answer the question of what life is; I’ve found the words “more fully participated in” an answer that seems consistent with what the NOW of life unceasinglyContinue reading “Gratitude & More Fully Participating In Our Lives – Atlas Of The Heart – Brené Brown”
The Fellowship Of The Weak – Henri Nouwen Daily Meditation November 7th
Many of us have an experience of finding how the weakness of our alcoholism becomes a gateway to a profound belonging in the A.A. Fellowship. In this fellowship, we find fellow sufferers who are committed, one day at a time, to sobriety , healing and wholeness. We find that our weakness, which before had separatedContinue reading “The Fellowship Of The Weak – Henri Nouwen Daily Meditation November 7th”
Live Your Wounds & Befriend Your Pain – Henri Nouwen Daily Meditation October 9th, 10th
I love these two short daily meditations from Henri Nouwen. I see so much of what drives my addiction as an unhealthy response and relationship to pain. I have been a pain killer and am now learning, with the help of a Higher Power and my A.A. community, to be a pain healer. That transformingContinue reading “Live Your Wounds & Befriend Your Pain – Henri Nouwen Daily Meditation October 9th, 10th”
Toxic Shame, Character Defects & Out Of Proportion Reactions
A few weeks ago, we read the short reflection entitled ‘The Trance Of Unworthiness’. That reading is a poignant reminder of how many of us lose proportion and consciousness when we’re triggered and believe we’re under attack by this toxic shame and painful experience of our unworthiness. We seem to shut down and enter intoContinue reading “Toxic Shame, Character Defects & Out Of Proportion Reactions”
Shame And The Meaning Of Being Human – Shame & Guilt By Ernest Kurtz
AA teaches that there is a wholeness in limitation. This understanding echoes an ancient tradition of wisdom, which saw being human as being caught in the middle, containing a contradiction. To be human, according to this tradition, means to sustain the tension of always being pulled in two opposite directions: to be more than humanContinue reading “Shame And The Meaning Of Being Human – Shame & Guilt By Ernest Kurtz”
An Alcoholic and a Child of God – Grapevine Article July 1995 By Rick D.
STEP 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” This would have been a perfect epitaph for my headstone if my drinking had killed me before I got to AA. It was something I was constantly told; it was a feeling about myself that, although I didn’t likeContinue reading “An Alcoholic and a Child of God – Grapevine Article July 1995 By Rick D.”
Ending Lifelong Exile With Rigorous Honesty – Mary Karr
Mary Karr is an award-winning poet and best-selling memoirist who has written extensively about her alcoholism and recovery. She was interviewed with 24 years of sobriety and this article was extracted from that interview. She is the author of the critically-acclaimed and New York Time’s best-selling memoirs The Liars’ Club, Cherry, and Lit, as well as the Art of Memoir,Continue reading “Ending Lifelong Exile With Rigorous Honesty – Mary Karr”
By Defiance – Grapevine Article August 1948 By Anonymous
I love this brief article’s insight into learning to use our defiance for the greater good consistent with our 3rd step decision and prayer. It may be a great way of helping us internalize what can happen when we learn, with God, to love our internal enemies – those parts of us that seem toContinue reading “By Defiance – Grapevine Article August 1948 By Anonymous”
We Are All Beginners To Our Next Step – Tommy Rosen Author of Recovery 2.0
We are all beginners to our next step.” – Guruprem No matter where we fall on the spectrum of experience in life, we share something with every other human being. We are all beginners to our next step. We cannot know what it is to be at our next step because we have not beenContinue reading “We Are All Beginners To Our Next Step – Tommy Rosen Author of Recovery 2.0”