What If Pressure Isn’t Punishment? – Take The 12 Blog May 2026 By Rick W.

There’s a moment in recovery where life starts pressing in from every side and it feels like everything is falling apart. The relationship is strained. The finances are tight.The emotions are raw. The character defects are impossible to ignore. The loneliness feels louder now that the noise of alcohol, chaos, or compulsions has been turned down. And somewhereContinue reading “What If Pressure Isn’t Punishment? – Take The 12 Blog May 2026 By Rick W.”

Money – Before And After – As Bill Sees It #177

In our drinking time, we acted as if the money supply were inexhaustible, though between binges we’d sometimes go to the other extreme and become miserly. Without realizing it, we were just accumulating funds for the next spree. Money was the symbol of pleasure and self-importance. As our drinking became worse, money was only anContinue reading “Money – Before And After – As Bill Sees It #177”

Now I Am Enough – Recovery Poem By Damon E December 2008

I love this short poem my friend Damon shared with me yesterday. I also love the Big Book’s variety in describing a Higher Power … unsuspected inner resource’ ( BBp.567/568) , ‘a position of neutrality’ (BB p.85)… even as ‘a new found Friend (BB p.13). Allen Berger in his writing and talks has shared theContinue reading “Now I Am Enough – Recovery Poem By Damon E December 2008”

The Gift Of Joy Within – Each Day A New Beginning June 28th

Joy fixes us to eternity and pain fixes us to time. But desire and fear hold us in bondage to time, and detachment breaks the bond. —Simone Weil We live both in the material realm and the spiritual. In our material dimension we seek material pleasures, inherent in which is pain. Our human emotions areContinue reading “The Gift Of Joy Within – Each Day A New Beginning June 28th”

Practicing The Twelve Steps And Finding Real Freedom – Epilogue ‘The Fix’ By Ian Morgan Cron

We’re on this earth to learn how to “bear the beams of love,” as William Blake wrote, to lean into the Spirit, to avail ourselves of healing, to ease the burdens of others, and not rely on overeating, drinking, drugging, watching porn, compulsively controlling people, or any other repetitive, self-medicating behaviors to escape reality andContinue reading “Practicing The Twelve Steps And Finding Real Freedom – Epilogue ‘The Fix’ By Ian Morgan Cron”

Practicing Surrender – Extract From Progloue/Epilogue Of Surrender To Love By David Benner

How does surrender address the fundamental reality of ‘lack of power, that was our dilemma’ (BB p.45) ? What is the dynamic between the surrender of offering myself or abandoning myself and finding who I really am … my true self … distinguishing the true from the false ? Is it possible that to “thineContinue reading “Practicing Surrender – Extract From Progloue/Epilogue Of Surrender To Love By David Benner”

We Are Survivors – Touchstones Meditation June 14th

The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt. — Max Lerner When we consider all the troubles and crises in our lives and all the scrapes we’ve gotten into, we might feel overwhelmed. With what we have gone through, it seemsContinue reading “We Are Survivors – Touchstones Meditation June 14th”

Changing Motives – Just For Today June 10th

As we examine our beliefs, our actions, and our motives in recovery, we’ll find that sometimes we do things for the wrong reasons. In our early recovery, we may have spent a great deal of money and time on people, wanting only for them to like us. Later on, we may find that we stillContinue reading “Changing Motives – Just For Today June 10th”

Using Written Dialogue To Improve Conscious Contact With Your Higher Power – Video By Robert Falconer

In our group meditation, we refer to mindfulness as this ‘wise companion’ with our goal not being to become great meditators but rather to experience this Presence in every aspect of our lives. How do we come to recognize and know this wise companion? Certainly through prayer and meditation but this article explores another pathContinue reading “Using Written Dialogue To Improve Conscious Contact With Your Higher Power – Video By Robert Falconer”

Willingness To Rely On God – Extract 7th Step Chapter ‘Drop The Rock’

This extract from the book ‘Drop The Rock’ provides a practical application of the 7th Step Prayer from page 76 of the Big Book: “My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which standsContinue reading “Willingness To Rely On God – Extract 7th Step Chapter ‘Drop The Rock’”