I guess you could say I’m more like John the Baptist in my approach -Fiery, even ornery at times 🤷‍♂️

If not drinking twer’ all there was to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, we’d be passing out fliers or pamphlets instead of a book of 560 some -odd pages.

I’ve been hearing things and alcoholics and anonymous that sounds great-things that will get yourself killed.

•This is a selfish program*

•If you’re gonna be miserable -you might as well go out and get drunk**

•If somebody were to try and shove this program down my throat I’d spit it right back out***

•God don’t make junk****

•Alcoholics Anonymous guarantees fairness*****

•JUST DON’T DRINK******

•This is a simple program for complicated people*******

•Nothing going on that a drink or a drug won’t make worse********

•Alcoholics Anonymous is a perfect program for imperfect people (Church)*********

•”I came into Alcoholics Anonymous to save my ass -not my soul” “Alcoholics Anonymous is for sick people trying to get better -not for bad people trying to get good”**********

*As far as I know, nothing God has ever asked me to do -or ever will is selfish

**Tell that to the parents of the person who got ran over by an alcoholic (in AA) who took that advice

***Rebellion, defiance… These are not spiritual principles -and therefore, they are not something to be touted around like some badge o’ courage. Rebellion and defiance are the code of the alcoholic in their cups -in these rooms however, said philosophy can get you killed. A certain degree of conformity, and most certainly self-discipline, are the principles we strive for in these rooms.

****Well it’s true the God doesn’t make junk -He did give us a free will. And as bill Wilson points out, few people ever made a more of a mess out by defying God (and His principles) than the Alcoholic who is -selfish, and self-centered in the extreme.

“Who I am is God’s gift to me -What I make of myself is my gift to God!”

*****Alcoholics Anonymous doesn’t guarantee fairness, it guarantees equality -as much as is humanly possible. If life were fair half the principles of the program would go in the trash

******If not drinking twer’ all there was to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, we’d be passing out fliers or pamphlets instead of a book of 560 some -odd pages -“we” could all just show up to a meeting and then go home

*******True -but only in some cases. What’s simple for some -is complicated for others 🤔 What’s complicated for some -is quite simple for others

********One of the best -and truest things I ever heard in an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting

*********ABSOLUTELY!!!!

**********Alcoholics Anonymous doesn’t discourage us from becoming better human beings -It does 8n fact state that one of the essentials for recovery, and a quality life -is that of character-building.

Some people manage to get sober going to church -finding religion… Some people manage to get sober and Alcoholics Anonymous. What’s anonymous. Now in both instances the opposite is also true. People fail! Why is that:

•Alcoholics Anonymous is the perfect vehicle for yeah it’s difficult for people getting sober-it has all of the tentacles necessary… Church, not so much. They both however contain the most vital ingredient to recovery and that is God and God’s Grace.

•The reason people neither get sober in church or in Alcoholics Anonymous is because they’re closed, defiant, rebellious. No one can thrive in an environment if they are closed to it. That’s why we tell the alcoholic just to keep coming back… “love” -sometimes things do sink-in if the door (to the Alcoholic mind) is able to open ever so slightly (where did that word creep in from “love”).

•I’ve always found it very interesting (tellkng) that Jesus used words and teaching as the vehicle for… “CHANGE”. A reconfiguration or rebooting of sorts! God saw that we needed to change (Although he did regret making clothes; because clothes have pockets; and the purpose of pockets is to have them filled with something -“change” noooo, not that kind 😄). As I said before, it appears that are life long mission is to undo what was done, to unlearn what we have learned, to revert back to being who we were before the world, satan sunk their claws into us.

•Separating the wheat from the chaff in Alcoholics Anonymous

•People in the groups at the hospital would get frustrated with get frustrated with me for some of the seemingly more obvious or basic things I would share in the meeting. I’d tell them, when you go out on a camping trip (hike) with your kids, do you go at your pace or at theirs? You always have to start with the least knowledgeable person in the group.*

*Sometimes the most profound thing that can come out of a person’s mouth is a simple reminder of something that has already been said (many times before) 🤷‍♂️

Connecting the dots

Nothing will ensure freedom from alcohol so much as vigorous work with another alcoholic. Nothing will ensure our failure so much as an intolerance for spiritual principles. These things are all over the book but they’re not necessarily connected side-by-side.

I was the very thing this book was written for an for analytics anonymous and yet so little did I understand. My life as an alcoholic was like reading a line from the book of Alcoholics Anonymous and then skipping 2 or 3 – Alcoholics Anonymous’s book filled in the missing lines. As it was so aptly stated in the movie “Blade Runner” “I am the business”

AA It’s not about fairness it’s about equality. Equality is the foundation of which the fertilizer of Strife and struggle (unfairness-life on life’s terms) allows the Alcoholic to flourish under the sunlight of God’s Spiritual principles!

You probably can’t scare an Alcoholic sober but you may be able to scare them into asking for help.

Jesus could have used various tactics and scared the hell out of people all around the globe and turned them into believers out of fear alone -but instead he chose to do so through 💘 🙏

The longer you wait to ask for forgiveness; or to make amends; or to expiate…

When bonds have been broken at an early stage of life… The individuals oftentimes must reestablish those bonds from a different place.

If we have to resort to screwing each other over in order to survive -then maybe it’s best we die -in God’s Graces… and with a clear conscience.

Don’t tread on me!

Nobody can harm our relationship with God or our sense of dignity (based upon how we conduct our selves) only we can do harm to these two most hallowed of grounds -in the criminal world this is something long forgotten, or dismissed. Such examples of humanity are the epitome of me of one’s placement of importance on the material, as well as physical survival, rather than that of the spiritual!

In order to pursue the material in an ungodly fashion -one must tread upon one’s own spirit. It’s better to be poor in spirit -than to be rich! I can’t tell you all the times I did harm to my spirit in the pursuit of people, things… I think the thing that saved me from being drunk, from relapsing was simply my motivations – I don’t believe my intentions were ever malicious although my responses (fear-based) in the face of continued -at some sort of normal life; to find a life very different from the one I experienced in my childhood -I think God was both extremely understanding and patient with my plight. And I who normally hate physical pain in… seemed to apparently endure emotional pain and spiritual pain more readily… Was also able to endure.

When the going gets tough (Billy Ocean)

Some people make a decision one time and it’s it; Others seemingly have to start each day anew with a renewed commitment to a decision made prior. I remember after a couple years in Alcoholics Anonymous being confronted with the choice of continuing to move forward sober -or going back to where I came from. I had to take moments and think about this very carefully and very seriously – During those times in my life when sobriety wasn’t working out the way I had hoped it would. You see people wanted more than what I had to give.. It left me lonely call, rejected, wanting more than what they were willing to give because because they apparently felt they weren’t getting what they wanted sufficiently.

I tell people in the program “Life sometimes sucks but sobriety has always been wonderful”. I tell them a lot of times people in the program get life confused with sobriety – That while life sometimes sucks, sobriety is the most wonderful gift I’ve ever been given. If I throw it away come I throw away everything that’s good about my life eventually. Maybe that’s why some people with long term sobriety choose suicide over relapse -they refuse to throw away the one thing that’s good about their lives. If that makes sense.

I was told many years ago that “suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”

There is a bit of a difference between instigating an incident in the hopes of discovering is discovering something about a person… God knows I didn’t that many times in my childhood and adult life… And responding to a jab by using (old) behaviors to protect ourselves, keep people at a distance. And while the outcomes may be the same, I believe there is a difference between using old behaviors based upon who a person used to be 🤔 versus who they are now -you see, many people have very long memories. And very limited capabilities when it comes to judging character.*

People tend to veer on the side of car should I get that.

I went to the volunteer fire station to apply for a position, the captain there told me “I don’t care what you did before -I care about what you do now” -the most wonderful words I’ve ever heard out of the mouth of a human being in my life.

Would you rather have a crook with a sterling reference or reformed criminal with a bad reference?

Probably the reason so many people have difficulty recognizing or trusting change in others in others it’s because of the difficulty with which they themselves find in changing for the better.*

If you want to be a trustworthy person -then do trustworthy things 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️

If you want to effect your esteem -then do esteemable things 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️

If you want people to be honest with you -show them you have the ability to hear it 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️

For me, these writings seem to get pulled right out of the air above me. It’s as if they are everywhere. The vast majority of these writings over the past 5.5 weeks 95-98%, are writings from the past which have been misplaced- And with the exception of perhaps a handful -these have all come to me through memory. Probably 12 to 1500 between yesterday July 6th and August 18th.

Several months ago I opened up a spotify account and with about a week I had 1200 of my favorite songs from memory in my library -Not bad for a man who continually forgets what he ate for supper, where he put the electric bill he received in the mail a half hour earlier… to get milk at the grocery store…

When a person can put feelings associated with past events more or less behind them and have their feelings deal with current defense in defense only….. I think I’m getting there…