Personal
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When the Signal Clears
Tonight the chair came in with something he’d drawn up, an analogy comparing our spiritual connection to a radio signal. Things can interfere with it, the volume can get turned up or down, and he had us drawing comparisons between that and the Big Book and the program. We also had a newcomer with…
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Always Working on It
Last night we were finishing up step five and moving into step six out of the twelve and twelve. I got called on to read, so I started the way I always do, my name is John, and I’m an alcoholic, and read from the middle of page sixty five. There’s a part that…
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Letting Go of Old Ideas
Tonight was our beginner’s meeting, the one we hold on Mondays for newcomers. The topic is usually kept simple, steps one, two, and three. The chair opened by having someone read the How It Works section, page fifty eight, and he singled out one sentence from it: Some of us have tried to hold…
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Lying, Denying, and Self Delusion
Tonight, the chair asked me to read, from the last paragraph of page twenty two to the middle of page twenty three. The passage about the alcoholic who goes back to drinking. If you ask why, he can offer any number of alibis. It compares the drinking to a man who complains of a…
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Two Paths: What I Shared With Tonight’s Newcomers
Tonight was a newcomer meeting, and we actually had a newcomer in the room, along with a handful of others still pretty new to the program. The chair had someone read from page twenty five, the section that opens by saying there is a solution, and it runs almost the whole page. One part…
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Sobriety First: What I Passed Along Tonight
Tonight’s meeting had a really solid topic. The chair read from page sixty two, the paragraph about selfishness and self-centeredness being the root of our problems, then followed it with the first line of the next paragraph, the one about how we think our problems are of our own making. After that he asked…
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Bite Sized Chunks of a Bigger Idea
Tonight’s meeting topic came from the chair, who pulled it from the chapter The Family Afterwards, though really he was pointing us toward the three short sayings that show up at the end of that chapter and get repeated all through the rooms. First things first, easy does it, and live and let live.…
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Returning the Sledgehammer
Tonight’s meeting topic was forgiveness. The chair opened with an image that stuck with me: returning the sledgehammer. Letting go of the thing you’ve been using to destroy your own life, and forgiving the people and situations that handed it to you in the first place. When my turn came around, somebody had already…
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Wants to Run the Whole Show
Tonight was a newcomers meeting, and the chair had someone read from the Big Book, the passage on page sixty and sixty one about the actor who wants to run the whole show, forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery, and the rest of the players in his own way. It’s…
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Recovery Gave Me Back to Myself
Tonight’s topic was recovery in general, one the chair opened by sharing a bit of his own experience before turning it over to the room. It’s a broad topic, but a good one, especially for newcomers still figuring out that this isn’t just about not drinking. A lot of people spoke up tonight who…