Step One Is Not A One-Time Only Step
Wishful thinking isn’t prayer. I have discovered limits, if I have worked Step One. No matter how passionately I may have hoped I could get away with it—not suffer consequences—I have admitted I am powerless over alcohol or drugs, no matter who is using them. When...
Blindsided by Suicide
To my fellow travelers: this month marks the tenth anniversary of my brother’s final decision; the incomprehensible decision to end his life. I wrote this poem three years ago and I’m sharing it now to honor my brother and to offer my heart to those experiencing...
My Heart Breaks For The Girls We Were
White wall with a thin white shelf. on the shelf sits a handmade wooden doll and to her right, handwritten text on the wall reads,“My heart breaks for the girls we were.The women we are are the girls we were.”Sara Z.
Step Three Remembers
Trust is something natural, normal—a starting place of innocence. It is part of who I am. A frightened baby is a child experiencing a kind of trauma—an experience of shock or pain. It is an injury in need of healing. Reassurance is like a gentle, soothing lotion being...
Si c’est que pour moi…
En travaillant ma 4ème étape, j’avais identifié une croyance toxique implantée en moi : « Si c’est que pour moi, la merde suffira »… Voilà le niveau de respect de soi auquel j’ai été habituée. Il y a 30 ans, j’avais écrit un poème imprégné de cette croyance comme si...
Le Villian Petit Canard
D’après mon conseiller spirituel, l’« ego » est la somme de nos croyances internes, enfouies dans notre âme. Elles sont devenues inconscientes : une sorte de réflexe pour le vilain petit canard que j’ai été conditionnée à être. Voilà pourquoi 4ème et 10ème étapes sont...
Step By Step
Requires four readers / actors / dancers from all walks of life:Traveler OneTraveler TwoTraveler ThreeTraveler Four Traveler One: Step One.Own it! - show your powerlessness and surrender!Wiggle that hinny. Shake until you’re tiny.Lay down on the floor, all spent and...
Transformations
Foremost in recent discussions about the structure of worldwide service in ACA have been questions that ask, “The Annual Business Conference (ABC), in all its facets, (something that traditionally has been an activity/event/obligation of the World Service Organization...
Half Sober
Gregarious daddy-Monster,the life of the party,addicted to cleverness,always with an answer. Hundreds of friends.Always involved with others.A social butterfly.Admired by everyone else. He achieved physical sobriety.Most of his spare timewas spent at meetings.He made...
Inner Critic
I hear her voice in my head: “God forbid a stranger should find fault with you.” Such an event would of course embarrass the whole family. I wonder how many generations have heard this — I had heard two — then repeated it when they became parents. “God forbid that a...