Distorted Thinking
Chapter 11, page 129The Loving Parent Guidebook(Part / paraphrasing) This book can help me address my distorted thinking. By naming my experience:(I realize that I am not my thoughts and my thoughts, at times, are not my reality,they are reactions and responses to...
Two Poems
#1 - RetroVision - With years now grown in numberMy thoughts are prone to wanderAmong all the harder momentsWhere my life has come to restTo view them with a softer sightTo weigh them with a wider mindTo wrap them in a warmer heartAnd finally to forgive myselfFor...
Guided Meditation
I’m on a path, with a stream on the right and woods on my left, listening to birdsong as I walk in tree-dappled sunlight. Here is a turtle on a log in the water, there is a butterfly among the flowers on the bank. I am at peace. My serenity increases with each...
You Know You’re Dysfunctional When:
Switching from green tea to hemlock seems like a healthier choice.You start choosing up sides only there’s no baseball diamond.Screaming, jeering people across from you aren’t waving pennants in soccer stadiums.Getting even no longer refers to balancing your...
Fifty Ways To Leave The (Dysfunctional) Game
(To the tune: “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”) When the crisis is impeding, I know my sponsor said,The answer is easy when logic isn’t dead.The White Knight’s walking forward and the Red Queen’s got her head,‘Cause there’s 50 ways to leave the game. He said he could...
Box Of Colors
We've all been given a box of colors. I remember that huge jumbo set, the one that had every shade under the sun, moon and stars. One day I remember trying to eat the Mango Tango, yes and again on another day lighting the Carnation Pink on fire.... I remember that day...
Grief Work
I've been in ACA since April 2021. Since this past January, I've been incarcerated as a Federal inmate in a low-security prison for a sex crime I felt I was powerless to avoid. Those words are in our BRB - "Some ACA's are in prison for the rest of their lives for a...
Generational Violence
Note to my fellow travelers: A significant and meaningful part of my healing journey involves confronting my abusers through my writing. Here is one such poem. Dear Great-Great Grand-Monster:I don’t know you.I never met you.I’m glad I never met you. But I’ve read some...
Step Two: A Loving Higher Power
Step Two: Came to Believe that a Power Accessible to Me Could Restore My Sanity (Clarity.) Concepts of Authority/God/Power were not “a loving father” for me in my dysfunctional family of origin! Far, far from it. One of the things that gave me hope when I...
The Bill Of Rights
An ACA version of the Bill of Rights has been released in fellowship review mode for one year, leading to ultimate conference approval after we receive comments from the fellowship and possible revisions. We on the Literature Committee understand that many meetings...