Self-Care
There was one thing I wanted to share yesterday but God had other ideas. I found myself experiencing deep grief yesterday after hearing a person in the morning Annual World Convention session share that her mom resented her very existence. I felt the exact same way...
Healthy Boundaries
I feel like I’m just learning to find healthy boundaries within myself. Recognizing the inner critical voice was pretty straightforward. It has been loud for a very long time. At first, when I heard it, I would try to demand it be silent or go away. Now I have come to...
Waking Up To ACA Daily Meditation
I often wake up anxious. My eyes pop open and my heart rate increases. Not because I'm in immediate danger or late for work. But because after growing up in an alcoholic home, my fragile nervous system is set to "High Alert". My survival instinct is programmed for any...
Measure Of Loss
Step Five: We admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our childhood abandonment. They say the difference between what you got and what you could have received is the measure of loss. Here’s what could have been: My...
Literature Is Truly A Worldwide Affair
In 2020, WSO established an International Literature Scholarship Fund, which currently has over $8,000 contributed. The purpose of the fund is to help countries around the world obtain literature. One example is South Africa, which was unable to purchase literature...
Survey Results Support Book Price Increases
A poll of ACA members that was placed in the March 1 issue of The Traveler asked these questions: WSO is considering an increase for ACA book prices due to substantial increases in printing and distribution costs. Have you heard about this? Would you rather see...
Waiting In Darkness: Discovering the True Self
She is impatient. She is alone. She has been counting the minutes, the hours, the decades for him to return. He never comes. No one ever comes. Yes, people have passed by and dropped in for a spell. They have idle chatter and intertwine their lives. There is...
Film Review: West Side Story
I was in Junior High School in 1961, when the first film version of West Side Story was released. I recall my school chorus sang “Tonight, Tonight” for an audience of admiring families. Most of us had not been touched by first love, to say nothing of gang wars,...
Worthy
To my fellow travelers: My name is Tom. My pen name is Healing Heart Warrior. I am an adult child of domestic violence and alcohol abuse (and other dysfunctional behaviors). I’ve been in ACA for 2½ years. I’ve been recovering in various groups and in therapy for over...
Loathing To Loving
I work at a magazine, and the first issue went to press in February 2017, five years ago. The theme of that issue was love, as it is every February. Oh, I’ve had loads to say on the topic! I’ve written about loving my husband and children, loving our lives in Lagos,...