Those Blankety Blank Expectations – They Got Me Again!

stop the expectation buttonMy best friend just returned from almost a month in a foreign land. I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed her – probably almost as much as her partner has.

I’ve known that she would be returning about now – she deliberately didn’t give anyone except her partner and exact date and I honored that.

Sure enough she called the other day and we tentatively agreed to meet later that afternoon.

Right around noon she called again to tell me she was fading and was headed home for a nap.  I think I was polite enough, at least until I managed to hang up the phone. But you’d think I’d never had a serene moment in my life, given the language I used as soon as the phone turned off.


Oh wasn’t about to go buy a bottle of scotch or stop in at a nearby bar. Nor was I going to go steal the almost whole cigarette butt my neighbor had in an ashtray not far from where we do laundry (but I did notice I noticed it, twice). [click to continue…]

{ 3 comments }

A Drunk Walked Into A Bar…

Years ago someone sent me this story by email, saying it had appeared on a website.

However no website was named.

This is one of those ‘thinking’ stories.

You know, you tell it and at first you could cut the silence with a knife. Hopefully some light dawns.

A drunk was walking home one night, desperate, despondent, at her dark night of the soul moment.

Her Higher Power appears before her holding something. 

 ”What’s that?” the drunk inquires, squinting to see straight.

“This?” asks the HP “It’s sobriety.”

“Sobriety?!!! Is it for me?”

“Perhaps” said HP, “How much do you have?”

The drunk checked all of her pockets, her purse and after counting a small wad of bills, change, etc., replied  ”I only have about 20 dollars.”

HP looked at her and looked at the sobriety in Her hand,smiled and said, “You’re in luck, tonight sobriety costs 20 dollars.”

“But wait!” the drunk says, “If I give you this, I won’t have any gas for  my car.”

“You have a car?” HP thought a moment, then said, “Well then the price has just gone up to 20 dollars and a  car.”

“But if you take my car, how will I get to work?”

“Oh,” said HP, “you have a job…”

Maybe it wasn’t quite her darkest night of the soul!

What do you think?

Love, blessings and abundance,

Anne W. Powerfully Recovered

 

 

Image: Attribution Some rights reserved by qisur

 

{ 0 comments }

AA’s Rule 62 Stands Alone

Rule 62There’s a story about AA’s rather phenomenal growth in the 1940s. As might be expected from a group of recovered drunks they began to lay plans for bigger and better things ahead. As theymade plans they also began to develop rules.

One group, for instance said no alcohol at all. Another said no hard liquor. Yet another said beer was okay but nothing else.

It’s told that one group allowed gambling until… they were raided by the police.

In some areas some groups behaved more like rivals than not.

There were also plans for big and small hospitals to be run by AA members and in some cases AA groups. Which, of course, created ever more rules.

Can you imagine what it’s like when a bunch of AA members starts arguing about rules?

As you might imagine it soon became a mess and at least a few folks got drunk. People began to return to their Steps and what had gotten them sober in the first place. The dust was starting to settle when someone sent every group they could find a post card which said:

Rule 62: Don’t take yourself so darn seriously!

This is one of those AA stories I hope is true and I suspect it may be. In fact I may have read about it in AA Comes of Age* – the closest thing we’ve got to an official history of the organization.

I do know that when I get all unhappy and noisy about some change, inside a 12 Step Group or out, remembering Rule 62 tends to level me out.

How might Rule 62 work for you?

Love, blessings and abundance,

Anne W. Powerfully Recovered

Image: Attribution Some rights reserved by taberandrew

{ 4 comments }

What Will You Do For Fun?

What do I do for fun?I doubt if there’s a recovering addict that hasn’t at least thought “Geeze, how will I ever have fun again?”

Somehow we’ve associated fun with the drug or behavior we’ve become addicted to. It may even be part of our addiction.

And one truth is that I had a lot of fun with booze and enjoyed many of the cigarettes I finally let go of. I’ve heard much the same thing from many others.


It’s really not surprising we hardly know what to do with ourselves and our time when we begin recovery.

In the beginning of recovery

Usually at the start of our recovery much of the energy freed up letting go of our addiction is spent going to meetings. Then there’s the coffee klatches before and after. Many 12 Step groups also have parties, dances, talent shows and other get-togethers that provide some fun and in fact can get us started learning how to have fun without the substance and/or behavior. [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

What About Sponsorship?

Almost every newcomer to any 12 Step Fellowship is told to get a sponsor. Just what a sponsor is is often open to interpretation. Most, however, would probably agree that a sponsor is someone with some success in the program in question who works with the newcomer and helps them through the 12 Steps. Approached [...]

Read the full article →

Addicted to 12 Step Meetings?

In the comments to the post, Do You Need More Than One 12 Step Programs someone asked: Is is possible that people struggling with addictions, or those with addictive personalities, replace one addiction for another – such as replacing an addiction to alcohol, nicotine, drugs, etc. with many 12 step programs? It seems as though [...]

Read the full article →

Whitney Houston – Addiction and the Stars

Talk radio and social media were all a buzz wondering if Whitney Houston‘s death on February 11, 2012 at the age of 48. Was she, many asked, a drug addict?  Many others rushed in with an opinion one way or another. There also was some concern expressed about how to help someone who is obviously in [...]

Read the full article →

Minds Are Meant To Think Thoughts – Learning Meditation

Our 11th Step suggests meditation. In the beginning of my recovery and sporadically after that I tried over and over again to figure out how to meditate. I read lots of books, and listened to various people who tried, reading more than one book or listening to that teacher. No matter what I tried, meditation seemed to [...]

Read the full article →

A Short Survey About Powerfully Recovered! The Book

If you would take this short survey about Powerfully Recovered! the book I’d sure appreciate it. Love, blessings and abundance, Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tweet about it Subscribe to the comments on this post

Read the full article →

What Is Addiction Anyway?

Despite all the research into the causes and nature of addiction, we still don’t know much, not really. Sure, there are often chemical imbalances, or what we think are imbalances in the brains of those addicted to substances. And there is some evidence that there are similar imbalances with at least some of the behaviors [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries