Change and d...d....d....discipline

 

Been reading, hearing,  discussing and meditating on the subject of change and d...d...d... discipline. Hard for me to even say the discipline word. Just don't like the mere thought of:

1. not doing what I want to do

2. doing what I don't want to do

There was a guy in our wanderer's group that I attended many years ago that said repeatedly- Step six is the most difficult step in the program- because its all about change.

The "dash" in Step 1

 

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.


I was reading about the first step the other day and I came across something about the first step that I hadn't noticed for over 20 years. The writer basically asked, "did anyone ever notice that there is a dash in the first step, separating the idea of powerlessness from unmanageability?"

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A letter from our arch enemy-Addiction

 


A fellow member handed me this letter the other day:

Dear friend,

I have come to visit you once again. I love to see you suffer mentally ,physically, spiritually and socially. I want to make you restless so you can never relax. I want to make you agitated and irritable so everything and everybody makes you uncomfortable. I want you...

A powerful spiritual prayer from Bill K...

I recently attended an AA Men's retreat  that really lifted my spirits. (Arlington AA Men's retreat-link to the retreat at the bottom of this post)

At the retreat Bill K.shared the following with the group. After listening to the prayer, everyone almost in unison, asked if Bill would send it to us all. You will probably understand why after you read the prayer.

from Bill K......

Oftentimes I begin by repeating "Dear Lord" over and over until my mind quiets and my heart opens up, then as slowly as I can, I begin to recite my prayer, the slower I pray the more I find my prayer being drawn from my heart and not just my mind.  Often I get lost between the 3rd Step and 7th Step prayers but not letting it bother me that I am falling "off track" as I am really just trying to commune and hang out with God.

So...here's my expanded version of the 3rd step prayer....

Can we help someone hit bottom and surrender?

How many times have we wondered "what can I possibly do to help this person stop drinking?" In AA we become well trained in helping a suffering alcoholic stop drinking. We share our stories, we take them to meetings, we talk to them on the phone, we pray for them, we help them work the steps, we teach them the tools of the program of recovery.....

But sometimes all these things do not stop the person from continuing to drink. I have had many, many discussions with my friends in recovery that go along the lines,  "What else can we do for (fill in the name)" to help them?  We try to figure out different approaches, suggest different tools, and many times just leave in confusion and frustration with no new ideas.

We sometimes hear from  family members along these lines, " Why cant they stop drinking?  They are going to AA, they want stop, they are killing themselves, our lives are all miserable. What is this all about?"  We struggle with the answers to these reasonable questions...

Sober Fishing- over 100 pounds of walleye- and some good ol fun.

Its really good to do things sober that you thought could only be done with cases of booze. We just returned from a 3 day trip to Lake Erie- and we had a blast-doing it-... sober. Sure we battled some 4-6 foot waves, some nasty rock and rolling from the boat- a little early morning Lake Erie showers- But we also enjoyed;

Catching 40+ walleye-, great food, some great stories (maybe a little exaggeration), and some good solid fellowship - watched a little bit of basketball and sportscenter on the tube in the evenings,  good strong coffee at 5am, some solid bacon and eggs and omlettes for breakfast- excellent evening meals at the local supper club....

No hangovers, no puking on the boat, no arguments, no "ill just stay in the room today".
 

From left to right; Rick H, John, Jim M. his brother Larry.

We are not a glum lot!

We are not a glum lot- Recovery can be a fun place

I've been hearing a lot around the meetings and in the media about a couple of young people who opened up an establishment called : "The Other Side" in Crystal Lake, IL.  The basic idea is this is a place for young people (hopefully they mean young at heart also) to go to a safe, sober place to mingle, play darts, pool, dance, listen to music, live bands, etc.

The attached links provide much more specifics on the place.


http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=resources&id=9064302


http://crystallake.patch.com/articles/crystal-lake-s-sober-bar-prepares-for-saturday-grand-opening

Has anyone gone there?  If so, reactions?

Anyone planning to go?

Thoughts on the concept?

Rick H.

My daughter Stephanie-and the "angel"

                                                    Jared proposes to Steph



I have heard countless stories of people in meetings tell of incidents where someone said something they really needed to hear, gave them a ride they desperately needed, or helped in a many number of different ways. This happens regularly around AA, but this particular article is directed to the people who stay anonymous to the one who receives their help.

Their description typically goes like this- The person who helped me -  I had never seen them before and have never seen them again. I wonder sometimes  if they were an angel sent by God?

So, as you may have guessed, I had one of these exact things happen about 20 or so years ago at a meeting. Went like this:

My Friend Robbie

This is Rob. I visit him regularly - in the winter we watched movies and ate pizza. But now it's spring. So on this day in May we sat in the parking lot and had a concert - the best of Rock and Roll from the 70's and 80's. Jethro Tull, Rolling Stones, Santana... Rob was pumping his fist - getting to the beat.

Then when it was over and we were hungry. So off to Steak and Shake for a shake- oh, but then we saw the burgers,  and after a short hesitation -double cheeseburgers and fries for both of us!

Some time ago, I wrote an article about an experience Rob and I had at a retreat and the link below will get you to that story.

Knowing Rob is one of the greatest gifts in my life.


https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-8iiIu25F1-X1dzR0JnZ09hZnM/edit?usp=sharing

(Many of the stories I have written and published over the years like this one can be found in the Pages section of the blog- a tab named "Rick H. - Published AA Recovery Articles".)

Greetings!

                                           The start to the journey of our Blog



So my blog Under Construction and in Recovery has gone "live" as of today.  I will be posting stories, news, pictures, experiences, etc., about my journey of recovery.

However, that is only one piece of this blog. The beauty of it for all will be if you share your thoughts, ideas, comments, etc., on the posted items. This is where we will all see the power of "WE".

Detailed instructions on how to comment can be found by clicking on the link in the Pages section labeled: "Introduction and instructions on using the blog". Other information about recovery and me can also been found in the Pages section.

This is very exciting to me since there are so many times that I see and hear something really interesting, provoking, insightful, challenging,  in a meeting, or a book....and I so much want to hear what many other people think of the subject at hand.

So after years of people (like my kids) hearing this and saying,  "you should create a blog" - and my immediate resistance - (I don't know what a blog is and I don't want to know) -  I finally have seen the potential... well that's how most things go for me- takes some time  for change to kick in!

So here we go!