12 Steps in 12 Months

National Recovery Month - Staying Sober

September is NATIONAL RECOVERY MONTH, but today I wonder if it should be called NATIONAL RELAPSE MONTH with the people I know relapsing.  I have never been so busy with relapsing people that had good sobriety!!  Remember - FIVE ALIVE - 1) Pray for HELP (His Ever Loving Presence) in the morning. 2) Go to a meeting, 3) Read some recovery literature like the AA Big Book or NA Basic Text, 4) Call your sponsor and tell the TRUTH, and 5) Say a prayer at night (after 10pm) thanking God for a good sober day. YOU WILL NOT RELAPSE, GUARANTEED!!!!

 

Remembering the Worst

Voices and Faces of Recovery

The documentary "Anonymous People" takes its message from the history of treating addiction and the gay population's response to HIV and AIDS.  Voices and Faces of Recovery will transform addiction treatment.      http://www.facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/

Spice and Tragedy

The following link Teen Dies After One Hit of Synthetic Pot is the story of a great all-American family and a son who went to rehab for substance abuse treatment and came out doing really well.  Then, with 8 months of sobriety, took one hit of Spice, or synthetic marijuana, and fell into a coma and died.  The family was loving, faith-based, and their loss is a tragedy.  It is a message, a reminder, and a foreshadowing of what can happen.  It is even more sad because many who will say "That's too bad, that sucks, but that won't happen to me" ...but sadly, for some, it will. 

Karma

The Great Fact

"The Great Fact"

"We realize we know only a little.
God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. 
Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick.
The answers will come, if you own house is in order.
"But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got.
See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others.
This is the great fact for us." - Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 164


There are days in recovery that I still feel broken...powerless over everything and that life still seems unmanageable.  I have come to believe that my ego wants this sense of drama so that I can keep the focus on the past in regret or on the future in fear.  When I stay in the present, my ego has no control - no stake.  I can be at peace.