Recovery during the Holidays...

For many, this is a very difficult time.  Many of our families are broken and there is sickness, pain and trepidation involved in the anticipation.  We have a recovery family that can celebrate with us some very healthy new traditions.  There is a lot of fun going at some of our local meetings along with some of the best food ever!  Let us move forward with some good examples set before us.  St Nicholas for example made himself of service in secret!  He made the celebration of Christmas something special for folks that had no means of celebrating to the hilt like some families.  He secretly planned to give someone else a "prize" gift that they could have never truly expected in their circumstances.  We can do that.  We can plan a secret surprise for someone in need, or someone who has been especially kind to us during our insanities or someone right in front of us that is hurting more than ourselves.  We can make amends.   Honoring the true meaning of Christmas is celebrating that God did for us what we could NOT do for ourselves, He sent us a Savior and with Him comes PEACE, LOVE and JOY, acceptance and patience and kindness and long suffering....and FORGIVENESS!   Pay it forward is the best gift we can give.  God bless you during this time and GO TO A MEETING, and be of SERVICE somewhere! It's the best way to get out of our own head!  However< When it comes to our HEALTH?!?
 Save YOURSELF and lets NOT get Deadsies!

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Who can 'keep you company" during the hard parts?

FEELING OVERWHELMED? HOPELESS? Find a meeting!! NOW!


God,
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is;
not as I would have it;
trusting that you will make all things right
if I surrender to your will;
so that I may be reasonable happy in this life
and supremely happy with you forever in the next.
amen
reinhold niebuhr

There are always 2 roads to choose from, CHOOSE LIFE!

Narrow and difficult is the road that leads to life and few are they who find it.
Wide and easy is the path that leads to destruction and many are those who choose it!
Matthew 7:13 -14

Can we keep doing the same things and really SERIOUSLY expect a different result??

Insanity=doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result!

How many times do we do this kind of thing? Climbing into the vehicle empowered by alcohol thinking we are the best driver in the WORLD. How many DUI's or crashes will it take to learn that the poison that consumes us is a killer to us or other's? Maybe it's not alcohol you are powerless over. Is it money? How many overdraft charges or insufficient funds letters per month or year will it take to enlighten us to the fact there is a problem with the way we do business? Do we think the ATM is a slot machine? Do we stick our head in the sand writing checks we hope will be OK?

12 step recovery works if you work it. It meets the need with a miracle with whatever the venue is that has made our lives unmanageable! As we turn our lives and will over to HIM He can restore us to sanity so we can be a responsible, functioning member of society doing good to those we cross paths with! There is HOPE!

FEAR NOT! If God can care for the birds how much more can HE care for you?

                                                                                                photo by Candy!


 Know your Higher Power and say to yourself amongst so much uncertainty and anxiety, "I can't, but HE can...I think I'll let HIM!"

Turn it over, breathe and be grateful for all that we DO have right this minute.  It's gonna be OK , You are gonna make it! Sometimes, one minute at a time.  Don't over- think it to death!

Got a Resentment? It's like swallowing poison!

Got a resentment? Make a grateful list!

We have to do this to get peace. Our anger will soon turn to bitterness and resentment that can make us ill and steal our joy and peace. No matter what we have been dealt there is still room to be grateful to God for something. Lot's of things really come to mind once you set your pen to paper. Oh yeah, has someone hurt you deeply? This hurts too.... pray for them to get everything they need! Just do it....your miracle will come. Remember this: I can't but HE can...I think I'll let HIM! So in other words ::::: TURN IT OVER!

CRY OUT to Jesus....

Perhaps, we fear taking our very first steps into recovery because we are more afraid of what we cannot see that lies ahead....so does this mean we are clinging to our insanity because it is familiar?

Whitney Houston we dedicate this to you and your legacy....... Another celebrity teaches us they are not exempt from the deadly consequences of a toxic lifestyle......No matter how much fame and money we have the results will be the same on our body if we abuse it. Drug abuse or alcoholism kills men and women everyday. But why? Did Whitney have the "addiction gene"  ????

Were you born with the "addiction gene"?????

So, who did you inherit those beautiful brown eyes from? Or are they BLUE? Or that nose? Or is it THIQ? For those born with THIQ then "sobriety" is the only way free.

THIQ? = Tetrahyroisoquinoline. In a jist of a story, there is a recent scientific proven fact why some in the family have inherited the addiction gene and some have NOT! Basically, either you have it or you don't! Trouble is, the only thing that activates this inherited chemical THIQ component into full blown alcoholism or your drug of choice addiction is a one time consumption of you take your pick: Alcohol!


If you have this gene it explains why some people can drink sensibly and why some CANNOT and are powerless over alcohol or their drug of choice. It is the difference between the "addict" and the "normie". For some folks, it is just not their fault they are like this. But it is their responsibilty to grasp their own sobriety. They are the ones that can never touch it. Makes so much sense really. So no matter what, as Father Martin says, we must urge our addict into what works. A 12 Step Recovery and/or treatment of SOBRIETY !! This is why the struggling loving family member of the addict can say, "I didn't cause it, I can't control it, and I can't cure it!" No matter how hard we try! What this gives the family member, is a respect for the nature of the disease. We can respond with love and firm boundaries NOT to enable. Instead with our tools in place we can lovingly contribute to the person to hit their own bottom to choose LIFE and HELP via treatment. Thank goodness for Ala-Non and its community of support for the frustrated and exasperated family members of the alcoholic! It's going to be OK! ............

Nothing going to break hearts more than seeing the one you love using and determined to be "OUT THERE"




I can't, but HE can, so I think I'll let HIM..... handle it! And that is all I know.

Take a minute to have a little schooling on what Alcohol might do to us...

OR NOT!  :-/

Take a New View!

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DO you ever feel like; " My life is circling the drain!?!"

Take a new VIEW!   See life from a different perspective!  We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result!  We will keep getting the same thing if we keep doing what we have always done.    What are the people saying about me?  Ask your HIGHER POWER for guidance and direction.  Be willing to surrender to the process of renewal.  With GOD, ALL things are possible!  I can turn to HIM to be my help in time of trouble a little faster than I used too.  If it's NOT working, then it's something I am doing wrong!!  

Let HIS light shine on the dark secret places you have not yet surrendered and then hold on to your hat!  Its going to rock and you will kick yourself for not surrendering the secret thing far sooner!  Everything is going to be all right!  YOU are going to make it!  One step at a time, work the steps!  It works, if you work it!  Love never fails!


The 8 recovery principles that will work in any defect of character issue!

Study the 12 STEPS and FIND a meeting! We can't do this alone!

•Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction (OR COMPULSIONS) - that our lives had become unmanageable

•Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity

•Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God

•Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves

•Step 5 - Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs

•Step 6 - Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character

•Step 7 - Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings

•Step 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all

•Step 9 - Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others

•Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it

•Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out

•Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other folks like "US", and to practice these principles in all our affairsPlease click on a link for a step to see how that step has worked for other people.

Get connected with people JUST like YOU!  Meet with others who struggle with the same issue as you!
Find a meeting near your home!!