12th step

Whatever 12 step program (or programs) we come from, we are a fellowship; “an elite group of experienced people who work together as peers”*, sharing our experience, strength, and hope with each other in the pursuit of a solution to our common problem and to help others to recover. My sponsor/mentor/adviser/friend, a man who has been [...]

In the late 80s and early 90s they were not an uncommon site along the freeways leaving downtown Los Angeles; huge condo projects festooned with banners that read “If you lived here you’d be home now.” When the topic was brought up at a meeting, what are you doing today for your recovery, it’s [...]

You may have noticed a link at the bottom of my sidebar for Me Not Meth -a project of the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. I’m giving them an extra plug here because they bribed me with a groovy t-shirt. Yes. I’m cheap. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last couple of days I’ve occupied my spare time building a custom search engine using Google’s search service.  You’ll find it at the top of my sidebar.  I have painstakingly included every single blog listed on the Top 100 Sober Blogs to be the exclusive sites searched for results on this engine. [...]

Tommy: Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour? Hedwig: No, but I… I love his work. John Cameron Mitchell, Hedwig and the Angry Inch I don’t want to make this about religion because it isn’t about religion. It’s about the same thing everything else here is about. Me. It’s what it [...]

As much as I hate cross talk in a meeting there are times when sharing what needs to be shared and not cross talking seems almost impossible. Side conversations are annoying, too, but often less so. I’m afraid I participated in both yesterday. Actually I managed the cross-talk thing more successfully. [...]

“School and work are fine - and that is what we do between meetings” Karl M., Covina, CA “Why do we have to listen to the same people tell the same stories at every meeting?”  Norman leaned over and asked me that at a meeting last night.  He’s right, of course.  We hear the same people share [...]

“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure; having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.” Timothy 2;19 If the meeting I was at last night was the first AA meeting I had ever been to, I am quite sure I would have ran out the back door and never returned. Perhaps I should lower my [...]

First of all, thank God for the steps! I wouldn’t be able to tell this story without them. I wouldn’t because I would be trapped in the story; sucked in to the familiar familial drama of the tree from which this nut fell. Last Friday night I had dinner with my sister and her two [...]

How could we make amends? So it’s one more round for experience And I’m on the road again And it’s going to take some time this time. -Carole King I am so relieved to finally have this chapter over with. Well, this part anyway. My relationship with the Department of Corrections is far from over, but the big [...]

Zach is intelligent, charming, good looking, cool - and he knows it. Young people from the end of the fabric he’s cut from have these shiny Tyvek exteriors reinforced by all the self confidence and self esteem that money can buy. I’m not really sure how it happened but I recently became [...]

“You will be bound to them with new and wonderful ties, for you will escape disaster together and you will commence shoulder to shoulder your common journey. Then you will know what it means to give of yourself that others may survive and rediscover life.” Alcoholics Anonymous, page 152-3 It is very strange to suddenly have [...]