Service

It’s funny, the ideas that people get about the relationship between loving others and loving themselves. The conventional wisdom is that learning to love oneself is essential to loving others. Yet 12 step programs insist that we must place others ahead of ourselves in order to recover. I was at a meeting the other night where [...]

and yet so stupid in others.  I sometimes wonder if it isn’t actually a function of intelligence to be able to block out information when we choose to; if you don’t actually have to be really smart to have a really effective denial mechanism. A certain amount of mental power must be involved in forcing [...]

Hey! Are any of you going to the CMA World Service Conference in Park City in a couple of weeks?  I totally want to go.  CMA is super new here in Boise.  There have been meetings in Twin Falls, ID for awhile now and people have tried to start meetings here before as long as [...]

It’s been a very busy week in terms of working with others. Friday I had the day off work and ended up going with my friend Robert on a 12th Step call. We drove from Boise to Eagle and picked this man up, drove back to Boise, and spent the rest of the day with [...]

There are parts of my experience at the end of my use and in the early part of my recovery that I have been hard pressed to imagine would ever be an asset; something I could share to help another addict recover, chief among them my relationship with Dan, the Imaginary Future Ex-Husband (IFX). Dan’s [...]

Tonight I witnessed one of the greatest acts of faith and willingness I’ve ever seen in someone new to recovery. I don’t even know what word describes how I feel. Fulfilled. Grateful. Sruprised, Happy. Blessed. I don’t know. Full. I feel full. I’ve been spending more time with the Cheerleader lately and I’ve been doing it [...]

I didn’t have to work yesterday and I got up pretty early with the intention of getting a bunch of chores done. By 10 o’clock I realized that unless I got up and left the house for awhile that nothing was going to get done, There is a Sunday morning meeting here that is very [...]

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 »