Walk Softly & Carry a Big Book

Thursday, February 27, 2014

ManyFaces1Voice & The Anonymous People Film

This is going to be so much fun! thank about getting a group of folks together, have dinner, popcorn and sit and watch this film. It's all day (on demand) and FREE for one day--this Sat March 1st. You're goig to want to watch it and its better watching it with friends.

ManyFaces1Voice & The Anonymous People Film: "On March 1st, the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, a founding partner of the ManyFaces1Voice call-to-action campaign, will host a free online stream of The Anonymous People via the Hazelden Social Community: www.hazelden.org/social (You must join the online community to watch, but joining is free).

On that day, people from all over the world will watch The Anonymous People, which will be accessible for online streaming for 24 hours (12AM to 11:59PM EST on 3/1/14). As an added bonus, the film’s director, Greg Williams, and other key subjects from the film, including Hazelden’s William Cope Moyers, will have a dialogue about recovery advocacy during a live chat that begins at 5 p.m. EST"

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Sunday, February 9, 2014

(36) InsideOUT Writers

If you are not a member of FaceBook I apologize for linking to this--but it is such a great endeavor. This is young people who have been incarcerated using writing to help help themselves and reaching out to others. I love it. That is how the book "Young, sober, & Free" was written--a group of young people in recovery getting together and deciding what needs to be in their book. In the forward we quote a judge who always used to say "I ain't Preaching..." because he didn't thinking preaching to those before him would ever help. Today in many 12 step programs they have a saying "reach out, don't preach out." and young writers reaching out to other kids who need guidance--well, there is nothing better.

(36) InsideOUT Writers:

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Monday, December 2, 2013

Celebrate #GivingTuesday |

After the insanity of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the upcoming Broke Wednesday--we need a break. The United Nations foundation started a great counter to this--called Giving Tuesday.

Although those in recovery are already known for being particularly giving, its nice to see a day set aside for this amid the holiday commercialism. Take a minute to read this and ask yourself what your "community giving" is this season. If you don't have money, then think about volunteering your time. Many kitchens for the less fortunate may need your help. Or become the bell ringer in front of the Big Box stores. Don't let this season go by without giving back to your community--

Can you think of great slogans about giving? Give so you shall receive? or You can't give away what you don't have? What others can you think of?

Celebrate #GivingTuesday | The White House: " #GivingTuesday builds on the American tradition of giving back but uses technology to give this greater impact. This commemoration does not seek to coordinate funds toward any particular nonprofit or to direct volunteers to support a specific cause. Instead, #GivingTuesday is intended to encourage Americans to reflect and give back. It’s a collective moment for individual and community action."

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Friday, April 26, 2013

Recovery Slogans

A few new ones not in the Walk Softly books! I lime them.

Recovery Slogans: "Overeaters Anonymous Slogans

Put down the fork
Nothing tastes as good as abstinence
Abstinence is the most important thing in my life "

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Sunday, March 3, 2013

Emails and HP

this comes to us from Kingman, AZ--they were talking about prayer and paying each and every morning when I guy shared, "I get up and do my knee-mail every morning."

don't you just love the way slogans are born?

Monday, December 24, 2012

Last minute recovery gifts

Last minute gift for your sponsor or sponsee? Or for you son or daughter in recovery? Here are two suggestions, one that cost a few bucks and the other for free--you can email either gift or both.

1. FREE. Vision recovery meditations: (a Hopi tradition) Go here, pick the format you want, type in the code "Sobriety" (capital S, no quotes) and a box will open for your name and email. Then it will take you to the free download page.
https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000002026/Sitting-in-Pictures-Vision-Meditations-for-Addiction-Recovery.html

2. $4.99 A digital copy of the Pocket Sponsor. Unfortunately it is only on the Kindle format, but the kindle reader for your computer is free.

Merry Christmas everyone, am thinking of all my friends this Christmas Eve.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

NBC dateline on drinking and drugging while driving

NBC dateline did a special on drinking and driving last night. It was very good and asked us, would you stop a drunk from driving. It was really good.

Then a friend from bayakinfoline sent me this reminder--but it has a twist ending. This is an intimate message, for all those still drinking whether or not alcoholically--Must read:

Shelly, merry Christmas to you and the family.
I want to share an experience with you--although not alcoholic, I thought you might be able to share with others who would benefit about drinking and driving. As you well know, some of us have been known to have brushes with the authorities on our way home from an occasional social session over the years. sometimes they lay in wait by the bars to "catch" us. well the other night I was out with some friends and had a couple beers and some red wine with dinner.

Knowing full well I may have been slightly if not well, over the limit, I did something I have never done before. I took a cab home. Sure enough, I passed a check point by the police--but because I was in a cab, they waved it through. I was so happy not to have been caught drunk driving. I arrived home safely without incident, which was a real surprise because I have never driven a cab before and am not sure where I got it or what to do with it in my garage. So be care this season and Merry Christmas and Happy New year!

WHERE DO SLOGAN'S COME FROM?

Traditionally, armies used rallying cries and military mottoes to mobilize troops and overcome the often paralyzing fear of the enemy. These war whoops usually had religious overtones and were designed to capture their troop’s commitment, not unlike encouraging a newcomer’s commitment to recovery. Today, those battle cries survive in what we call slogans, which originate from the Gaelic word sluagh-ghairm, translated as war cry.

WAR CRIES

Getting clean and sober often feels like war. War against a disease. Although we eventually learn to cease fighting anyone or anything, in the beginning we battle a ferocious enemy: the compulsion, obsession, and jonesing to pick up just one more time. To confront this fierce enemy, the old-timers gave us a very powerful tool in slogans, which often goes unrecognized. Most members, if we are honest, have grumbled at one time or another about the constant repetition of “mindless” sayings. Yet slogans, even if irksome, are a powerful way to reach the suffering alcoholic.

Slogans and Service Go Hand in Hand

Even if the twelve-step war cries don’t get the respect they deserve, slogans and service go hand in hand. We hear slogans are “simplistic” and “bumper sticker recovery.” All the same, old-timers and newcomers alike walk into meetings and Alano clubs everyday, walls bedecked in the classics: First Things First; Live and Let Live; Easy Does It.

Our slogan’s convey messages. They are brief, memorable and can capture our attention quickly. Whether begrudgingly or gleefully, we repeat a handful of these sayings meeting after meeting hoping to penetrate the resistant skull of the newcomer.

Practice for our Brains

Brain research tells us repetition is the most basic technique for learning. You know, the “practice makes perfect” kind of thing. So while it may be frustrating to hear, Keep coming back; it works if you work it after every meeting, that simple phrase is burning its way into the consciousness of the newcomer, slipper, depressed and forgetful. That war cry means that some alkie will get up in the morning and hear the enemy’s cry of “Just one won’t hurt,” and they’ll use their counter cry, “Keep coming back.”

Because you chanted the war whoop with them at the meeting yesterday, you are more likely to see them back in the room today, despite the presence of the enemy.

As I approach half a century drug and alcohol free, my brain circuits have healed, where once they were fried. When people shared around the tables, my mind dawdled between meeting thoughts. How would the rent get paid; could I take those pain meds after getting my wisdom teeth pulled; should I tell the group I dreamed about taking speed last night? Hmm, what did that guy say? Focus. Focus. Finally, something actually made it into my head, Learn to listen and listen to learn. Wow. I knew I wasn’t listening and also knew I wanted to. I could learn to listen and would listen to learn. That war cry gave me the strength to try harder.

In early recovery, my mother and I attended a meeting in San Pedro down by the docks. (Mom brought me to my first meeting and at this time we only had a few weeks each.) A huge display rack showcased hundreds of little cards with various slogans on them—free for the taking. Selecting which one we wanted to represent our innermost self was serious business back then. I chose several that had meaning for me while Mom deliberated a bit longer. Finally, she picked her perfect message: Be Humble and You Will Not Stumble. In later sobriety, we often remembered that slogan and laughed heartily, finding it all the funnier because at the time it seemed so profound.

Slogans Save Lives

Slogans are our method of capturing clean and sober insights in a compressed form. They are our weapons against the inner addict/alcoholic, the little itty bitty shitty committee upstairs, and the ever present disease doing push-ups in the parking lot while we attend meetings. For alcoholics and addicts who have a rough time focusing in early recovery, slogans save lives, literally. They are the Swiss army knives of the Twelve Steps. Give slogans their due respect when working with others for they remain the War Cries in the battle for recovery.