jimactsout

WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE

– A good person pays back favors; A wise one pays them forward.             As usual, I got to my meeting early this evening.As usual, the meeting room was deserted.                                However, there was a solitary figure sitting off to the side, against the wall.      Although the Mask Mandate has since been […]

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FRONT AND CENTER

  No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. Fifth Promise of Alcoholics Anonymous, chapter 6, the Big Book                   My Home group,  Way of Life, meets Saturday morning at 10:30. I’d been hearing about how great that meeting was, and how I should

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BELIEVE IN THE DREAM

– Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid. ~ Goethe When I dragged ass into my first meeting, the only thing I was really focusing on was to not drink or drug. That was it. It was brutally clear that I couldn’t do it on my own. I’d heard about Alcoholics Anonymous

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PROGRESS, NOT PERFECTION

  – Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless. ~ Thomas A. Edison Progress not perfection is the hint that a 12 step program is a journey of discovery. When I first joined Alcoholics Anonymous, I ignored the whole ’90 & 90′ thing; You know,“Try doing ninety

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KEEP OFF THE LAURELS

It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. – Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, page 85, Into Action If I don’t pay attention and force myself out of my comfort zone on a daily basis, my natural proclivity is to coast and goof off. Complacency is

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NO WORRIES

There’s a lot to be said for sleeping like a log. I was at a meeting the other evening , and as usual, the chairperson asked if anyone was having a problem staying away from a drink…Or was plagued with any issues they needed to discuss. A newcomer raised his hand. His complaint was his

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IDENTIFY, DON’T COMPARE

The reason why we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel. Thank God for Alcoholics Anonymous. I am convinced the grace of God entered my life at my very first meeting. For some unfathomable reason, I was more interested in what was going to happen, rather than being

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A COFFEEPOT AND A RESENTMENT

Back in May of 1991, me and a friend, Jim B. decided to launch our own meeting.                       We settled upon the name, ‘Sobriety First’.                                                                          It still exists, and meets at Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, on Wianno Ave. in Osterville, MA.   I’ve never written about the experience.  That all changed when I received this missive from

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PLAN B

 – Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid ~ Goethe  God provides us with all the tools we need, and He equipped us to take care of ourselves. Here’s the rub:Life doesn’t always turn out the way we’d planned. Sometimes, things just aren’t meant to be.You can plead, plot, plan, scheme, scam,

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NO ONE’S FOOLED

Once upon a time, I lived under the illusion that I was fooling everyone, because I was just a little bit smarter. Never mind that my drinking and “recreational drugging” rendered me dumber than a bucketful of hammers. Nobody was fooled. There are basically two types of people roaming around the planet:1. Those who show

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