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PRINCIPLES: THE ADDICTION & RECOVERY NEWSLETTER |
| =====TABLE OF CONTENTS===== =====EDITOR'S COMMENTS =====RECOVERY THOUGHT =====READERS' COMMENTS =====RECOVERY TALK =====SPONSOR =====FEATURED LINK =====PURE BOLOGNA =====SUBSCRIBE / UNSUBSCRIBE =====EDITOR'S COMMENTS===== PLEASE NOTE: Principles peaks at recovery through the lens of an "eastern" perspective, which fits nicely with 12-step programs' spiritual underpinnings - that is, if you're willing to read it that way. PRIVACY: I will never publish, give, loan, or sell your email address to anyone. Never - Ever - No way - No how. DISTRIBUTION: God willing, Principles hits cyberspace once a week - sometime between Thursday evening and Friday morning. Find Subscribe & Unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of this page. Thanks...Charles Roper =====RECOVERY THOUGHT===== Look not to the faults of others, nor to their omissions and commissions. But rather look to your own acts, to what you have done and left undone. Dhammapada 50 Read more below...in RECOVERY TALK =====READERS' COMMENTS===== From CC: "Last week's newsletter reminded me of an admonishment from my first AA sponsor: 'We are not bad people trying to get good. We are sick people trying to get well.' Twenty three years later, I still sometimes forget that recovery isn't a sainthood competition. Relapses triggered by guilt and shame are a tragic irony. I must remember that I'm merely human." [From Editor: I'd love to hear your comments, questions, & ideas. I don't answer every email, but I do read every one, and I answer many. Please email your comments & questions to: <a href="mailto:Principles-Newsletter-owner@egroups.com"> AOL Click Here </a>] =====RECOVERY TALK===== From last week's Recovery Talk: ...."Many of us are afraid of looking too deeply into ourselves. But we're told that our pursuit of wholeness in recovery will be meaningless unless we become willing to move through that fear and take a 'searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.' ....But the very word 'moral' conjures up all sorts of forbidding associations for us." To continue: Because of the morality we've been burdened with all these years, we tend to think only in terms of self-criticism when doing an inventory, and we end up listing only our negative attributes. And while it is important to face these so-called character defects fully, we also have to accept what is good and positive about ourselves. One would think that looking at the positive would be the easy part. No so for most of us, especially if we begin the inventory process early in our sobriety, as we're told we should. At that point, we're typically more comfortable exploring our character defects than we are our character assets. We may even feel as though our good traits are somehow unreal - that they're not who we really are - that they are some kind of mask we wear to fool a world that is just waiting for us to screw up. Zen practice teaches us, however, that this world is only our own idea. We are the same as the world we feared. The principle of yin-yang applies most intimately to ourselves at this point in our recovery programs. We are creatures of dark and light - whole beings composed of both good and bad. And both sides are expressions of the same essential nature. It's simply who we are. When we take our personal inventory, we are told to be searching as well as fearless. That challenges us to be just as thorough and fearless in confronting and accepting our basic goodness as we are in confronting and accepting our defects. [Thanks to Mel Ash, among others, for the words that inspired these thoughts.] =====NEWSLETTER SPONSOR===== "The story kept my interest very high, but the thing I liked most about the book was how it details the steps we go through to get into recovery, and I mean *real* recovery. I can't tell you how much it helped me." --C High Bottom Drunk: A Novel...and the Truth about Addiction & Recovery, by Charles N. Roper, PhD. Order High Bottom Drunk directly from the publisher, through the http://www.highbottomdrunk.com website, and receive two free gifts (modest but useful) with each copy. http://www.highbottomdrunk.com <a href="http://www.highbottomdrunk.com"> AOL Click Here </a> =====LINK OF THE WEEK===== This week's featured link is: The Big Book Comes Alive. This is truly an outstanding reference site for 12-Steppers. See especially Gresham's Law, which should be mandatory reading for everyone who steps through the doors of a 12-Step meeting. Visit the site at: Sorry...site seems to have disappeared from the Web. =====PURE BOLOGNA & HOGWASH===== An alcoholic man who was fortunate enough to still have a job and family bought a new BMW and was out driving on the interstate at top speed when he suddenly saw flashing red and blue lights behind him. He took one quick hit on his bottle, ditched it under the seat, popped a breath mint into his mouth, and pulled over. The cop walked up to the car, took the man's license, and examined it and the car. "It's been a long day, it’s the end of my shift, and it's Friday the 13th. I don't feel like doing any more paperwork, so if you can give me an excuse for your driving that I haven't heard before, you can go." The guy thinks for a second and says, "Last week my wife left me and ran off with a cop. I was afraid you were trying to give her back." The cop handed the man his license, tipped his cap, and said, "Goodbye, sir. Don't drink any more, and have a nice weekend." =====SUBSCRIBE / UNSUBSCRIBE===== To SUBSCRIBE to this publication, send any e-mail to: <a href="mailto:Principles-Newsletter-subscribe@egroups.com"> AOL Click Here </a> To UNSUBSCRIBE from this publication, send any e-mail to: <a href="mailto:Principles-Newsletter-unsubscribe@egroups.com"> AOL Click Here </a> ========================== Till next week, do us all a favor and keep it simple. Charles Roper, Editor Principles: The Addiction & Recovery Newsletter Alcohol & Drug Abuse - The Addiction & Recovery Information & Resources Web site: <a href="http://www.alcoholanddrugabuse.com"> http://www.alcoholanddrugabuse.com </a> |