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=====TABLE OF CONTENTS=====
=====EDITOR'S COMMENTS
=====READERS' COMMENTS & CONTROVERSIES
=====THINGS YOU ALREADY KNEW, BUT...
=====TIP & TALK FEATURE ARTICLE
=====SPONSOR'S SPIEL
=====AN EASTERN PERSPECTIVE ON RECOVERY
=====FEATURED LINK OF THE WEEK
=====PURE BOLOGNA & HOGWASH
=====SUBSCRIBE / UNSUBSCRIBE / COMMENT
=====EDITOR'S COMMENTS=====
PUBLICATION: Principles: Addiction & Recovery Tips & Talks is
published every Friday morning by Charles Roper, the owner & author of Alcohol &
Drug Abuse - The Addiction & Recovery Information & Resources Web site: http://alcoholanddrugabuse.com
DISTRIBUTION: Principles is distributed only to subscribers. If you have
received this newsletter by mistake, please accept our apologies, and find UNSUBSCRIBE
instructions at the bottom of this page.
PRIVACY: I will NEVER publish, give, loan, or sell your e-mail address to anyone. Never -
No way - No how.
Thanks...Charles Roper
=====READERS' COMMENTS & CONTROVERSIES=====
"Since you asked for feedback, here's a little. I am glad to see someone put forth
the effort to support addicts and co-dependents (I am one of the latter). I have found
some information that is helpful and some that is not. Generally, I find the body of the
newsletter to be helpful, but rarely the "Eastern Perspective." Since you have
that in every issue and never have a Christian or Jewish perspective, I figure you must
have an Eastern philosophy of God. One of the newsletters suggested saying, 'I don't know'
to everything, but that seems like dishonesty for some things which I absolutely do know.
I absolutely know that there is a God, and I absolutely have heard Him, felt Him, talked
to Him. To say that I don't know if He is real would be to deny the most real thing in my
entire life. N..."
[Editor's reply to N: Your feedback is well-taken. I'm sure that your reply expresses the
thoughts of many.]
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"Charles...this story [two monks] was great! I love this part of your newsletter. I
read the story to my husband and asked him for his opinion about it. He said the idea the
story gave him was 'to speak your mind.' I had a completely different take on this story.
To me, it was a story about judgment. It seems the 'young monk' thought the 'old monk'
contaminated himself by letting the concubine touch him...but how much more the young monk
was 'touched' by her, and for a longer period of time. That is, if you presuppose that the
'old monk' wasn't thinking of her afterwards also. R..."
[Editor's reply to R: I agree with you about the story. I think the old monk was also
reminding the young monk to live in the present moment, not the past.]
=====THINGS YOU ALREADY KNEW, BUT...=====
"The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be who we pretend to
be." --Socrates
=====TIP & TALK FEATURED ARTICLE=====
RECOVERY TIP: "Look for role models who share all of themselves--both the good and
the bad."
RECOVERY TIP TALK: Robert Burney, author of "Codependence / Dance of Wounded
Souls" offers these thoughts regarding his decision to self-disclose openly
within the context of his writing.
"I believe in sharing my experience, strength, and hope. I also believe that sharing
my fear, anger, and pain is an invaluable part of my role as a teacher. The core of my
work is to get across the message that it is not shameful to be human. In order to do
that, it has been necessary for my own recovery, and for my mission to be open and willing
to be vulnerable, to share embarrassing truth--to demonstrate my own humanity--with it's
resistance, fear, and procrastination.
"In my opinion, as long as the teachers and so called experts (in healing, spiritual
enlightenment, recovery, whatever) are 'keeping up appearances,' they are giving power to
the disease. Without role models [who] tell us they are human and that it is OK to be
human beings involved in an ongoing healing process, then it is possible to interpret
their messages of how wonderful their lives have become as [suggesting] that there is a
destination to be reached and that anybody who hasn't reached it yet is doing something
wrong and is somehow shameful.
"My life is indeed wonderful compared to what it was. I am very grateful and full of
wonder at how free I am of the old programming and at the capacity I have to be happy and
peaceful in the moment now, no matter what is happening in the outer circumstances of my
life. But my life doesn't feel wonderful all of the time. There is an ongoing process that
involves new levels of surrender, new insights, new changes in perspective, etc.
"Having the choice to view the part of the glass that is full and be grateful, happy,
and peaceful in the moment--and at the same time have a consciousness, without shame and
judgment, that there are still areas where growth is necessary--is what integration and
balance are about in my opinion. The goal of this dance of recovery is to have the
capacity to dance with joy and love for as many of the moments of today as possible, and
also to have the capacity to be loving and nurturing to ourselves when we are dancing with
the fear, pain, and anger that are an inevitable part of this human experience we are
having."
[Editor's Note: Thank you, Robert, for an exceedingly important message. I think we all
have to deal with the temptation to "keep up appearances," especially when we
find ourselves in positions of role models. This is especially true for sponsors and
counselors.]
=====SPONSOR'S SPIEL=====
High Bottom Drunk: A Novel...and the Truth about Addiction & Recovery, by
Charles N. Roper, PhD.
"I just finished reading your book. Took me exactly one week. I enjoyed it immensely.
It reminded me a bit of Scott Peck's "A Bed by the Window," with the combination
of psychology and novel. I just celebrated 8 years last Friday as a recovering high bottom
drunk. Thanks for your insight. --Leslie W.
Order High Bottom Drunk directly from the publisher, through the
www.highbottomdrunk.com website, and receive two free gifts with each copy.
http://www.highbottomdrunk.com
=====AN EASTERN PERSPECTIVE ON RECOVERY=====
"Faith" is the unspoken, nameless and formless yearning for completion and
wholeness. Alone and unaided, it can pull us to union with our god or true self like a
great free-floating balloon. "Belief" is the limiting and inhibiting of faith.
Zen points out to us the areas of our lives where our faith in ourselves has been silenced
by the rigidity of belief. Once pointed out, we are freed to ride our faith to heights
unimagined and certainly not permitted by the jealous jailer called belief.
In Zen practice, the process of identifying and reducing our attachments to our own
beliefs, ideas and opinions is sometimes called "putting them down." Just as we
would put down a load that has gotten too heavy for us, so too can we put down our heavy
load of self, which we identify with our personal situations, ideas and beliefs.
Paraphrased from: The Zen of Recovery, by Mel Ash.
=====LINK OF THE WEEK=====
This week's featured link is: Joy To You & Me (Joy2MeU.com).
Teacher and author Robert Burney presents page after page of information on codependence,
inner child, relationships, spiritual belief systems, spiritual growth, change, and
healing, alcoholism, and recovery.
Read excerpts and reviews of Burney's book, Codependence / The Dance of Wounded
Souls.
Visit the site at:
http://www.Joy2MeU.com
=====PURE BOLOGNA & HOGWASH=====
Alcoholic Communication:
"I can't find a cause for your illness," the doctor says.
"Frankly, I think it's due to drinking."
"In that case," replies his alcoholic patient, "I'll come back when you are
sober."
A naked alcoholic walks into a bar with a pair of jumper cables wrapped around his neck
and orders a Scotch and soda. The bartender gives him the evil eye and says, "O.K.,
Buddy, but don't start anything."
Two drunk guys walk into a bar. You'd think one of them would have seen it!
Submitted by: A alcoholic of few words.
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==========================
Alrighty, then...till next week, do us all a favor and keep
it simple.
Charles Roper, Editor
Principles: Addiction & Recovery Tips & Talks
Alcohol & Drug Abuse - The Addiction & Recovery Information
& Resources Web site:
http://www.alcoholanddrugabuse.com
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