Alcoholics Anonymous | Mar 28 2014 | DonInLondon | Step 3 “Your Higher Power”

Comments

1. Don DonInLondon says

   March 28, 2013 at 5:23 am

   Alcoholics Anonymous | March 28 2013 | Steps In Action | Step 3 “Your
   Higher Power” “nor ought AA membership ever depend on money or conformity.”
   Our nonconformist fellowship opens the door to anyone anywhere who has a
   desire to stop drinking. If there had been any issues of money or
   conformity undoubtedly the fellowship would be a lot different. And I would
   be dead…
   Video For Today:
   Alcoholics Anonymous | March 28 2013 | Steps In Action | Step 3 “Your
   Higher Power”
   The longer we are in fellowship, to the old-timer who is learning the
   wisdom of life, the openness of our fellowship becomes more obvious. To the
   bleeding Deacon, still stuck in old attitudes and old behaviours around
   manipulation and control and wanting it their way or no way, the openness
   of the fellowship makes them awkward, loud, complaining and bitter that
   things aren’t the way they used to be… I was looking online to find
   fellowship and recovery sites, the number is overwhelming. At the same
   time, face-to-face, and in meetings, I still feel the power and the wisdom
   of experience, strength and hope shared. And then it seems, it is shared in
   many places over and over again. Fellowship is working and so are other
   means of recovery today… Without fellowship, it is doubtful if all these
   other means of recovery could even be contemplated let alone available to
   many more who have never heard of Alcoholics Anonymous…
   The fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous has provided me with the backbone,
   and the foundation of my recovery. Without a doubt if it had not been
   suggested to me, where would I be? With over six hundred meetings in my
   locality, all different and all focused on a desire to stop drinking and
   share a message of experience, strength and hope, I have gratitude beyond
   measure. The literature, the big book of experience strength and hope,
   twelve steps and twelve traditions, as Bill sees it, daily reflections and
   lots more besides is utilised within fellowship and outside it. The twelve
   steps as life principles help me every day, and the twelve traditions,
   which focus on unity, service and recovery in the main keep meetings
   healthy today…
   And social networks, websites of all descriptions about recovery from so
   many different types of addiction will prevail for a good long time. I hope
   they do, and sharing a message of experience strength and hope, with one
   purpose to help others, and require no money or subscription in the main.
   Some of the principles of fellowship are obvious in the way people share
   their experience strength and hope, and there is no personal gain. And in
   my experience over the years, no one is out there trying to say they know
   better than anybody else about recovery, it still takes many people sharing
   experience, strength and hope to help one person find recovery one day at a
   time. No single message is enough. It still takes many people to make the
   difference, and although social networks are really helpful, informing and
   sustaining recovery, in my experience, and just anecdotally, face-to-face,
   and in meetings will always be better if we can get there. Many, however
   cannot get to a meeting or spend time, face-to-face, and so the principles
   of fellowship can be extended if we desire to communicate through whatever
   network to share the best we can. Our message of experience, strength and
   hope requires action in all respects so we can speak and equally important,
   we can listen and interact with our fellows…
   Cold arctic winds are blowing from the east across the UK. And the weather
   is not good for those who cannot get about so easily, so I am grateful for
   social networks and ways to connect with fellow members of Alcoholics
   Anonymous. And of course, I can write a letter, talk on the telephone and
   invite people around. I still prefer meetings, of course, because I have
   learned so much from listening, shared what I have heard and can keep on
   doing this as the weather improves. Recovery is still a haphazard process
   and it would be unhelpful to promote a fix, wherever we are, we are
   nonprofessional, and that is the power of the personal message, we share
   wherever we are, in a meeting, in a home, via a social network, it is still
   a personal and non-professional message. We are not professional in
   fellowship, we are simply human, human beings. Sharing our emotional and
   spiritual experience one day at a time…
   And anonymity, the sanctuary to find out how to be sober, to share with a
   sense of security and confidentiality is so important. No matter what, the
   principle of anonymity is only as good as those who will keep what they
   hear on a specific basis to themselves. And we are aware that gossip kills!
   If one alcoholic undermines and disrespects another alcoholic and their
   anonymity, the breach of trust is often found out through gossip. When
   others breach our trust as a newcomer, the damage done can be the worst
   calamity. There are things I have shared which have come back as gossip,
   and the problem with gossip is whatever I shared to start with, now has
   become something bigger and usually more horrible than ever was. Chinese
   whispers… These days, and because of the fellowship I have developed a more
   open way of life, courage to change, faith in doing the next right thing
   and the confidence to be me wherever I am, an alcoholic in recovery… I may
   feel okay and not worried about what people think any more when it comes to
   my history. And the fact that I am an alcoholic. I do not feel
   self-prejudice or any humiliation by being an alcoholic. That is not the
   case for many in recovery and respecting anonymity feels right and
   sacrosanct today. I don’t feel there needs to be a leader in fellowship and
   certainly no spokes persons speaking behalf of anyone. We can share how it
   works, and why it works, and we can share our personal journey if we wish
   to, and always for me, always respectful of the anonymity of my friends and
   fellows, and being respectful in our nonconformist and anarchic democratic
   fellowship today…
   Alcoholics Anonymous | March 28 2012 | Steps In Action | Step 3 “Your
   Higher Power” 2012 | Alcoholics Anonymous Today’s AA daily reflection:
   “equality…” Steps and traditions work when we work at them and have a
   timeless quality about them. Timeless in the sense of them working just for
   today and they remain fresh and instant in our attitudes and actions… Not
   tablets of stone to weigh us down, more often wisdom to lift us up…
   Video For Today:
   March 28 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 3 “Let Go” | 2012 | Alcoholics
   Anonymous
   My personal understanding of the steps and traditions is always being
   developed to meet the needs of my life today. With every breath, truth love
   and wisdom grows as my life experience grows. This is my personal evolution
   and sometimes revolution. The first step in my revolution was to completely
   stop drinking and have a desire to stop drinking. Breaking the habit of a
   lifetime is a revolution. And then the evolution began…
   Equality! I am not bigger or smaller or more or less important than anyone
   else on this planet. Sometimes because of culture and the way society works
   some people are elevated or feel elevated. Day-to-day I am a learner, and
   with inclusion I can share my experience, strength and hope. Sometimes it
   can be wisdom sometimes complete nonsense and nonsensical to the listener
   or reader. One man’s meat, turns another man into a vegetarian! Living your
   own experience, develops skills and wisdom to be shared where and when we
   are included and not excluded…
   In the fellowship of AA with a desire to stop drinking, we are included
   which is the very foundation and opportunity to find unconditional love.
   The newcomer shares about what it is like to be on the front line, the
   old-timer about what it is like to be sober more than a day. And then of
   course there are those obvious to everyone else, “bleeding deacons” who
   find fault with anyone and everyone not just for today, every bleeding day…
   -/-
   DonInLondon 2005-2011
   “Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we
   may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend
   upon money or conformity…After joining A.A., I found the way of life I
   had been searching for. In A.A. no member is any better than any other
   member; we’re just alcoholics trying to recover from alcoholism”
   Our spiritual moment of now is here, same for everyone, to experience;
   truth, love and wisdom of everyone we meet. Our spiritual experience is
   contingent on our attitude and behaviour toward; truth, love and wisdom of
   others. Letting go, we have room for new living, happy or sad, it is “real
   spiritual life” today..
   -/-
   AA Daily Reflection: EQUALITY ~ Our membership ought to include all who
   suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor
   ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or
   three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A.
   group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.
   ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 565
   Prior to A.A., I often felt that I didn’t “fit in” with the people around
   me. Usually “they” had more/less money than I did, and my points of view
   didn’t jibe with “theirs.” The amount of prejudice I had experienced in
   society only proved to me just how phony some self -righteous people were.
   After joining A.A., I found the way of life I had been searching for. In
   A.A. no member is any better than any other member; we’re just alcoholics
   trying to recover from alcoholism.
   -/-
   As Bill Sees It ~ Gratitude Should Go Forward ~ “Gratitude should go
   forward, rather than backward. “In other words, if you carry the message to
   still others, you will be making the best possible repayment for the help
   given to you.” No satisfaction has been deeper and no joy greater than in a
   Twelfth Step job well done. To watch the eyes of men and women open with
   wonder as they move from darkness into light, to see their lives quickly
   fill with new purpose and meaning, and above all to watch them awaken to
   the presence of a loving God in their lives — these things are the
   substance of what we receive as we carry A.A.’s message.
   -/-
   Alcoholics Anonymous, 12 Steps AA, Addiction And Recovery, DonInLondon, Don
   Oddy,

2. kris s says

   March 29, 2013 at 2:55 pm

   Don why does some of your vid’s have ‘Step 3’ and the like. will you be
   getting involved with the steps as they go on?

3. Don DonInLondon says

   March 30, 2013 at 4:49 am

   Hi Kris, each month I focus on one step, so all of March is about step 3,
   there are also readings of each step in the playlist section, and the big
   book too… step 3 is about understanding that alone we have only our own
   wisdom, together in fellowship we have the higher power wisdom of everyone
   and we can access it every day. We are not alone… the higher power of
   truth, love and wisdom is always around us if we ask for help… inside and
   outside fellowship… we don’t have to know the answers

4. kris s says

   March 30, 2013 at 7:29 am

   thanks Don. yes im aware of the BB and have read it thoroughly +go to a BB
   meeting. just didnt see the exact part of your entries. be nice to see
   other steps shown as the months roll by. hope u keep up the vid
   blog/site/chat. bless u.

5. Don DonInLondon says

   March 28, 2014 at 4:37 am

   Alcoholics Anonymous Blog & Video | March 28 2004 – 2014 | DonInLondon |
   Step 3 “Your Higher Power”

   March 28 Video

   Alcoholics Anonymous | Mar 28 2014 | DonInLondon | Step 3 “Your Higher
   Power”

   DonInLondon March 28, 2014: step three month: “made a decision to turn our
   will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.” Survivor
   guilt can be very consuming in recovery. Sometimes it feels like many
   people have been given a very bad break in life, something goes wrong and
   their life seems to be over before it started. And after the punishment we
   gave ourselves, we feel like we ought to be taken instead of them. If I
   could, I would have taken my father’s place in the queue when he died. Life
   is precious and the sorrow of loss brings up so many feelings.

   Our meeting was all about feelings, and sometimes when we reach another
   anniversary in recovery, we feel good that we have survived another year,
   and can feel just as bad in the same moment, either because life is
   horrible, or we feel guilty to be alive at all. There is no rhyme nor
   reason. And when we find ourselves with other ailments, just as dangerous
   and easily terminal, we can lose perspective all over again. One day at a
   time, if we project forwards too far, fear comes knocking on the door and
   we can lose faith in doing the next right thing today. Very easy because
   when we lose perspective, that today can work, all the problems of the
   future can cloud anyone’s judgement. Every feeling is real, and with
   perspective and connection with others, we can make the best of what is,
   rather than what might be, or what was possible in the past.

   Wednesday, just two days ago felt very bleak when I couldn’t get about, my
   transport was broken, and I couldn’t do anything I wanted in the moment of
   now. And that bleak feeling became anger and resentment very quickly
   because some things just needed to be done! The answer was to share my
   woes, get some perspective and see what was possible and not possible. I
   simply forgot the basics of recovery, keep it simple, be responsive, and
   remind myself that the world is not against me. And it’s okay to have
   feelings which some people might consider negative. Every feeling has
   purpose, and if we pause long enough to experience and understand the
   feeling, we know the impact on our thinking and the impact on our actions.

   I wanted to speak this morning, and then I didn’t. I could see pain on the
   faces of my fellows, not all of them, just some of them, and it was good to
   hear what they had to say. We all have complicated feelings about the life
   we have, especially when we have no control over what’s going on. I don’t
   know why I forget that I cannot control anything, except my actions and
   behaviour, and that’s all right, I get reminded every day just what it is
   to be powerless in this powerfully exasperating world.

   Even though I cannot make things happen in my time today, I am open to
   changing my plans at any stage. A great conversation this morning at around
   6 o’clock, or was it five? Actually was somewhere near 5 o’clock in the
   morning, all about life and how it changed through the week. From Monday to
   Friday a series of events have made the week work out well, but of course
   there’s always today. And even I do not know what might happen in the next
   twenty-four hours. I do have perspective just now, but it might change,
   indeed it will change as the flow of life happens, leaving me powerless and
   happily so, all day long.

   DonInLondon 2004 – 2013

   Alcoholics Anonymous | March 28 2013 | Steps In Action | Step 3 “Your
   Higher Power” “nor ought AA membership ever depend on money or conformity.”
   Our nonconformist fellowship opens the door to anyone anywhere who has a
   desire to stop drinking. If there had been any issues of money or
   conformity undoubtedly the fellowship would be a lot different. And I would
   be dead…

   The longer we are in fellowship, to the old-timer who is learning the
   wisdom of life, the openness of our fellowship becomes more obvious. To the
   bleeding Deacon, still stuck in old attitudes and old behaviours around
   manipulation and control and wanting it their way or no way, the openness
   of the fellowship makes them awkward, loud, complaining and bitter that
   things aren’t the way they used to be… I was looking online to find
   fellowship and recovery sites, the number is overwhelming. At the same
   time, face-to-face, and in meetings, I still feel the power and the wisdom
   of experience, strength and hope shared. And then it seems, it is shared in
   many places over and over again. Fellowship is working and so are other
   means of recovery today… Without fellowship, it is doubtful if all these
   other means of recovery could even be contemplated let alone available to
   many more who have never heard of Alcoholics Anonymous…

   The fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous has provided me with the backbone,
   and the foundation of my recovery. Without a doubt if it had not been
   suggested to me, where would I be? With over six hundred meetings in my
   locality, all different and all focused on a desire to stop drinking and
   share a message of experience, strength and hope, I have gratitude beyond
   measure. The literature, the big book of experience strength and hope,
   twelve steps and twelve traditions, as Bill sees it, daily reflections and
   lots more besides is utilised within fellowship and outside it. The twelve
   steps as life principles help me every day, and the twelve traditions,
   which focus on unity, service and recovery in the main keep meetings
   healthy today…

   And social networks, websites of all descriptions about recovery from so
   many different types of addiction will prevail for a good long time. I hope
   they do, and sharing a message of experience strength and hope, with one
   purpose to help others, and require no money or subscription in the main.
   Some of the principles of fellowship are obvious in the way people share
   their experience strength and hope, and there is no personal gain. And in
   my experience over the years, no one is out there trying to say they know
   better than anybody else about recovery, it still takes many people sharing
   experience, strength and hope to help one person find recovery one day at a
   time. No single message is enough. It still takes many people to make the
   difference, and although social networks are really helpful, informing and
   sustaining recovery, in my experience, and just anecdotally, face-to-face,
   and in meetings will always be better if we can get there. Many, however
   cannot get to a meeting or spend time, face-to-face, and so the principles
   of fellowship can be extended if we desire to communicate through whatever
   network to share the best we can. Our message of experience, strength and
   hope requires action in all respects so we can speak and equally important,
   we can listen and interact with our fellows…

   Cold arctic winds are blowing from the east across the UK. And the weather
   is not good for those who cannot get about so easily, so I am grateful for
   social networks and ways to connect with fellow members of Alcoholics
   Anonymous. And of course, I can write a letter, talk on the telephone and
   invite people around. I still prefer meetings, of course, because I have
   learned so much from listening, shared what I have heard and can keep on
   doing this as the weather improves. Recovery is still a haphazard process
   and it would be unhelpful to promote a fix, wherever we are, we are
   nonprofessional, and that is the power of the personal message, we share
   wherever we are, in a meeting, in a home, via a social network, it is still
   a personal and non-professional message. We are not professional in
   fellowship, we are simply human, human beings. Sharing our emotional and
   spiritual experience one day at a time…

   And anonymity, the sanctuary to find out how to be sober, to share with a
   sense of security and confidentiality is so important. No matter what, the
   principle of anonymity is only as good as those who will keep what they
   hear on a specific basis to themselves. And we are aware that gossip kills!
   If one alcoholic undermines and disrespects another alcoholic and their
   anonymity, the breach of trust is often found out through gossip. When
   others breach our trust as a newcomer, the damage done can be the worst
   calamity. There are things I have shared which have come back as gossip,
   and the problem with gossip is whatever I shared to start with, now has
   become something bigger and usually more horrible than ever was. Chinese
   whispers… These days, and because of the fellowship I have developed a more
   open way of life, courage to change, faith in doing the next right thing
   and the confidence to be me wherever I am, an alcoholic in recovery… I may
   feel okay and not worried about what people think any more when it comes to
   my history. And the fact that I am an alcoholic. I do not feel
   self-prejudice or any humiliation by being an alcoholic. That is not the
   case for many in recovery and respecting anonymity feels right and
   sacrosanct today. I don’t feel there needs to be a leader in fellowship and
   certainly no spokes persons speaking behalf of anyone. We can share how it
   works, and why it works, and we can share our personal journey if we wish
   to, and always for me, always respectful of the anonymity of my friends and
   fellows, and being respectful in our nonconformist and anarchic democratic
   fellowship today…

   Alcoholics Anonymous | March 28 2012 | Steps In Action | Step 3 “Your
   Higher Power” 2012 | Alcoholics Anonymous Today’s AA daily reflection:
   “equality…” Steps and traditions work when we work at them and have a
   timeless quality about them. Timeless in the sense of them working just for
   today and they remain fresh and instant in our attitudes and actions… Not
   tablets of stone to weigh us down, more often wisdom to lift us up…

   My personal understanding of the steps and traditions is always being
   developed to meet the needs of my life today. With every breath, truth love
   and wisdom grows as my life experience grows. This is my personal evolution
   and sometimes revolution. The first step in my revolution was to completely
   stop drinking and have a desire to stop drinking. Breaking the habit of a
   lifetime is a revolution. And then the evolution began…

   Equality! I am not bigger or smaller or more or less important than anyone
   else on this planet. Sometimes because of culture and the way society works
   some people are elevated or feel elevated. Day-to-day I am a learner, and
   with inclusion I can share my experience, strength and hope. Sometimes it
   can be wisdom sometimes complete nonsense and nonsensical to the listener
   or reader. One man’s meat, turns another man into a vegetarian! Living your
   own experience, develops skills and wisdom to be shared where and when we
   are included and not excluded…
   In the fellowship of AA with a desire to stop drinking, we are included
   which is the very foundation and opportunity to find unconditional love.
   The newcomer shares about what it is like to be on the front line, the
   old-timer about what it is like to be sober more than a day. And then of
   course there are those obvious to everyone else, “bleeding deacons” who
   find fault with anyone and everyone not just for today, every bleeding day…
   -/-
   DonInLondon 2005-2011

   “Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we
   may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend
   upon money or conformity…After joining A.A., I found the way of life I
   had been searching for. In A.A. no member is any better than any other
   member; we’re just alcoholics trying to recover from alcoholism”

   Our spiritual moment of now is here, same for everyone, to experience;
   truth, love and wisdom of everyone we meet. Our spiritual experience is
   contingent on our attitude and behaviour toward; truth, love and wisdom of
   others. Letting go, we have room for new living, happy or sad, it is “real
   spiritual life” today..
   -/-

   AA Daily Reflection: EQUALITY ~ Our membership ought to include all who
   suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor
   ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or
   three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A.
   group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.
   ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 565

   Prior to A.A., I often felt that I didn’t “fit in” with the people around
   me. Usually “they” had more/less money than I did, and my points of view
   didn’t jibe with “theirs.” The amount of prejudice I had experienced in
   society only proved to me just how phony some self -righteous people were.
   After joining A.A., I found the way of life I had been searching for. In
   A.A. no member is any better than any other member; we’re just alcoholics
   trying to recover from alcoholism.
   -/-

   As Bill Sees It ~ Gratitude Should Go Forward ~ “Gratitude should go
   forward, rather than backward. “In other words, if you carry the message to
   still others, you will be making the best possible repayment for the help
   given to you.” No satisfaction has been deeper and no joy greater than in a
   Twelfth Step job well done. To watch the eyes of men and women open with
   wonder as they move from darkness into light, to see their lives quickly
   fill with new purpose and meaning, and above all to watch them awaken to
   the presence of a loving God in their lives — these things are the
   substance of what we receive as we carry A.A.’s message.
   -/-

   Step Three Video 12 And 12
   Alcoholics Anonymous | Step 3 Reading 12 & 12 |

   Step Two Video 12 And 12
   Alcoholics Anonymous | Step 2 Reading 12 & 12 | DonInLondon |

   Step One Video 12 And 12
   Alcoholics Anonymous | Step 1 Reading 12 & 12 | DonInLondon

   AA Big Book Video | Chapter 5 | How It Works |
   AA Big Book Video | Chapter 5 How It Works |

   Alcoholics Anonymous Videos, AA is for Alcoholics, AA 12 Steps, Addiction
   And Recovery, DonInLondon, Don Oddy,