Sober Holidays

If you want to have a sober holiday, come visit us at Fremont Fellowship Hall at 90th & Aurora Avenue North. We will be having round the clock meetings throughout Christmas and New Years. We will also serve a Christmas Dinner with Turkey, Stuffing, and All the Other Fixings. This will be a potluck also.

Check out the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous online at http://www.aa.org/bigbookonline/

What About the New People?

Yes, many of us have got sober and stayed sober by coming to Fremont, attending meetings regularly (or almost addictively for that matter), and not really cracking into the 'program' of AA as outlined in the book.

I have heard that some of the old-timers around the room have taken years of sitting in meetings and just being 'dry' before trying the AA program.

I wonder what Bill Wilson and Bob Smith would say if they attended a meeting at Fremont and listened to the cracker jacks that harp on about 'Doing it Their Own Way', and not needing any book!

What kind of message is getting sent to the newcomers?

With alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction, gambling problems, broken families, and other massively dysfunctional behaviors at a peak, it would seem better to step up the heat of passing on the 'un watered down' message of the original AA, wouldn't it?

3pm Something Crazy

I have stepped up to secretary the 3pm "Something Crazy" group of AA at the Fremont Fellowship Hall. All are encouraged to attend to bring YOUR story to the group. The newcomers depend on the oldtimers who share their experience so that it "TEACHES" the newcomers how this AA thing works.

Sexual Predators

Although Fremont Fellowship Hall has been around for years, helping many get and stay sober, if you're new to sobriety and attending this hall, BEWARE! As with many places where public people gather for any reason, including businesses, work places, public parks, and even churches, Fremont Fellowship Hall, as helpful as it is, is also a public place, and there are some that are sober, but still very sick. So, be careful who you trust.

Many new persons come into recovery really needing some friends, guidance, and help, and have suffered out 'there' in their addictions for a long time without goog relationships. So, basically, they come in the doors being very vunerable.

Just a word of caution, there are those that have been sober for years, and are still very sick sexually. Be careful who you trust!!! Ask around about an individual before you become victimized.

The GOD Box

It was suggested today that I place this current "want" which, of course being an alcoholic, I think as a "need", into a detailed letter format a place it into a GOD BOX, which is basically a can or shoe box or something that you call your "GOD Box" and symbolically place your 'issues' within it as if letting them go and handing them over to God.

Good suggestion and I may go make a "God Can" to keep in my motor home where I can place these, what I call... Goals. Being an alcoholic, I've learned that we seem to be big failures at 'self discipline' and need God to discipline us. There is the part where we must take action and get off of our asses and do something. God's not going to slide cheeseburgers under my door while I sit my butt on the couch!

Complaining vs Explaining

There's a fine line between complaining and explaining. It seems that people who have not done much self examination in the 4th step work, usually hear complaining when you're actually explaining something to them.

If we have not done enough inside work to get out of our 'victim' roles, then we are still traumatized by everything and everyone in the past, not to mention the present, with all the little interactions we have relating to people.

It goes along the lines of 'hearing what we want to hear' or 'we process only what is inside of us'.

When I work with others around the program and I see that they're stuck in the victim-itis of their disease, and I explain a situation, they can only hear complaint, because if you're explaining something in depth, they have a hard time processing it as simple story telling or information relayed.

It's similar to when I "explain" the AA program to my chronically alcoholic brother, and all he hears is me "complain" about his drinking.

There's answers locked inside of us, if we search them out. Try doing the 'California 4th Step' which can be found online. It's a workbook that will help you unlock the answers within and then, not only will you "EXPLAIN" more often than "COMPLAIN", you will also hear the difference when someone is just "EXPLAINING" things to you and not attacking you with "COMPLAINTS"!

Sick and Tired

I'm sick and tired of the drama around the hall, and most of all, the people that talk about the drama around the hall even when they're not AT the hall! Hey, what's up with this picture? Are we that insecure that all we have to do is hang around this corner on 90th and Aurora and have these big pissing contests of who's who and who's doing who and who's working who and who's not working? This is a lot of bullshit that has nothing to do with the AA program.

They say it all the time at meetings and the solution is the same...

Get a sponsor, get a homegroup, do the steps!

Not... Hang out at AA hall for the rest of your life like it's some bar room social hour, which turns into hour after hour. Notice the people that are doing something with their lives, they may stop by for a single meeting, then they go HOME!

Gossip Central!

Where in the steps does it say to gossip gossip gossip about all your crap. Better work some steps here and take a look at that stuff. I can't believe how much poison is spread by gossip alone. This is what causes a lot of friction for the hall and for suffering alcoholics.

Get out some pens and start writing it down if you want to be rid of it and quit spreading your blah blah blah around everywhere you go.

Cigarette Butts Anyone?

Has anyone cared enough outside of themselves to take a look at the back parking lot? There's an entire sea of cigarette butts out there. If anyone is stuggling to stay sober, or so caught up in some drama that they cannot focus enough to NOT FLICK THEIR CIGARETTE BUTTS out in the back parking lot.

Not only so we need someone to pick them up, or a team of people for that matter, how about NOT flicking them out there anymore.

Have some respect for our hall, the ski shop next store, and the grocery store, not to mention... YOURSELF!

Sponsorship Anyone?

If anyone is available and willing to be sponsors, please post yourself into a comment with this posting.

Rumors in the Air

Where does it say in the 'Big Book' of AA that we're supposed to get all wound up in the drama going on between members?

Who is sponsoring this mess?

Is this the way Bill Wilson and Bob Smith were doing things?

I don't think so...

Sunny Days

Hey, what better way to spend sober time than to visit Fremont Fellowship AA Hall and bask in the sun between meetings. You can grab an espresso at the nearby coffee shop, chat with friends, play guitars in the sun, get a sun tan, watch the traffic roll by, eat some great Chinese food and pick up a pack of cigarettes.

Check out a nooner!

Got a lunch break in North Seattle near 90th & Aurora Avenue North? Fremont Hall has meetings every day at 12 noon. Bring your lunch, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy a meeting. Even if you only get in a few minutes of a meeting, it's a good way to keep on the road of recovery during a busy work week. Go back to work after lunch feeling more SERENE!

Sober on a Sunday

It's such a great feeling to wake up sober on a Sunday. I see people out early in the morning who have obviously, been up all night drinking and using all that jazz, which is something I did for years too. I'm very grateful that I'm sober today and hope that all afflicted find hope in recovery.

The 12 Steps of AA

The 12 Suggested Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous

1.) We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.
2.) Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3.) Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4.) Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5.) Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6.) Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7.) Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8.) Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9.) Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10.) Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11.) Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12.) Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

In My Opinion...

The best meeting at Fremont Fellowship Hall is the "For This Day" Meeting on Saturdays at Noon.

They are big book focused, have a lot of old-timers in attendance who have worked this thing, and it is usually packed!

That's it for this posting!

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