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Post by ChrisK on Jul 8, 2004 23:50:44 GMT -5
I found out we lost 1 today. Guy had 18 years in. Cancer got him. He knew it came to know his time had come and went out really quick after finding he didn't have long to live. 18 years, I know in my heart that's the way to go. Face everything and recover oh how those words ring true for me today. No longer do I say F#ck everything and run. Today, just for today, i meet everything and face it and make the most of it.
It comes to the time where we our men or mice. I'm glad for the people with the 18 years. God puts them in our lives for us to learn from their ESH. This guy told his story to me when, I first got sober. The guy was living in an old abandoned building in Chicago in the winter. No heat water or electricity. After hearing his story, I knew, my bottom could get even lower. What was the term? it escapes me about the clssification of drunks. We never admit it until we got no where else to go. This is if we're lucky.
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Post by ~graced~ on Jul 9, 2004 7:26:48 GMT -5
(((((((((Chris))))))))))
We lost one who had 19 years last week....unfortunately it was to the disease of alcoholism.
I'm so grateful for those who get to join G-d, 'recovered'. I hope I continue to choose wisely. For today, I'll buy a bit of insurance, remember that I'm eligible for either and put my rear-end in the chair.
I'm sorry for the community's loss of his love and wisdom and experience, strength and hope. I've a feeling his story will live on through those who's lives were touched.
*hugs*
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Post by knothead on Jul 10, 2004 1:46:50 GMT -5
I was kind of put off by the title "RECOVERED," to be totally honest.
For we are always "RECOVERING." An on-going process that never ends until . . .
Hey, maybe we are "recovered" in the next realm!!! Who knows???
Man, it is both sad & wonderful at the same time that one our membership leaves us, especially when still working the program.
We had an old-timer that left our local membership to "that higher plane" 10-15 years ago. But people in the program still talk about him as if he were stiil here. Apparently, this guy's story was so poignant that it touched more than just a few alcoholic souls. I wasn't around the tables at that time. But I can tell, just hearing from others who were there, that he made a tremendous difference in a great many lives.
So, grieve in your own way. But rest assured, he will be remembered for the good he may have done to countless others (including yourself).
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Post by DeaconAA on Jul 10, 2004 8:51:14 GMT -5
Hi:
Don here, recovered alkie enjoying my 12,287th day of sobriety...one-day-at-a-time. A year or so ago, I got to thinking about who I'll be seeing when I make that big meeting up there with the HP....I figured it was a normal thing for an 80 year old to do. Sort of making plans but not planning the results! So, as best my fading memory would allow, I started compiling a list of those I have known in the Fellowshiip who have passed away and as of this moment that list totals 71. I'm sure there are more, but as mentioned, the memory is fading a bit. To my knowledge, all but 5 of those on the list died sober. That sure de-bunks the comments I've heard over the years that half of us will die drunk. No need to..no excuse to...if we keep on doing what we've been doing.I make my home group meetng faithfully, I read the BB, I work with others when asked, and because I don't say "no" to AA, I find myself chairing a meeting now and then, making coffee, putting chairs away, and sometimes turning out the lights of the meeting place (church). I have had 5 major operations in the past 12 years, currently on oxygen therapy but not entirely 24/7. Have a loving (Alanon) wife who has been my partner for 56 years. I've been retired 27 years from a job I almost lost. The promises of AA have come true in our lives. I manage to play 9 holes of golf frequently...hit the ball and sniff (the oxygen). Life is a ball..in fact, greAAt, because the HP I will meet one day has done for me what I could not do for myself.
If your mental calculator is unplugged, 12,287 days is 33 years, 7 months and change. As for my memory loss..it is not all bad as it helps clean up my conscience! So with those words of wisdom, I'll get out of here. Keep on keep'n on...I plan to.
Don A.
Ozarks of Arkansas
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 10, 2004 22:33:15 GMT -5
Thank you 4 sharing that. It's so good to have the people with some long time ESH staying around the tables to help everyone stay sober. We gain so much from you. LOL I have something like 1770 days, to hear your length of 24 hours together that is a lot of good days
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Post by knothead on Jul 10, 2004 22:59:00 GMT -5
Hi: Don here, recovered alkie enjoying my 12,287th day of sobriety...one-day-at-a-time. You are recovered?  Congratulations. Maybe you can drink successfully now. Might as well go for the gusto!!! This is a first for me. I have never heard an 'old-timer' say the he/she was 'recovered' before. Maybe its just semantics, but every 'old-timer' I've ever met has consistently said approximately the same thing: "If you got up this morning before I did and you are still sober, you have more sobreity than me today." Not trying to disparage you, Don, in anyway whatsoever. God knows I've been raised to respect my elders. And if you have 33 years & change, who the heck am I to ask how you did it, etc.? But I *am* asking. Put me in my place, if neccesary. But please don't tell me that you have 'recovered' again. Alcoholics, from what I understand, can only 'buy' one day at a time by working the steps given to us & practicing the priniciples on a daily basis. Where am I wrong??? |
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Post by ~graced~ on Jul 11, 2004 7:25:18 GMT -5
"We of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered, is the main purpose of this book." xiii-Forward to the First Edition Alcoholics Anonymous Cured, no. Recovered from that 'seemingly hopeless state of mind and body', boy, I sure hope so! One day at a time, it's the main mission of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous to help us get there. We don't have to die of the disease. When we stop drinking and adopt those 12 steps as a way of life and live according to the 12 principles we wake up one day to discover we have "reclaimed, gotten back, returned to our possession, retrieved, recouped, obtained, regained" and recoverED from that "hopeless state of mind and body" that engulfed us and threatened to kill us when we were actively drinking. I used to get ruffled every time I'd hear a person use the term 'recovered', believing it to mean 'cured' and free to go do drink like some 'normal person'. LOL More than once I've debated with folks recoverING vs. recoverED. I try to operate from what the Book says because it's true exactly as it's written in the first edition. Yep, I've recovered from that hopeless state of mind and body that I woke up to find myself in--thank G-d and A.A. for that one!!! I haven't recovered from the disease of alcoholism yet though, just from that hopeless state of mind and body.......guess I get to keep coming back!  That being said--I introduce myself as a recovering alcoholic...LOL G-d bless an oldtimer here who introduces himself as "a greatful alcoholic IN recovery who is recoverED from that hopeless state of mind and body that d**n near killed me, but still recoverING from being a sick, mean old bastard--you sure you wanna sit next to me?"...LOL I sit next to him every time! LOLOL ~~ Pleasure to meet you, Don! |
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Post by DeaconAA on Jul 11, 2004 10:04:12 GMT -5
Hi:
Wow, found three replies to my ramblings of yesterday...didn't realize I could garner that much attention with my first post. I was a bit disheartened, however, that one reply suggested I might as well go back to drinking because I had recovered. I think the term was "go for the gusto!" If I had used "permanent recovery" as written in the Fwd to the 2nd Ed., page xvii, with that kind of thinking among us, maybe someone would suggest I should give up my seat at the tables of AA because I'm "permanently recovered." My observation over the years tells me that those who read between the lines of our BB often develop rationals that are a bit much. I'm still looking in the BB to find where is suggests "90 meetings in 90 days!" Or, "the guy or gal who got out of bed first this morning, has the most sobriety." That is about as laughable to me as saying the guy who shows up at the bank first has the most money in it! But "things not written" in our text is another topic!
Anyway, it was good hearing from the three of you. If a newcomer should happen to read this, believe me - "thousands of men and women who were once hopeless....have recovered. They have solved their drinking problem." We (God and I) did -so can you!!!!!
Don A.
Ozarks of Arkansas
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Post by mender1 on Jul 11, 2004 11:14:11 GMT -5
By doing a daily routine I have recovered from the insanity that this addiction brings to my life ie I am drinking/using.
Have i recovered from the insanity if I pick up another drink NO.
I have proven this to myself in relaspe it took me 11 years of in and out of the program to show myself I can not drink and I can not have any mind altering substance go past my lip's if I want to be recovered from the insanity of addiction.
I have said many times this is a addiction that needs fed on a daily basis either by drinking /using or by the spiritual food I get by following the step's in the program that have proven themselves to work if we work them.
The illness of addiction will always be within me it is up to me as to how I will feed it this day.
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Post by knothead on Jul 11, 2004 17:23:48 GMT -5
[If I had used "permanent recovery" as written in the Fwd to the 2nd Ed., page xvii, with that kind of thinking among us, maybe someone would suggest I should give up my seat at the tables of AA because I'm "permanently recovered." My observation over the years tells me that those who read between the lines of our BB often develop rationals that are a bit much. I'm still looking in the BB to find where is suggests "90 meetings in 90 days!" Or, "the guy or gal who got out of bed first this morning, has the most sobriety." That is about as laughable to me as saying the guy who shows up at the bank first has the most money in it! But "things not written" in our text is another topic!]
Thanks, DeacAA & ~graced~ for righting my faulty thinking.
You know, I have been through several treatment centers as well as to many Big Book studies, and this was the first time that I have ever actually read *any* of the forwards with any clarity (I have in my posession a second edition copy I got from one those rehabs). I read both forwards for the first time just now, thanks to you people. And I am aware that is a third now, as well.
Not only do most rehabs teach the 90 & 90 principle, they also try to tell you not make any major decisions for at least a year. Well, if I had strictly adhered to that, I would likely be out a job, out of any income, and out of a roof over my head. I had to change jobs (major decision), because I knew the company I was working for was eventually going belly-up. So, I cut my losses, went for the first company that would hire me (cut in pay, also). And sure enough, the company I had been working with for several years, did close its' doors about 2 weeks later.
I don't want to discount all of the rehabs out there, for they do have their place. I just wish that they would teach recovery the way it is laid out in the the AA text.
That being said, welcome aboard, DeaconAA. Glad you are here. I hope you will continue post, regardless of idiots like me that go off half-thingyed (as in a hunting rifle) sometimes.
Dadgumit, can't even thingy a gun around here, without someone thinking sexual thoughts. I bet you dollars to a donut I could say "thingy" before I could say "I spent my load" or some such.
Rediculous.
Maybe I'll go off half-thingyed next time.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 11, 2004 20:37:46 GMT -5
I feel somewhat responsible for the misunderstanding. Recovered is a term we use in our area when, a member passes away sober. I wouldn't dare take someone's inventory in this matter. I don't drink today. If, I go to bed sober, I did in fact recover for that day. Tomorrow, is another day
Chris
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Post by ~graced~ on Jul 11, 2004 22:50:34 GMT -5
Stick around and you'll come to know just how much I blundered my way into learning about the steps and A.A. simply by going off half-thingyed. LOL I'm thinking it's not all bad--generally that's the information I retained well.
Umm....and by the way--there's four editions of the Big Book out there now.
Says something that I've got a copy of each of them..LOL The first edition was my sponsors--second and third are mine and the fourth--*blushing*.... Wellllllllll, I'm having a problem giving up that third edition for a fourth edition. Geeze, I've carried the same third edition for eons. *sigh*
More proof that alcoholics like me truly do resist change!
*hugs*
~~
Oh, and Chris, we use the term 'recovered' around here for those of us who get to meet G-d sober, too!
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 12, 2004 9:33:24 GMT -5
LOL I have a hard enough time trying to express myself in a face to face. It's so difficult to convey your thoughts down some times. This has to be the point of the annoying little smiley faces ;D I've seen to often people on the chat sites fly off at a little misunderstanding that, could have been avoided by being face to face.
Some are sicker then others. I'm at a point where the pains no longer around. I keep coming back and I wonder, what do i really have to share? I've gotten a little more humble since, I've gotten lucky by the grace of God to have stayed sober. The longer I've stayed sober the less I now know!!!! Fake it till you make it. I kept coming back.
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Post by mender1 on Jul 17, 2004 9:20:34 GMT -5
We used the term died sober
We will never recover it will always be within us but we do recover some of the losses if we stay sober
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Post by caressa on Oct 11, 2010 5:26:22 GMT -5
Noticed that Deacon's birthday was listed. Check out this old post and found it interesting. I do recover from that hopeless state of mind and body. I do not recover from my disease but can recover from my dis-ease by working this program, one day at a time.
What a wonderful way to celebrate life. That next drink is only an arms length away. It is conditional on my connection to my God as to whether I reach out and pick it up.
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Post by SunnyGirl on Oct 11, 2010 14:32:52 GMT -5
I remember reading DeaconAA's posts way back when....
I reread this thread and thoroughly enjoyed reading
the wisdom from all these old-timers here at EOR! Hugs, SG
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Congratulations. Maybe you can drink successfully now. Might as well go for the gusto!!!
. I will be back looking for Lin and others.