Welcome to Bill's Place.
A collection of Friends In Recovery.
Featuring a weekly Step Study from various 12 Step Recovery literature.
With the occasional inspirational message or message pertaining to a broad spectrum of varied spiritual practices.
An open forum for discussion of the aforementioned Step Study and inspirational/spiritual practice messages.
"Dance like there's no one watching and love like you've never been hurt."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BillsPlace/
NA Gratitude
The NA Basic Text
xii
In keeping with the spirit of anonymity, we, the WSC Literature
Subcommittee, feel it appropriate to express our special gratitude
and appreciation to the fellowship as a whole, especially the
many who contributed material for inclusion in the book. We feel
that this book is a synthesis of the collective group conscience
of the Fellowship and that every single idea submitted is included
in the work in some form or another.
This volume is intended as a textbook for every addict seeking recovery. As addicts, we know the pain of addiction, but we also know the joy of recovery we have found in the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous. We believe the time has come to share our recovery, in written form, with all who desire what we have found. Appropriately, this book is devoted to informing every addict:
JUST FOR TODAY, YOU NEVER HAVE TO USE AGAIN.
Therefore,
With gratitude in our recovery, we dedicate our N.A. book to
the loving service of our Higher Power. That through the development
of a conscience contact with God, no addict seeking recovery
need die without a chance to find a better way of life.
We remain trusted servants in gratitude and loving service.
Chapter One
Who Is An Addict?
The only alternatives to recovery are jails, institutions, dereliction
and death. Unfortunately, our disease makes us deny our addiction.
If you are an addict, you too can find a new way of life through
the N.A. program that would not otherwise be possible. We have
become very grateful in the course of our recovery. Our lives
have become useful, through abstinence and by working the Twelve
Steps of Narcotics Anonymous.
Chapter Four
How It Works
Step Four
Assets must also be considered if we are to get an accurate and
complete picture of ourselves. This is very difficult for most
of us because it is hard for us to accept that we have good qualities.
However, we all have assets, many of them newly found in the
Program, such as being clean, open-mindedness, God-awareness,
honesty with others, acceptance, positive action, sharing, willingness,
courage, faith, caring, gratitude, kindness and generosity. Also,
our inventories usually include a lot of material on relationships.
Chapter Four
How It Works
Step Eleven
We are thankful for this step because we begin to get what is
best for us. The way we have sometimes prayed for our wants often
got us into the trap of having to live with them once we got
them. We could pray and get something, then have to pray for
its removal because we couldn't handle it.
Hopefully, having learned the power of prayer and the responsibility prayer brings with it, we can use the Eleventh Step as a guideline for our daily Program.
We begin to pray only for God's will for us. This way we are getting only what we are capable of handling. We are able to respond to it and handle it because God helps us prepare for it. Some of us simply use our words to give thanks for God's grace.
In an attitude of surrender and humility, we approach this step again and again to receive the gift of knowledge and strength from the God of our understanding. The Tenth Step clears the errors of the present so we may work this step. Without this step, it is unlikely that we could ever experience a spiritual awakening, be able to practice spiritual principles in our lives, or carry a sufficient message to attract others to recovery. There is a spiritual principle of giving away what we have been given in Narcotics Anonymous in order to keep it. By helping others to stay clean, we enjoy the benefit of the spiritual wealth we have found. We must give freely and gratefully that which has been freely and gratefully given to us.
Chapter Four
How It Works
Step Twelve
We attend meetings and make ourselves visible and available to
serve the fellowship. We give freely and gratefully of our time,
service, and what we have found here. The service we speak of
in Narcotics Anonymous is the primary purpose of our groups.
Service work is carrying the message to the addict who still
suffers. The more eagerly we wade in and work, the richer our
spiritual awakening will be.
The first way in which we carry the message speaks for itself. People see us on the street and remember us as devious, frightened loners. They notice the fear leaving our faces. They see us gradually come alive.
Once we find the N.A. way, boredom and complacency have no place in our new life. By staying clean we begin to practice such spiritual principles as hope, surrender, acceptance, honesty, open-mindedness, willingness, faith, tolerance, patience, humility, unconditional love, sharing and caring. As our recovery progresses, they touch every area of our lives because we simply try to live this Program in the here and now.
We find indescribable joy as we start to learn how to live by the principles of recovery. It is the joy of watching a person two days clean say to a person with one day clean, "An addict alone is in bad company". It is the joy of watching a person who was really struggling to make it, suddenly, in the middle of helping another addict to stay clean, become able to find the words they need to say coming from within.
We feel our lives have become worthwhile. Spiritually refreshed, we are glad to be alive. When using, our lives became an exercise in survival. Now we are doing much more living than surviving. Realizing the bottom line is staying clean, we can enjoy it. We like being clean and enjoy helping to carry the message of recovery to the addict who still suffers. Going to meetings really works.
Practicing spiritual principles in our daily lives leads us to a new image of ourselves. Honesty, humility and open-mindedness help us to treat our associates fairly. Our decisions become tempered with tolerance. We learn to respect ourselves.
The lessons we learn in our recovery are sometimes bitter and painful. By helping others we find the reward of self-respect as we are able to share these lessons with other members of Narcotics Anonymous. We cannot deny other addicts their pain, but we can carry the message of hope that was given to us by our fellow addicts in recovery. We share the principles of recovery as they have worked in our lives. God helps us as we help each other. Life takes on a new meaning, a new joy, and a quality of being and feeling worthwhile. We become spiritually refreshed and are glad to be alive. One aspect of our spiritual awakening comes through the new understanding of our Higher Power that we develop by sharing another addict's recovery.
Yes, we are a vision of hope. We are examples of the Program working. The joy we have in living clean is an attraction to the addict who still suffers.
We do recover to live clean and happy lives. Welcome to N.A. The steps do not end here; they are a new beginning.
Chapter Seven
Recovery and Relapse
When we forget the effort and work it took us to get a period
of freedom in our lives, lack of gratitude sinks in and self-destruction
begins again. Unless action is taken immediately we run the risk
of a relapse, which threatens our very existence. Keeping our
illusion of reality, rather than using the tools of the program,
will return us to isolation. Loneliness will kill us inside and
the drugs, which almost always come next, may do the job completely.
The symptoms and the feelings we experienced at the end of our
using will come back even stronger than before. This impact is
sure to destroy us if we don't surrender ourselves to the N.A.
program.
--- We are grateful that we were made so welcome at meetings that we felt comfortable. Without staying clean and coming to those meetings, we would surely have had a rougher time with the steps. Just one fix, pill, drink, snort, or toke will interrupt the process of recovery.
--- The first thing to do is to get clean. This makes the other stages of recovery possible. As long as we stay clean, no matter what, we have the greatest possible advantage over our disease. For this we are grateful.
--- As long as we maintain an attitude of being thankful for being clean, we find it is easier to remain clean. The best way to express gratitude is by carrying the message of our experience, strength and hope to the still-suffering addict. We are ready to work with any suffering addict.
Chapter Eight
We Do Recover
We know that we are powerless over a disease which is incurable,
progressive and fatal. If not arrested, it gets worse until we
die. We cannot deal with the obsession and compulsion. The only
alternative is to stop using and start learning how to live.
When we are willing to follow this course and take advantage
of the help available to us, a whole new life opens up. In this
way, we do recover.
Today, secure in the love of the fellowship, we can finally look another human being in the eye and be grateful for who we are.
Chapter Nine
Just For Today - Living The Program
Lack of daily maintenance can show up in many ways. Through open-minded
effort we come to rely on a daily relationship with God as we
understand Him. Each day most of us ask our Higher Power to help
us stay clean, and each night we give thanks for the gift of
recovery. As our lives become more comfortable, many of us lapse
into spiritual complacency, and risking relapse, we find ourselves
in the same horror and loss of purpose from which we have been
given only a daily reprieve. This is hopefully when our pain
motivates us to renew our daily spiritual maintenance. One way
we can continue a conscious contact, especially in hard times,
is to list the things for which we are grateful.
Many of us have found that setting aside quiet time for ourselves is helpful in making conscious contact with our Higher Power. By quieting of the mind, meditation can lead us to calmness and serenity. This quieting of the mind can be done in any place, time, or manner according to the individual.
Our Higher Power is accessible to us at all times. We receive guidance when we ask for knowledge of God's will for us. Gradually as we become more God-centered than self-centered, our despair turns to hope. Change also involves the great source of fear-the unknown. Our Higher Power is our source of the courage we need to face this fear.
--- As recovering addicts, we have a lot to be grateful for. As our defects are removed, we are free to become all we can. We emerge as new individuals with an awareness of ourselves and the ability to take our places in the world.
In living the steps, we begin to let go of our self-obsession. We ask a Higher Power to remove our fear of facing ourselves and life. We redefine ourselves by working the steps and using the tools of recovery. We see ourselves differently. Our personalities change. We become feeling people, capable of responding appropriately to life. We put spiritual living first and learn to use patience, tolerance and humility in our daily affairs.
Gratitude
Light of Love
Essence of Loving
Presence of Everlasting Peace
In deep gratitude we are open to living more powerfully and tangibly,
the union of all that is--The One Loving Presence in form.
It is from this gratitude that the way always remains open for
more and more giving and living kindness.
We are grateful for life's gentle reminders, keeping us aware.
We breathe it so.
In moments when it hasn't been gentle, we give thanks for the clarity of mind and freedom of being which brings us to listen and follow the deeper Voice for Love within..
We breathe it as so.
We awaken with joy and anticipation inside of a day lived with
all of this being expressed outside.
We offer praise and love through our perceptions.
We rest in breathing that we are renewed to do it all again.
Essence of Peace is alive through all of our giving and receiving.
What an immense gift this is, our living together as expressions
of One Vast Being,
One Radiant Presence,
One Love...
We live in gratitude...
One soul loved, many lives touched.
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Just for today, you never have to use again.
Never Alone Never Again
(neveralone_neveragain)
Jimmy K.
---
In loving service.
Peace.
Bill
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