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/
As we think, so we become.
~Elisabeth L.~We can enrich our interior monologue. We can seek the company of people who inspire us with a loving approach to life. We can absorb the written thoughts of writers who encourage our positive emotions. We can decide to be cheerful and optimistic, just for today.
Whom would you rather be around - someone who chronically complains and talks about what a mess everything is, or someone who finds joy and delight in watching the antics of two squirrels in a tree? You are your constant companion. Your own company can be a pleasure or a drag, depending on the thoughts and feelings you permit to linger in your consciousness.
We take Steps Four and Five in order to sort out our thoughts, getting rid of those that depress our spirit. In Step Ten, we continue a daily mental housecleaning so that residues of resentment and discouragement are not allowed to accumulate. Then we go on to Step Eleven for an infusion of the kind of thinking that nurtures the person we want to become.
Today, I will exercise my freedom of thought.
The Program works if you want it to work.
~Anonymous~Rarely do climbers stare up to see how far away the top still is. Instead, when they rest, they look down toward the starting point of their journey. The view they see assures them that they have already come a long, long way.
Like the climbers, we need to keep our eyes on where we are and where we've been, not on where we're going. When we become discouraged with the progress of our recovery, we only need to look back over how far we have come. The rewarding view gives us courage to continue. Many of us recall times when we lived without hope and the sense of impending doom. Now we look forward to life with confidence.
Today, I will remember to face my climb with optimism. Even if my progress sometimes seems slow to me, it's still a long way from where I once was.
~Rainer Maria Rilke~
I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear
without my contriving.
If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.
Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing to you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.
Thoughts and feelings
~Ralph Marston~How can you go ahead and take action when you don't feel like it? Set your feelings aside and do what needs to be done.
How can you move toward your dream when you don't think you can do it? Set your thinking aside and follow your heart.
Thoughts and feelings are powerful and extremely useful, yet they do not have to control you. You control you.
Pay heed to your feelings and listen carefully to your thoughts. Then act according to what you know, in that part of you beyond thought and beyond feeling.
Thoughts and feelings are important parts of life, and yet they are not the whole essence of life. Keep yourself connected to that ineffable presence that is life itself.
Be guided by what you think and what you feel. And all the while, be true to who you are.
The NA Basic Text
STEP TWO
"We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."The Second Step is necessary if we expect to achieve any sort of ongoing recovery. The First Step leaves us with the need to believe in something that can help us with our powerlessness, uselessness, and helplessness.
The First Step has left a vacuum in our lives. We need to find something to fill that void. This is the purpose of the Second Step.
Some of us didn't take this step seriously at first; we passed over it with a minimum of concern, only to find the next steps would not work until we worked this one. Even when we admitted we needed help with our drug problem, many of us would not admit to the need for faith and sanity.
We have a disease: progressive, incurable and fatal. One way or another we went out and bought our destruction on the time plan! All of us, from the junkie snatching purses to the sweet little old ladies hitting two or three doctors for legal prescriptions, have one thing in common: we seek our destruction a bag at a time, a few pills at a time, or a bottle at a time until we die. This is at least part of the insanity of addiction. The price may seem higher for the addict who prostitutes for a fix than it is for the addict who merely lies to a doctor, but ultimately both pay with their lives. Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.
Many of us realize when we get to the Program that we have gone back time and again to using, even though we knew that we were destroying our lives by doing so. Insanity is using day after day knowing that only physical and mental destruction comes when we do. The most obvious insanity of the disease of addiction is the obsession to use drugs.
Ask yourself this question: Do I believe it would be insane to walk up to someone and say, "May I please have a heart attack or a fatal accident?" If you can agree that this would be an insane thing, you should have no problem with the Second Step.
The first thing we do in this Program is stop using. At this point we begin to feel the pain of living without drugs or anything to replace them. This pain forces us to seek a Power greater than ourselves that can relieve our obsession to use.
The process of coming to believe is something that we seem to experience in similar ways. One thing most of us lacked was a working relationship with a Higher Power. We begin to develop this relationship by simply admitting to the possibility of a Power greater than ourselves. Most of us have no trouble admitting that addiction had become a destructive force in our lives. Our best efforts resulted in ever greater destruction and despair. At some point we realized we needed the help of some Power greater than our addiction. Our understanding of a Higher Power is up to us. No one is going to decide for us. We can call it the group, the program, or we can call it God. The only suggested guidelines are that this Power be loving, caring and greater than ourselves. We don't have to be religious to accept this idea. The point is that we open our minds to believe. We may have difficulty with this, but by keeping an open mind, sooner or later, we find the help we need.
We talked and listened to others. We saw other people recovering, and they told us what was working for them. We began to see evidence of some Power that could not be fully explained. Confronted with this evidence, we began to accept the existence of a Power greater than ourselves. We can use this Power before we begin to understand it.
As we see "coincidences" and miracles happening in our lives, our acceptance becomes trust. We grow to feel comfortable with our Higher Power as a source of strength. As we learn to trust this Power, we begin to overcome our fears of life.
The process of coming to believe is a restoration to sanity. The strength to move into action comes from this belief. We need to accept this step to start us on the road to recovery. When our belief has grown, we are ready for Step Three.
After joining feel free to invite your friends to the Group by using the "Invite" button below;
or by simply sending them this URL;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BillsPlace/
Just for today, you never have to use again.
Never Alone Never Again
(neveralone_neveragain)
Footprints
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along
the beach with the LORD. Across the sky flashed scenes from his
life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the
sand; one belonged to him, and the other to the LORD.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it. "LORD, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.
The LORD replied, "My
precious, precious child, I love you and I would never leave
you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only
one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
~Mary Stevenson Parker~
Butt Prints In The Sand
One night I had a wondrous
dream,
One set of footprints there was seen,
The footprints of my precious Lord,
But mine were not along the shore.
But then some stranger prints
appeared. . .
And I asked the Lord, "What have we here?
Those prints are large and round and neat,
But Lord, they are too big for feet."
"My child," He said
in somber tones,
"For miles I carried you alone.
I challenged you to walk in faith,
But you refused and made me wait."
"You disobeyed, you would
not grow,
The walk of faith you would not know. . .
So I got tired, I got fed up,
And there I dropped you on your butt."
"Because in life there
comes a time
When one must fight, and one must climb,
When one must rise and take a stand,
Or leave their butt prints in the sand."
~Author Unknown~
Jimmy K.
---
Tell yourself:
JUST FOR TODAY my thoughts will be on my recovery, living and
enjoying life without the use of drugs.
JUST FOR TODAY I will have faith in someone in N.A. who believes
in me and wants to help me in my recovery.
JUST FOR TODAY I will have a program. I will try to follow it
to the best of my ability.
JUST FOR TODAY through N.A. I will try to get a better perspective
on my life.
JUST FOR TODAY I will be unafraid, my thoughts will be on my
new associations, people who are not using and
who have found a new way of life. So long as I follow that way,
I have nothing to fear.
Peace.
Bill
A Group of Recovering Friends
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BillsPlace/
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Pics of Family and Friends
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ARNA Album
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MySpace
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Put yourself on my map.
Let me see where you are.
http://www.frappr.com/?a=constellation_map&mapid=2215210
Agents of God Montage
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=1895873a7fa75330862d31&skin_id=0&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url
Trust
and Believe
Canookie
Girl
