Heard in a Meeting: I was busted, disgusted and…
I was busted, disgusted and not to be trusted. Hope was my first higher power. I was told it stands for Hearing Other People’s Experiences. I decided to promote my Inner Critic to Inner Cheerleader. If you ask God to move a mountain, be prepared to wake up next to a shovel. Let us love […]
Sponsorship Café: Ego and a False Sense of Importance
Sometimes, when I have my sponsor hat on, I feel a tug of ego telling me what a valuable and important person I am. My ego tells me my sponsee is lucky (and smart!) to have me as a sponsor, and that I am the only person able to help this poor soul. These thoughts […]
AA History: Carl Jung and AA
by Dan M. In January of 1961, Bill W. wrote a long-overdue letter of gratitude to Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, world-renowned as the founder of Analytic Psychology. Among other accomplishments, Jung developed the concepts of the collective unconscious and archetypes, and devoted much of his later life to examining the relationship between psychology and religion. But often […]
Sponsorship Cafe: When Working with Another Alcoholic Leads to a Moment of Clarity
by Bill M. I found myself smiling, remembering one of those defining moments in sobriety we are blessed to have. A moment of clarity when we are led to a Truth that changes how we look at something, and maybe how we live. I never really searched for them, they manifested as gifts through working […]
Heard in a Meeting: At first, alcohol was magic. Then it was medicine. At the end…
At first, alcohol was magic. Then it was medicine. At the end, it was just madness. Cry and we’ll all cry with you. Drink and you’ll drink alone. I was a social drinker until the age of 12. I take what I like to call “immaculate footsteps”—not doing actions that will require me to have […]
Letter from East Bay Intergroup to Groups – Financial Situation
July 17, 2024 East Bay Intergroup – 4096 Piedmont Avenue, Box 407, Oakland, CA 94611 | info@eastbayaa.org To all Group Treasurers, Intergroup Representatives, and Group Mailing Contacts Re: Financial Situation Thank you for your service and for being a part of our fellowship in the East Bay Intergroup. Our financial situation requires that we write […]
AA History: The 11th Step Prayer
by Dan M. If your only knowledge of the St. Francis Prayer is in the eleventh step of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, you may be surprised that one thing we know of its origin is that it was not written by St. Francis. It first appeared, in French, in the December 1912 issue […]
Sponsorship Cafe: Can’t Stop the Sun—Searching for a Higher Power
by Bill M. A member who was having trouble developing a conception of a power greater than himself was told by his sponsor to go to the shoreline at sunset, and when the sun was halfway below the horizon, to stop it and hold it there. Mother Nature became his first Higher Power, and that […]
Heard in a Meeting: The people who stay sober are people who…
The people who stay sober are people who don’t drink again. I have a God box, and my ego’s not allowed in. I was an only child. And I wasn’t the favorite. I wrote a resignation letter to AA and gave it to the secretary. He said he would not accept it, and so I […]
A.A. History: Bill W. and LSD
By Dan M. To those who don’t know the history, it may be a surprise that Bill W. experimented with LSD in the 50s. It is worth recounting how that came about and what the repercussions were. Since the mid-forties Bill had been friends with Gerald Heard, the Anglo-Irish philosopher. They had a long correspondence […]
