Recently, I volunteered to lead a meeting in my home group on the topic of Tradition One. I felt quite confident of my ability to explain the Tradition. After all, I’ve been sober in SA for six years (I’m a member of another Twelve-Step fellowship)—and I can recite the Traditions by heart!
We We admitted We admitted that we were powerless over lust— Who cares to admit complete defeat? No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Every natural instinct cries out against the idea of personal powerlessness.
In our meetings, we often discuss Step One as it relates to powerlessness, but we seldom talk about the second half of Step One—unmanageability—in terms of insanity. Step Two states that we can be “restored to sanity”—so that must mean we are having problems with insanity to begin with!
What has stuck in my mind and simply won’t let go since our last phone call is the term “sexual nurturing” as something being supplied by your spouse. I’d like to share my thoughts and maybe learn some things when we talk further on the subject.
Dear SA Family: With a heavy heart, I’m sharing the sad news of the deaths of Roy K.’s son Howard, Howard’s wife, and their son. Thank you all for your prayers, respect, love, and kind thoughts now and in the future for the family.
The holiday season can be the most difficult time of year for many of us, myself included, but it is important to remember that we truly are blessed. Blessed with friends who care about what happens in our lives—friends who care about us in spite of our past, not because of it. If I have learned nothing else during my time in SA, I have learned that I never need to be alone again.
When I met with my sponsor to discuss my work on Step Eight, I was surprised that he crossed out several names on my list. He approved of my making direct amends to my wife (who knew about my acting out), but he said it might be hurtful for me to make direct amends to some of the other people on my list.
The AA Big Book contains a number of gripping phrases or metaphors. In describing the panic felt by anyone who has hit rock bottom, Bill W. wrote: “We, in our turn, sought the same escape with all the desperation of drowning men. What seemed at first a flimsy reed, has proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God” (AA 28).
On a beautiful spring night in 2009, I was driving to a funeral home south of the city, listening to an old cassette tape, a gift from Art L. “My buddy… my buddy, “he crooned. “Your buddy… misses you!” The familiar gruff voice with its approximate pitching brought back a flood of memories. I wondered what had happened to my friend.
At their July meeting, the GDA suggested that SA members who travel consider carrying SA literature to areas in need of it, since mailing costs for literature can be prohibitive. So on a recent trip to Asia, I carried in my luggage $225 worth of literature (White Books, Step into Action 1-12, Recovery Continues, back issues of ESSAY, and SA Pocket Guides) to the Manila SA group, as well as to a member trying to start a group in Delhi, India.
