My home group in Georgia, we would give the new-comer a list of names and numbers(a sheet that is passed around) when they first attend, a list of those present that wanted to be available to that person, usually women for women and men for men ... along with making sure they had a BB and perhaps a couple brochures ...

I am not sure this is 'the book' you're referring to or not ... you've essentially been an active AA member for over two years, I don't feel it is necessary to act as if you've never attended a meeting ...

and please stop 'reading other people's minds' ... not one of us is THAT perceptive ...


Pappy

You have two years of sober experience in AA. That didn't vanish when you relapsed and came back to AA. It is still there, and it can still benefit others just as much as before, if not more.

And besides, your sponsor said you should put your number in the newcomer book, so you are following directions from your sponsor.  Good.

if anybody else in the meeting wants to start clutching their pearls over that, they can go talk to their own sponsor about it.

H1, I don't think Kreskin could really read people's minds. He was a trickster. Don't believe everything you see and hear. Quit being gullible. 

The fellowship of AA can be very broken. Pointing the mind at it too much can be unhealthy. You know THE program, the design for living - that can work to heal your spiritual malady. The fellowship is not the program, and in some cases - can detract from spiritual progress. There are a lot of details and messy jr high type popularity contests going on, and for me staying fairly detached worked well. I was reminded by a wise one early on that the majority grew up in a dysfunctional home that stunted or halted emotional intelligence and maturity - leaving most with an EQ somewhere around jr high. www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional-health/emotional-intelligence-eq.htm

Of course no one asked for this, and it's not to shame anyone - however as a person seeking to grow in the EQ department - I had to seek people who could exemplify that. Unfortunately, those are a rare few - however I do find that they find each other, and I am not looking for a perfect person to hang around either.

I can't stomach the slogan 'stick with the winners' as for me I am still an equal on the path, and that mind set does allow me to grow spiritually and emotionally. But I do find that I gravitate towards strengths in others, and become more tolerant (compassionate, empathetic) of dysfunction in general.


As you know I do not attend the AA fellowship anymore. I do attend other 12 step fellowships in small portions. I also gravitate toward other spiritual people who have found paths outside the 12 step platform - but of course, the basic principles and design for living are the same at the roots. I am open to walking along the path with people who deeply inspire me anywhere - not just in 12 step rooms. My black and white thinking used to guide me toward some of the silly things we hear in the rooms and out of the fellowship. But the program for living, the steps and principles do not reflect most of what the fellowship will say - or structure they try to enforce.

I need to learn to follow my own intuition (where God is) - where my understanding of a HP resides. My instincts tell me today that I can not safely drink alcohol, and that I don't feel like it when I am living a principled life in all of my affairs seeking progress not perfection. I recognize that today my desire to drink is removed as if it never was. I would repel from it as if a hot flame just as described in the BB. To me, this represents sanity and clarity - and it also naturally offers hope to others no matter if I write my name on a sheet of paper or not. It just is. It doesn't really need pushing, explaining, rules, restrictions, definitions or defense. It just is. No one can take it from me, because it's who I am. No one can give it to me, because it is not derived from human aide. It is the direct result of living a life according to a faith in a higher power I came to understand using the steps, and continue to practice while striving to live the principles that were brought to my awareness in my step work.


What comes to mind here for me is something I first heard from Dean on the board here - 'my program could get your drunk' - to me this means - to each their own. I can't expect to stay sober, grow emotionally and spiritually off the advice or direction of someone else - and that includes all of the fellowship. However, I can take the parts that I feel nourish my soul, and build upon them in faith that God Doesn't make mistakes - and I am not, never have been, and never will be one. There is nothing 'wrong' with me - and so I love myself unconditionally through all of it - as an all loving higher power would wish for me, and move on in peace - which automatically allow me to be the best and most useful for everyone else as a byproduct.

I believe in you

Progress H1, that's what I see in you, ... progress, not perfection ... it what we all seek ...


Love ya and God Bless,
Pappy

I agree Fyne Spirit - I feel so fortunate to have this message board to get 'The Message'.

I am not sure I would have otherwise. Though today I see it was all just as it was supposed to be for me.  I was fortunate to also find a sponsor that did let me go through the steps straight from the big book. Though I had to do some persuading - I felt confident to do so because of the message I received here. She was very good at showing me that very important pattern I was looking for in my middle steps - and she was also very good at showing me an example of how some who are athiest come to find a HP. Though she believed in Jesus, she in no way forced that belief upon me. I came to see that many of the coincidences were not that at all - through her 'hands off' approach and example.


What ever was lacking in her - whatever gaps needed to be filled - were filled with the big book and this board.


It would be devastating to see AA fall apart as I know it works for someone like me who came in straight off the street and used no other program or therapy or rehab or medication to get sober. I went from drinking 24/7 and near death - to happily recovered.


I have been able to expand on this base - and I am also aware none of that would be possible without it. No spiritual concepts from the ancients would have made any sense to me - it was all greek to me - gibberish that I tried to piece together with out any sort of higher power. The thing the steps did - leading me to a higher power, and giving me a design for living... is the foundation to my very life.

AA did that. I have gone through times of resentment toward various aspects of how the fellowship has evolved - however, I am always at the core, 100% grateful for AA and the path it gave me to a HP which saved my life.

xoxoxo