* Look for more information about these events in Sobriety News.
** See links page for flyer

To links and current events

Your Help for the Calendar of Events

A complete Calendar of Events depends on our active members contributing information about their coming events, participation of Intergroups in surrounding Districts, and our ability to gather information. We feel it is worth trying. Let us know what you think. Often, we miss opportunities within the fellowship because the message didn't get out. We all want to carry the message to other alcoholics. This will be one more way we can accomplish that.

OUR FACE IS CHANGING

    Sobriety News is updated during the course of the month, so events can be added to the Calendar. You may, therefore, find it helpful or informative to check back to the website periodically to see what has been added.
    The HAI index page has links to flyers of coming events, or you can click on the AA blue button above. Did you know that the links page also has links to other AA websites and to back issues of Sobriety News? Also there is a link to the Meeting Schedule (or click the coin at right) so you can print out the schedule (if you can access Microsoft Word) on a single sheet of 8 1/2X11 paper. This schedule is current with the latest information available. If you see an error, or information for your meeting has been changed, the schedule will be updated if you notify Sobriety News at

Resentment is like acid,
Eating away at the vessel
In which it's stored.

There's More To Life Group's 14th Anniversary meeting will be Friday April 25th. This event will be in the fellowship room of the Community United Methodist Church at 16th and Bridge Street, New Cumberland. Use the 16th Street entrance. The speaker will be Mike C (Irish Mike) from 40th St via Limerick, Ireland. Fellowship and snacks will be available from 5:30 till 6:30PM, and the speaker meeting will be from 6:30 till 7:30 PM. A copy of the flyer is available on the links page, or click on the chip at left.

Another FREE conference in the Acts of Recovery series was enjoyed by 20 or more local recovering alcoholics who made the trip to Baltimore on Saturday March 8, 2003.

The Acts began at noon and after the usual mood setting opening, Barbara B from the Parkton, MD Group said she used to think alcohol was the problem but found in the rooms that it was the solution and she was the problem. When she became desperate and couldn't go on the way it had become, she began praying for God to put some women in her life who were plugged into Him. She had a lot of names for God, but finally decided to call him God, because that's what we called him; besides, that way people would know what she was talking about. She had to smash all those old ideas about God. She learned that when she was angry or resentful it was because she was imagining the situation without God being in it. Her recovery is based upon the grace of God and the experience of others in her sponsorship family who can help her apply these principles to her situation. This experience has taught her that recovery is the effort to help God's other kids.    

Winslow S from Pasadena, MD said that acquaintances told him he had a problem; when they drank, they would go home and go to bed, but he would go to Florida. You couldn't be surprised at the raucous laughter during his sharing, his subject was, "We are not a glum lot". Nor could you ignore the powerful message of hope. He had lost everything, including self respect, when years later he came into AA (again) and was willing to do anything to change his life. In making amends, he got to repair the damage with his son, who years before had suffered from leukemia, was expected to die, and when begging his father to stay the night in his hospital room, was rebuffed in favor of alcohol. This son hated him and the amends took years. The healing started when the crying turned to laughter. A whole new world can come from this healing. Today he wakes to serenity, with the knowledge that he is just part of God's world, and accepting of the grace that is given him.

A free light lunch was served and then we were 'Rocketed into the fourth dimension of existence' by Liz N from Odenton, MD. Her thinking had made her believe that she was not good enough. She started drinking with friends and had lots of fun. Although she prayed all the time (to convince others that she was good), she ended up an alcoholic and wondered how that could be. All those novenas and prayers recited by wrote didn't help. She eventually found AA and heard people saying things like 'I haven't had a drink today, and that makes me a winner.' She hadn't had a drink for four months and she sure didn't feel like a winner. She learned that the tools of this program are not about not drinking, but about having a spiritual experience. She was in that horrible dilemma of no place to go but to God. Finally after doing the seventh Step, she reached what people call atonement, she calls it at one ment. She can't be satisfied with where she is today, because recovery is in the journey, not the destination. "It's in the seeking we get glimpses of what the great reality is" according to Bill W.

To wrap up what was an inspiring afternoon, Tom F's subject was 'Service thru Action'. Tom said he came to AA as the result of direct hits. He was divorced not separated, fired not reprimanded or suspended, broke not having financial difficulty, nuts not having emotional problems, and filled with remorse and shame. All of his decisions had been based on self. He couldn't hear the music of life because he only knew one note... me, me, me. He knew the words but he couldn't dance. He found that learning the other seven notes on the scale come from helping God's other kids. Tom believes that EGO is the enemy of our immortal souls. It is our desire to be self sufficient and different from our brothers and sisters which gives it birth. You diminish ego by helping God's other kids. Your life only has value if you share it. That is the lesson of this Program.

CHATHAM SPONSORSHIP ANNIVERSARY

The Sponsorship Group of Chatham, NJ (a speakers group which meets Sundays at 8:30PM) celebrated their 2nd year of carrying the message with a dinner speaker meeting Sunday, March 9, 2003. NO DUES - NO FEES. This Group has the tradition of having a member introduce each of the two speakers with a brief treatise on sponsorship. In this case Doreen S from Harbor City Speakers  introduced the first, and Joe L also from the Harbor City Group in Baltimore introduced the second speaker, both addressing the importance of sponsorship in their recovery.

Tom F from the Harbor City Group, with his great humor delivered the very serious message that this Program is not the frills, but working the Steps with a sponsor and helping God's other kids. New in the Program, Tom was told to get a sponsor that he could relate to. So, Tom was talking to some longtimer and told him he was looking for someone he could identify with to be his sponsor. The old-timer said he had just the man, who like Tom, was fresh out of the nut house and was three months sober. Tom intuitively knew that wouldn't work, so he asked Wally, who he thought he could get over on (which he never ever did). He told Wally that he'd been told that he should wait for the fog to lift before working the steps. Wally said, No, We'll work the steps which will lift the fog.

Clancy I from the Pacific Group with his usual wit, talked about the scourge of how my case is different and how this is a disease of perception. He knew he wasn't an alcoholic, he didn't drink because he liked booze, he drank because he had unbearable feelings. Clancy explained the process by which he found that when alcoholic emotions start working for us, the maturing process stops. Grown up in every way, except our feelings, we are at the intermittent beck and call of childish emotions. AA is not about problems with alcohol, it is about alcoholism. Alcohol problems are overcome by stopping drinking. Doing that by an alcoholic is unbearable, he has to drink to keep his sanity, and that is alcoholism. The solution is not the book, or the fellowship, or meetings, it is reaching out to the alcoholic who still suffers, and sharing our experience, strength, and hope.

The opportunity to fellowship with 45 friends from Baltimore, Virginia, and York, PA, and make new acquaintances who are on the road to happy destiny was worth the three hour trek. However, the two messages about what this Program of Recovery is, was the real benefit, lest we forget what gives us a daily reprieve from this fatal disease, and fail to take the actions suggested by suiting up and showing up for AA.

New Meetings and CHANGES

A new speaker meeting will be starting Sunday April 27 at Fellowship House at 2:00PM. On the last Sunday of each month the 2:00PM meeting will be a regular speaker meeting.  The first speaker will be Bill F whose home group is Fellowship House .

 A new open discussion meeting of The Way Out Group will be held at the Epworth United Methodist Church beginning April 27, 2003. The location is at 21st and Derry Sts. See the flyer on the links page; take a copy to your group. Come see what's happening - be a part of, not apart from.

The Joy of Living Group will restart April 23rd and they need support. The meeting is held at Fellowship House at 6:00PM on Wednesdays.

The Progress Group's Wednesday 8:30PM Mystery Topic Meeting at the Ridgeway Community Church at Elmerton and Progress Avenue is in need of support. Several of the regular members are unable to attend currently for various reasons. Also the 7:15PM Step & Tradition Meeting could use your support. Why not join in practicing the First Tradition by helping them weather this storm.

Sobriety is a journey of joyful discovery

Although the host computer was shut down over the Spring break, the website again has free downloads of AA speaker tapes. There have been quite a few additions of recent speaker events. It also has a free 'streambox ripper' program that you can download so that you can convert the speaker audio file you download to mp3 or wave format. Mp3 is a smaller file for storage on your computer, but if you have a CD burner, you can use wave format to make CDs that are playable on any CD player. The site has flyers for events of interest in PA and NJ, and other recovery related stuff. Check it out!  http://theprimarypurpose.no-ip.org  Although this website was off line for several weeks, it is back up and bigger and better than ever.

Surfing The Web

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Alcoholism has been described as a disease of perception. Often what we perceive is not reality at all. Through working the Steps of the AA Program of recovery, we undergo a metamorphosis that alters the way we act and think. The following essay reflects neither anger nor resentment by the author, but rather tolerance and hope. Isn't it the goal of us all to modify our old behaviors in such a way that we can be tolerant of others? We find that our problem was not alcohol after all, but alcoholism manifested through self-centered fears.