Sobriety News
August 2004

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

    The Sobriety News is a publication of the Harrisburg Area Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is written, edited, and read by AA members, and those interested in the AA program of recovery from the disease of alcoholism, linking one alcoholic to another.
    Our desperation to find relief from the bondage of alcoholism has led us to this program as a new "design for living". Many members utilize meetings, sponsorship, self examination, amends, prayer, meditation, AA literature, service to fellow alcoholics, and many other tools to maintain their recovery. This publication is intended as one more tool to live a life of recovery. Because each AA member has an individual way of working this program, divergent views to recovery, within the concept of the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous, are welcome. An effort is made to print all viewpoints in this forum. Articles are not intended to be statements of AA policy, nor does publication of any article imply endorsement by AA or the Harrisburg Area Intergroup.

August Calendar of Events*

LOOKING AHEAD

Don't miss PENNSCYPAA XVI
This promises to be a wonderful celebration of young and young at heart AAers.  This year, the convention will be held in Williamsport August 13th thru the 15th.  We look forward to publishing the forthcoming report on its success.

MIDDLETOWN SHOT OF ENTHUSIASM

There's going to be another of those exciting enthusiastic speaker/desert events at the Middletown Groups' home turf, in the Middletown Presbyterian Church at the corner of North Union and Water Streets. The speaker will be Dottie H from Lakewood, California. The event, as usual is open and free of cost, although you are encouraged to bring your favorite desert to share. The event will be held from 6:00PM till about 8:00PM. Carpooling would alleviate some of the parking shortage for those who are able to do that. Hope to see you there for another of those rousing Middletown extravaganzas.

Mark your calendar for Saturday August 14^th so you remember the HAI 19^th Annual Picnic at New Cumberland Borough Park. Get your tickets from your Intergroup Rep before August 5 so that a barbeque chicken will be waiting for you. There will be games for the kids, and for the adults. The doings begin at noon and clean up at 6:00PM. Bring dessert or salad if you'd like. Tickets will be available from your Intergroup Rep for $5.00 (Children are free). Barbeque chicken, hot dogs and hamburgers will be proffered. There will be an open discussion meeting at about 4:00PM. Bring a comfortable chair if you don't enjoy picnic benches. This is always a fun affair.

Primary Purpose Weekend

The Primary Purpose Weekend will be a Fifth Tradition Workshop about AAs primary purpose, which is to carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. What message am I and my home group carrying? This event will come to us through the sponsorship of the Big Book Study Group at the  Camp Hill Presbyterian Church,  August 27th and 28th, 2004. There will be three speakers: Chris R and Myers R from Texas, and Peter M from Jersey. There will be an $18 early bird registration until June 30, and it will be $20 after that date. Space will be limited, so you may want to register early. Registration and fellowship starts at 5:00PM Friday. Beverages, snacks and Saturday continental breakfast and lunch are included in registration fee. Bring your Big Book with you and follow along in the book as the Program unfolds. The event runs from Friday at five, till Saturday evening at nine PM. For more details and registration form, click  here.

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless"

ACTS OF RECOVERY

The Acts of Recovery in York were held on June 12, 2004, at the Trinity Methodist Church on East King Street. As is the custom, there were four great inspirational speakers surrounding a light lunch on a Saturday afternoon. The first of the speakers was Jaime F, whose home group is the Fourth Dimension, which meets Tuesdays at 7:30PM in the church where this event was held. Jaime developed his topic of "The Primary Purpose" by explaining how he came to the understanding that his happiness depends on his being of maximum service to the only thing in the Universe that is permanent. He told a story of self centeredness and absolute dependence on alcohol to make him feel that he was OK. He finally called for help in desperation, and they took him to a treatment center where he arrived with the usual luggage (all his worldly possessions in a plastic garbage bag). His first sponsor ran him through the Steps quickly, because he had a life to get back to, but the joke was on him, a year without drinking made him desperately miserable. He got a new sponsor who told him that if he wanted what he had, then he had to do what he does, and that is to carry the message of God's grace to others. A wonderful way to start the afternoon, with a message of hope.
    The second message was from Elaine R, whose home group is the Pittsburgh 10:30AM Friday open speaker Ross Group. She told of the large red haired lady named Rosie, who carried a gun, was crazy, and taught her to drink scotch whiskey. She wanted to be just like Rosie. A few years later when she came home to attend the funeral of Rosie's son, Rosie said, 'girl, you'd better slow down'. She'd out Rosied Rosie. A few years later she called her daughter from jail; she heard the disgust in her daughter's voice when she said AGAIN? and then said, 'Don't you know you're killing yourself?' Elaine replied that she didn't care, and that was when she hit bottom and finally asked for help. She told how her topic of "Practice These Principles" came about in her life through following the suggestions of her sponsor. She hadn't understood why Mimi had fainted years ago hearing a judge sentence Elaine to 20 years in prison, after all it was Elaine that was going to prison! She told how she finally arrived at an understanding of love by taking Mimi home to die, and laying in bed hugging her to comfort her. 
    After a light lunch we were treated to the sharing of Greg W from the Hershey Group and his topic of "Conscious Contact". He spoke of the feelings of less than, the drinking and of the stretching the truth beyond belief. He quoted from a 1947 talk by Bill W who said 'Ours is a story of colossal human failure converted into the happiest kind of usefulness through the divine alchemy of the living grace of God.' He ended with a story of taking his four year old son daily to nursery school. Because the boy was fearful, Greg would walk him to the door and give him a hug before sending him in the door. Every day, the boy would come to the window, and Greg would wave or give him a high five through the window screen. One day his cell phone rang and he left without waving at the window, and he was about to get on the Interstate before he realized. At first he thought, it's just one day, but no, he had to go back. He did, and his son was still at the window. He said 'I'm sorry son, I forgot you'. His boy said, 'I know dad." Greg asked, 'Then why are you still at the window?' And the boy said, 'Because I knew you'd come back". And that's what the people in AA and that grace of God have done for Greg.
    The final speaker of the afternoon was Liz N from Odenton, MD whose topic was "Love and Service". She thought that was an easy topic, because Dr Bob had said when it comes down to it, that is what the AA program is about, so all she had to do was talk about Alcoholics Anonymous. And that was what her sponsor, Virginia, was about too, and she wanted what she had. Virginia taught her to have a love affair with God, because she said we are NOT just human, we are divine because what is that great reality deep down inside us, if it isn't divine? Virginia taught her that we don't have to be good to earn God's love, God loves us because God is good. She learned that the Steps are not a self improvement program, their purpose is to fit us to be of maximum service to God and to others. She was proof that meeting makers don't make it unless they work the steps to gain the spiritual awakening that results from living all the Steps. When in desperation, Liz finally prayed the simple prayer, 'God, what do you want me to do?'  that gave her her first spark of hope. She had finally worked the Second and Third Step when she did that, and she thought, if it feels that hopeful from that, what can be the results of working the rest of the Steps? When she had finally gotten beyond the problem, and got into the solution, she started to recover.
    Hope to see each of you at the November Greater Harrisburg Area Acts of Recovery. You can access Acts and other recovery events on the website Into Action