Sobriety News January 2005

Sobriety News
January 2005

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.

January Calendar of Events*

Jan 1	Saturday 8:00PM	Hershey speaker Ed L from the Desire Group
Jan 2	Sunday 8:00PM	Bridge Street speaker
Jan 6	Thursday 6:45PM	Harrisburg Area Intergroup Meeting
Jan 7	Friday 8:30PM	19^th Street speaker Ron G
Jan 9	Sunday 8:00PM	Bridge Street speaker
Jan 10	Monday 6:30PM	District # 36 General Service Meeting
Jan 14	Friday 8:30PM	19^th Street speaker Derek K
Jan 15	Saturday 12 - 5PM	Acts of Recovery in North Jersey **
Jan 16	Sunday 8:00PM	Bridge Street speaker
Jan 20	Thursday 7:00PM	Middletown Survivors Speaker
Jan 21	Friday 8:30PM	19^th Street speaker Tracy C
Jan 23	Sunday 8:00PM	Bridge Street speaker
Jan 27	Thursday 7:00PM	Middletown Survivors Speaker
Jan 28	Friday 8:30PM	19^th Street Anniversaries
Jan 29	Saturday 12 - 5PM	Falls Church Acts of Recovery - NoVa**
Jan 30	Sunday 8:00PM	Bridge Street speaker

ELECTIONS FEBRUARY 3: It is time for election of officers again. If you would be interested in serving the needs of the local AA community in this way (Chairperson, Co-chair, Secretary or Treasurer), you may contact Albert D (Way Out) or Bruce N (Out of the Dark) personally, email us at aa@aaharrisburg.org or send a notice by snail mail to HAI, 1251 South 19^th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17104 to be placed on a slate of candidates for election at the February meeting.

LOOKING AHEAD

Feb 3	Thursday 6:45PM	Election of Officers & HAI Rep meeting
Feb 5	Saturday 8:00PM	Hershey Speaker Dick J ~ 40th Street Group
Feb 19	Saturday 12-5:00PM	Philadelphia Acts of Recovery
Feb 26	Saturday 5:30PM - ?	Intergroup Winter Dinner Speaker/Dance**
Mar 18 - 20	Fri - Sun	Serenity Weekend Richmond, VA**
Mar 29	Thu - Sun	EACYPAA Conference in Wilmington, NC
May 7	Saturday 12-5:00PM	Harrisburg Area Acts of Recovery
Oct 14-16	Weekend	Joe & Charlie's Big Book Comes Alive in D. C.
Jun 30 - Jul 3, 2005	Thurs - Sun	70^thYear AA International Convention in Toronto, Canada** To register now visit: https://www.one-stop-registration.com/2005ic/OSR.Index
July 2008		International Convention of Al-Anon in Pittsburgh, PA
* 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 us at aa@aaharrisburg.org , or if you notify an Intergroup Officer, or mail the info to HAI, Fellowship House, 1251 S. 19th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17105. This current schedule can be duplicated for group purposes from this link or by clicking on the chip at the right.
    Flyers will be added as they become available and removed when an event passes. If you are looking at this on the Internet, you will see that many of the insert pictures are links you can click on to get added information or flyers. Keep checking.
    The above suggested service opportunity to bring internet information back to the group could also be broadened to include flyers, and current meeting schedules. The printed schedules and flyers will still be available but may continue to have their current disadvantages too.

INTERGROUP HOT LINE TRAINING SEMINAR

On Sunday, December 5 at Fellowship House there was a program lasting about an hour that addressed both the operation of the cell phone device, and the process by which a volunteer helps the Hot Line Caller. There was free food afterward with your usual fellowship. If you are sometimes diverted from service work by fear, this was an excellent way to dispel fear of the unknown, so that you can become of service to your God in this way. About twenty potential hotline operators took advantage of this training workshop.

Help for Hearing Impaired?

If anyone in our AA community knows sign language and is willing to be of service, there is a need in the Harrisburg Area for their help. If you are willing to help a hearing impaired person, please notify Intergroup through you Intergroup Rep.

INTERNET SOURCE FOR RECORDED AA TALKS

There is a new source for some good AA recordings of talks from the Harbor City Speakers, Acts of Recovery, South College Speaker Group, Steps in Action, Unity in Action, White Rose, and various others. These are free for you to download in MP3 format on your computer. The web address is http://greatfact.org

Take time to laugh ~ It is the music of the soul.

Annual Hershey Holiday Dinner

The Annual Hershey Holiday Dinner and Speaker meeting was held this year on December 11 at the Derry Presbyterian Church in Hershey. The Hershey Group provided Turkey, Ham, and beverages; guests brought side dishes and desserts to share. The evening's speaker was Mary J from the 19^th Street Group who shared her experience, strength and hope to a packed house, starting at 8:00PM. Mary told a story of the insanity of her life, and how sponsorship and the Steps has leveled out her life. She traced her growth through working each of the Steps in her recovery to the point where she can face herself in the mirror. As always this was a very nice way to get into the Christmas mood and do it in a safe and joyful place.

York Acts of Recovery

There was another Acts of Recovery at the Eastminster Presbyterian Church in York on the 18th of December. There were four enthusiastic speakers carrying this message ~ of how they received a spiritual awakening as a result of working these Steps. The afternoon of recovery messages was briefly interrupted at about 2:15 for a FREE light lunch. Conferences supply a message of hope and method for sobriety through speakers some find to be particularly gifted at expression of pertinent thought, while having a certain entertainment value. The Acts of Recovery, spreading rapidly across the country, do this free of cost, and condensed into one Saturday afternoon, making it possible for those new in parenting, or in the job market, to obtain the flavor of conferences that can cost hundreds of dollars. Of course it's not practical to give detailed summaries of what speakers say in this forum, but we hope to share a little of the flavor here. For a more complete and enjoyable experience, you can attend the next Harrisburg Acts in May, or if you don't want to wait, take a newcomer and attend the Acts of Recovery in Northern New Jersey on January 15, or the Acts of NoVa at Falls Church, VA, on the 29th. See the flyers on the links page.

The first speaker was Patrick L from Dorchester, MA, who told how after nine and a half years of drinking, the jig was up. Patrick had adopted heroes who were everything he wasn't, because he never felt like he was enough. He wanted to be part of, but fear kept him separate until he found alcohol. Alcohol gave him purpose and fulfilled his need. He soon began having contact with AA, but would experience a message that he found unattractive, like the time he heard an old-timer say, "A head full of AA and a belly full of booze, don't mix." and he was out of there, because he didn't want something that would ruin his only solution. After nearly a decade of escape from life, managing to do virtually nothing, alcohol wasn't doing the job any more. He met a man who sold him recovery, instead of sobriety. This guy suggested that he had a spiritual emptiness that could not be filled by working out at the gym, or by lithium, or by therapy. He took him to meetings where young people with six months sobriety were engaged in carrying a message of how they'd experienced an awesome spiritual awakening and no longer needed to drink. He wanted that, and has gotten it for free, and for fun. He couldn't be ready to give up his solution until he had an offer of a rather immediate replacement, which was adopting the steps, now.

The second speaker was Cathy J from Annapolis, MD, who wonders about newcomers in AA who have issues with accepting a higher power. She did, but is embarrassed to think how thoroughly she had sought out alcohol, it was what she lived for and prayed for, and stole for, and it solved all her problems. Have issues with a higher power she did, and her first year and a half in AA was working Cathy's program of the steps as she wanted them to be. She was thoroughly miserable until one day this one eyed crazy man that scared her to death approached her after a meeting. She had been whining about God again and this fellow asked her, "Do you see that tree?" She said "Yes". "Did you make it grow?" "No." "Well then, you'd better find out what did, because it's the only thing that's going to save your sorry ass." She calls that her Second Step experience, and shortly after that she was also able to do the Third Step as a decision to try to do what she believed she was supposed to, instead of what she wanted to do. She then was able to have a self discovery experience (that was the worst experience of her life) which enabled her to see how her character defects had been the cause of her life's unmanageability. This allowed her to clean house with humility.

After lunch, Marybeth, from the Boston Crossroads Group agreed to fill in for the scheduled speaker who was unable to come. She said she is always willing to help out when AA asks. Marybeth shared a story of anger, rehabs, mishaps, detoxes, intervention, calamities, programs, counseling, etc, that floated down through the years of her active but hidden alcoholism. Her cleverness assured a series of misdiagnosis that delayed her arrival at AA. When she did get here, she never really got here, because no one ever really showed her how to develop a conscious contact with God. After 13 years of coming around, and still very sick, she saw this guy Dave P show up at her home group, who seemed happy and was always working with others. Then more like him showed up, and they were staying sober. She thought it was a cult, but she was watching them, because it seemed they had something she was missing. After a while she asked one of them to lead her through the steps. She got on her knees for the Third Step Prayer, and did a Fourth and Fifth Step that removed all the complicated issues and brought it straight to her major character flaw, FEAR. As a result of working the Steps with this man, she started to have a spiritual awakening that is allowing her to gradually deal with her problem.

The final speaker of the afternoon was Winslow S from Glen Burnie, MD, whose topic was "Conscious Contact". Earlier in the week, Winslow was on business in a really bad part of town and stopped in a fast food restaurant to use the rest room. There by the men's room was a fellow wearing everything he owned, with half the dumpster caught in his scraggly beard. Winslow hoped the guy didn't want anything from him, as he rushed passed. The fellow called out, "Mr Winslow, Mr Winslow!" and turned out to be a guy he'd worked with a couple of years before. He stopped to talk, and realized that he sometimes blocks out what God's will is, by having his own agenda. Years before he'd had to arrive at the point of desperation, in order to bring himself to ask for help. Here he had to recognize how fortunate he was to have the blessings he'd received from the grace of God in the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Truth is to inner space
What sunshine is to a garden.

New Meetings and Changes
Starting on February 1, 2005, there will be a Tuesday Noon AA Open Discussion Meeting at the Trinity Lutheran Church, 20^th and Market Sts in Camp Hill. This will be a non-smoking meeting and it is handicapped accessible.

Effective Friday January 14th the meeting at 40th street is changed to an open discussion meeting. The fourth Friday will continue to be an open speaker meeting.
Effective Saturday January 15th the Saturday night meeting at 40th Street will be a closed Big Book meeting.

There will be a new closed discussion meeting, called There Is A Solution, starting on January 6th at the Aldergate United Methodist Church in Mechanicsburg. The meeting will be from 6:30 to 7:30PM each Thursday in Room 207 at 1480 Jerusalem Road, Mechanicsburg. See the flyer on the links page.

The Harrisburg Area (Monday Night) Men's Group will be starting a new Thursday night meeting, same time, same place, beginning January 6, 2005. The location is the Susquehanna Valley Evangelical Free Church, 6433 Union Deposit Rd. The meeting begins at 7:30PM and is a non-smoking men only closed approved AA literature discussion meeting.

The Sunday evening Alateen meeting at Holy Spirit is no longer meeting; and the Al-Anon Tuesday and Thursday evening meetings at Trinity Lutheran in Camp Hill have been changed to 7:30PM. The Tuesday Al-Anon meeting at St Patrick's Cathedral has been moved to the Teen Room. These changes are reflected on the new AA meeting schedule for January 2005.

A new meeting in Hershey, called the NOONER IN HERSHEY has started at 12:00PM at the United Church of the Redeemer, 500 West Chocolate Ave, Hershey. (Just around the bend as you enter Hershey on 422, coming from Harrisburg) Bring your lunch, come late, leave early if you must. Copy the Flyer.

Two editorial changes were made to the meeting schedule to correct incorrect starting times. The West Shore Women's Group meets Wednesday at 6:00PM, and the Up The Creek Group starts at 8:00PM Thursdays.

Please support the Friday night Women's meeting at the Dauphin County Prison. For more information on how to do this important service work, call Sondra D at 566-7666.

Recognizing someone else's human dignity
cannot cost you your own.

This-n-That

Don't forget the Harrisburg Area Intergroup meeting Thursday January 7, at 6:45pm, and the District 36 General Service Rep meeting on Monday January 10, at 6:30; both meetings need your support. The Intergroup Bookstore is still open for business following the HAI meeting and on Saturday mornings from 10:00 till 11:15 for Groups to restock their literature cabinets with books and pamphlets. The Bookstore is now fully restocked, so if you've been waiting for literature to come in, check out the availability of your favorite books or pamphlets.

December Intergroup Meeting

At the December meeting of Intergroup, Chairperson Albert D opened the meeting with the serenity prayer. Bob B who has been serving as Central Office Manager for the past couple of years that Geneva B from the There's More To Life Group has stepped forward to take over the important duties of managing the Central Office, and the Hot Line. We thank Bob for his dedicated service and wish him the best of successes in his new service commitments in Lebanon County.

There was discussion of a speaker/dinner/dance evening to express the dedication of HAI to carry the message in Central Pennsylvania in those ways no individual group can, and to enlist cooperation and support for its service commitments. The proposal was defined and voted upon, with the result that Flyers for this event have been prepared announcing the February 26 event to be held at the Oberlin Fire Hall, with spaghetti being the bill of fare. It was voted to charge the nominal sum of $5.00 per person, with Intergroup paying the balance.

The State Hospital was covered by the Chairperson and other individual volunteers during December to take a meeting to the large group of alcoholics at the Tuesday State Hospital meeting in the absence of any group willing to commit. The Way Out Group will sponsor the Hospital meeting in January. The Hershey Group responded to cell phone calls in December, and 40th Street volunteered for January. Volunteers for the various county and state prison and Gaudenzia Juvenile facilities continue to carry the message to those who hope to change their lives through a more spiritual way of living; if you'd like to benefit from this 12^th Step opportunity, see your Intergroup Rep, or leave a message with the hot line at 234-5390.

Groups represented at the December meeting were: HAI Officers, 40th Street, Big Book Study, Cumberland Valley IG, Fellowship House, Hershey, Monday Night Men's, Survivors, TMTL, Trudgers, The Way Out, and West Shore Are. Was your group represented?

Keep your sobriety first,
To make it last.

Traditions Checklist

TRADITION ONE: Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.

Am I in my group a healing, mending, integrating person, or am I divisive? What about gossip and taking other members' inventories?

Am I a peacemaker? Or do I, with pious preludes such as "just for the sake of discussion," plunge into argument?

Am I gentle with those who rub me the wrong way, or am I abrasive?

Do I make competitive AA remarks, such as comparing one group with another or contrasting AA in one place with AA in another?

Do I put down some AA activities as if I were superior for not participating in this or that aspect of AA?

Am I informed about AA as a whole? Do I support, in every way I can, AA as a whole, or just the parts I understand and approve of?

Am I as considerate of AA members as I want them to be of me?

Do I spout platitudes about love while indulging in and secretly justifying behavior that bristles with hostility?

Do I go to enough AA meetings or read enough AA literature to really keep in touch?

Do I share with AA all of me, the bad and the good, accepting as well as giving the help of fellowship?

*The Traditions Checklist Questions were originally published in the AA Grapevine in conjunction with a series on the Twelve Traditions that began in November 1969, and ran through September 1971. Sobriety News prints the Checklist for the number of the month that corresponds to the number of the Tradition that it deals with, because of the prohibitive length of all twelve. It is important that we be aware of the Twelve Traditions in our lives of recovery, because they help assure that AA will continue to be here for us, and for others who want it.
Printed by permission. THE AA GRAPEVINE INC., PO BOX 1980, GRAND CENTRAL STATION, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10163-1980

Pearl of the Month from the 24 hour day book for Dec 10.

Our drinking fellowship was a substitute one, for lack of something better. At the time we did not realize what real fellowship could be. Drinking fellowship has a fatal fault. It is not based on a firm foundation. Most of it is on the surface. It is based mostly on the desire to use your companions for your own pleasure, and using others is a false foundation. Drinking fellowship has been praised in song and story. The "cup that cheers" has become famous as a means of companionship. But we realize that the higher centers of our brains are dulled by alcohol and such fellowship cannot be on the highest plane. It is at best only a substitute. Do I see my drinking fellowship in its proper light?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Contributions are made to Food For Thought by recovering alcoholics who have this outlet to share feelings and opinions about living in recovery. The material included does not necessarily express the views of Harrisburg Area Intergroup, or Alcoholics Anonymous. It is simply an opportunity for recovering alcoholics to express thoughts they would like to share. Why not share something of yourself with our readers?

It Was Written ~ Contributed by Karen M. from The Big Book Study Group from an e-mail she received.

I recently attended an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous where I was asked if I would be willing to share my experience, strength and hope. Having been taught from the first days in recovery, that Alcoholics Anonymous never said no to me; therefore, what right do I have to say no to Alcoholics Anonymous , I replied it would be an honor and privilege. However, after the meeting a number of members of my own fellowship came up to me with loud comments regarding my sharing of my experience, my strength and my hope.

I am of the firm belief that all I can share is my experience, my strength, and my hope. If I try to share anything else, it is the same thing as when I was drinking. Telling people exactly what they wanted to hear, how they wanted to hear it - in other words bull shitting thine own self and others. My opinion is, this would be the same as living a drunk life sober. In sharing my experience, strength and hope I was berated and ostracized by my fellow drunks. Why? Because my experience does not jibe with their experience. Because my strength does not jibe with their strength. And because my hope does not jibe with their hope.
I was taught that with the gift of Gods grace, which I found through the actions of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, came a responsibility. That responsibility was to pass along the actions I took in order to find a spiritual experience which allowed me to receive God's grace. I was taught that the promise on the Title page of the Big Book I could find hope within the simple statement. " A Story of How Many Thousands of Men and women Have Recovered from Alcoholism." That I too could be a recovered alcoholic, recovering from a hopeless, helpless state of mind. Recovering from a place where I was powerless and had lost all choices. That I could recover from the obsession of the mind that would ensure I would go on to the bitter end blotting out the existence of my life. I was taught that I was not cured, but recovered. That recovery was contingent upon my daily spiritual condition.
I was also taught that this grace was not an exclusive commodity; that any one could receive it, provided that they do some simple things. Those things are the actions laid out in the first 164 pages of the Big Book. I was taught that it was not an individual program. That no where in the book does it say, 'Here, you are so special and unique that this is a special set of directions exclusively for you'. That, if I wanted what I saw in those pages, then I would be required to do precisely what is written. Not any way I wanted, but precisely. Not only the directions and steps I wanted to follow, but precisely how it is written. Now how you follow those directions, what actions you take to incorporate them into your life may be different than my experience. But as long as a person follows the directions precisely as they are laid out, they can have the promise of recovery.

I go to meetings and I hear people talking about the problems they have in their life. And how they are powerless over people, places and situations. I hear them talk of coming to a meeting and they feel better afterwards.

Doc Bob said a very long time ago "there is an easy way and a hard way to recover from the disease of alcoholism. The hard way is to just go to meetings." I do not understand what the purpose of going to a meeting every day to talk about my problems is. I was taught that at a meeting I carry the message and at my sponsors house I carry the mess. That I do not know who is sitting in that meeting and they need to hear the solution. They already know what the problem is or they would not be spending their time at AA meetings. And if I am consistently talking about the problem, how can I be sharing the solution.

I need to share that I am no longer powerless. Lack of power that was our dilemma. We had to find a power greater than ourselves. Is that not what the book says? It does not say that I remain powerless. Today I am not powerless. I have a power greater than myself that is the solution to all my problems. That One is God. Is this not what the book says?

So why is it then, when I share my experience from following precisely what the Book says, that people take exception to what I am sharing? Why is it that people get upset with my stating that I have had a spiritual experience which led me to find the grace of God? Why is it that being a recovered alcoholic is such a foreign concept that people can not or will not accept that is my experience?

The only explanation I can reason is that if you have not worked the actions of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, if you have not had a spiritual experience, if you have not found God's grace, if you are still living in the problem and not in the solution, then you can not possibly know what I am sharing. But how could you? Perhaps you need berate my experience so that you do not have to look at your own experience participating in your own recovery. I will continue to do as I was taught. I will share MY experience, MY strength, MY hope. In order for this drunk to continue to be a recovered alcoholic, I need share the gift I was given. That gift of recovery saved my life. Besides, it is better to give a resentment than to get one.

SOBRIETY NEWS is published monthly, and is usually available on the website the Tuesday night before the first Thursday of each month, so paper copies can be distributed to Reps at the Intergroup meeting. You can locate this newsletter, as well as lots of other stuff that would interest members of groups belonging to the Harrisburg Area Intergroup, at http://www.aaharrisburg.org

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