EMOTIONAL SOBRIETY: "I think that many oldsters who have put our AA "booze cure" to severe but successful tests still find they often lack emotional sobriety. Perhaps they will be the spearhead for the next major development in AA, the development of much more real maturity and balance (which is to say, humility ) in our relations with ourselves, with our fellows, and with God. Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for top approval, perfect security, and perfect romance, urges quite appropriate to age seventeen, prove to be an impossible way of life when we are at age forty-seven and fifty-seven. Since AA began, I´ve taken immense wallops in all these areas because of my failure to grow up emotionally and spiritually. My God, how painful it is to keep demanding the impossible, and how very painful to discover, finally, that all along we have had the cart before the horse. Then comes the final agony of seeing how awfully wrong we have been, but still finding ourselves unable to get off the emotional merry-go-round. How to translate a right mental conviction into a right emotional result, and so into easy, happy and good living . Well, that´s not only the neurotic´s problem, it´s the problem of life itself for all of us who have got to the point of real willingness to hew to right principles in all of our affairs. Even then, as we hew away, peace and joy may still elude us. That´s the place so many of us AA oldsters have come to. And it´s a hell of a spot, literally. How shall our unconscious, from which so many of our fears, compulsions and phony aspirations still stream, be brought into line with what we actually believe, know and want! How to convince our dumb, raging and hidden ‘Mr. Hyde' becomes our main task. I´ve recently come to believe that this can be achieved. I believe so because I begin to see many benighted ones, folks like you and me, commencing to get results. Last autumn, depression, having no really rational cause at all, almost took me to the cleaners. I began to be scared that I was in for another long chronic spell. Considering the grief I´ve had with depressions, it wasn´t a bright prospect. I kept asking myself "Why can´t the twelve steps work to release depression?" By the hour, I stared at the St. Francis Prayer ... "it´s better to comfort than to be comforted." Here was the formula, all right, but why didn´t it work? Suddenly, I realized what the matter was. My basic flaw had always been dependence, almost absolute dependence, on people or circumstances to supply me with prestige, security, and the like. Failing to get these things according to my perfectionist dreams and specifications, I had fought for them. And when defeat came, so did my depression. There wasn´t a chance of making the outgoing love of St. Francis a workable and joyous way of life until these fatal and almost absolute dependencies were cut away. Because I had over the years undergone a little spiritual development, the absolute quality of these frightful dependencies had never before been so starkly revealed. Reinforced by what grace I could secure in prayer, I found I had to exert every ounce of will and action to cut off these faulty emotional dependencies upon people, upon AA, indeed upon any act of circumstance whatsoever. Then only could I be free to love as Francis did. Emotional and instinctual satisfactions, I saw, were really the extra dividends of having love, offering love, and expressing love appropriate to each relation of life. Plainly, I could not avail myself to God´s love until I was able to offer it back to Him by loving others as He would have me. And I couldn´t possibly do that so long as I was victimized by false dependencies. For my dependence meant demand, a demand for the possession and control of the people and the conditions surrounding me. While those words "absolute dependence" may look like a gimmick, they were the ones that helped to trigger my release into my present degree of stability and quietness of mind, qualities which I am now trying to consolidate by offering love to others regardless of the return to me. This seems to be the primary healing circuit: an outgoing love of God´s creation and His people, by means of which we avail ourselves of His love for us. It is most clear that the real current can´t flow until our paralyzing dependencies are broken, and broken at depth. Only then can we possibly have a glimmer of what adult love really is. If we examine every disturbance we have, great or small, we will find at the root of it some unhealthy dependence and its consequent demand. Let us, with God´s help, continually surrender these hobbling demands. Then we can be set free to live and love: we may then be able to gain emotional sobriety. Of course, I haven´t offered you a really new idea --- only a gimmick that has started to unhook several of my own hexes´ at depth. Nowadays, my brain no longer races compulsively in elation, grandiosity or depression. I have been given a quiet place in bright sunshine. -Bill Wilson, "Grapevine" January, 1953. FEBRUARY ~UNITY LIVEWIRE~ 2016 “Easy Does It” NO SMOKING AT THE INTERGROUP OFFICE “First Thing First” 710 Broadway Avenue Lorain, Ohio 44052 *area54.org* Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM Phone :(440)-246-1800 *aa.org* aaloraincounty.org Lorain Inter-Group Office email address: [email protected]aaloraincounty.org Where to Send Contributions: 50 % Lorain Inter-Group Office 15%NE Ohio General Service, Area 54 710 Broadway Avenue, Lorain, Ohio 44052 P.O. Box 91384 Make checks payable to Lorain Inter-Group Cleveland, OH 44101-3384 25% The General Service Office 10% To Your Local District: Lorain County Multi-District Post Office Box 4459, Central Station, New York, NY 10163-0459 ATTN: Joyce L Treasurer-(440)315-1183 Make checks payable to General Service Office 710 Broadway Avenue, Lorain, OH 44052 Make checks payable to Lorain County Multi-District
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Transcript
EMOTIONAL SOBRIETY:
"I think that many oldsters who have put
our AA "booze cure" to severe but
successful tests still find they often lack
emotional sobriety. Perhaps they will be
the spearhead for the next major
development in AA, the development of
much more real maturity and balance
(which is to say, humility) in our
relations with ourselves, with our
fellows, and with God.
Those adolescent urges that so many of
us have for top approval, perfect security,
and perfect romance, urges quite
appropriate to age seventeen, prove to be
an impossible way of life when we are at
age forty-seven and fifty-seven.
Since AA began, I´ve taken immense
wallops in all these areas because of my
failure to grow up emotionally and
spiritually. My God, how painful it is to
keep demanding the impossible, and how
very painful to discover, finally, that all
along we have had the cart before the
horse. Then comes the final agony of
seeing how awfully wrong we have been,
but still finding ourselves unable to get
off the emotional merry-go-round.
How to translate a right mental
conviction into a right emotional result,
and so into easy, happy and good living.
Well, that´s not only the neurotic´s
problem, it´s the problem of life itself for
all of us who have got to the point of real
willingness to hew to right principles in
all of our affairs.
Even then, as we hew away, peace and
joy may still elude us. That´s the place so
many of us AA oldsters have come to.
And it´s a hell of a spot, literally. How
shall our unconscious, from which so
many of our fears, compulsions and
phony aspirations still stream, be brought
into line with what we actually believe,
know and want! How to convince our
dumb, raging and hidden ‘Mr. Hyde'
becomes our main task.
I´ve recently come to believe that this can
be achieved. I believe so because I begin
to see many benighted ones, folks like
you and me, commencing to get results.
Last autumn, depression, having no really
rational cause at all, almost took me to
the cleaners. I began to be scared that I
was in for another long chronic spell.
Considering the grief I´ve had with
depressions, it wasn´t a bright prospect.
I kept asking myself "Why can´t the
twelve steps work to release depression?"
By the hour, I stared at the St. Francis
Prayer ... "it´s better to comfort than to
be comforted." Here was the formula, all
right, but why didn´t it work?
Suddenly, I realized what the matter was.
My basic flaw had always been
dependence, almost absolute dependence,
on people or circumstances to supply me
with prestige, security, and the like.
Failing to get these things according to
my perfectionist dreams and
specifications, I had fought for them. And
when defeat came, so did my depression.
There wasn´t a chance of making the
outgoing love of St. Francis a workable
and joyous way of life until these fatal
and almost absolute dependencies were
cut away.
Because I had over the years undergone a
little spiritual development, the absolute
quality of these frightful dependencies
had never before been so starkly
revealed. Reinforced by what grace I
could secure in prayer, I found I had to
exert every ounce of will and action to
cut off these faulty emotional
dependencies upon people, upon AA,
indeed upon any act of circumstance
whatsoever.
Then only could I be free to love as
Francis did. Emotional and instinctual
satisfactions, I saw, were really the extra
dividends of having love, offering love,
and expressing love appropriate to each
relation of life.
Plainly, I could not avail myself to God´s
love until I was able to offer it back to
Him by loving others as He would have
me. And I couldn´t possibly do that so
long as I was victimized by false
dependencies.
For my dependence meant demand, a
demand for the possession and control of
the people and the conditions
surrounding me.
While those words "absolute
dependence" may look like a gimmick,
they were the ones that helped to trigger
my release into my present degree of
stability and quietness of mind, qualities
which I am now trying to consolidate by
offering love to others regardless of the
return to me.
This seems to be the primary healing
circuit: an outgoing love of God´s
creation and His people, by means of
which we avail ourselves of His love for
us. It is most clear that the real current
can´t flow until our paralyzing
dependencies are broken, and broken at
depth. Only then can we possibly have a
glimmer of what adult love really is.
If we examine every disturbance we
have, great or small, we will find at the
root of it some unhealthy dependence and
its consequent demand. Let us, with
God´s help, continually surrender these
hobbling demands. Then we can be set
free to live and love: we may then be able
to gain emotional sobriety.
Of course, I haven´t offered you a really
new idea --- only a gimmick that has
started to unhook several of my own
hexes´ at depth. Nowadays, my brain no
longer races compulsively in elation,
grandiosity or depression. I have been
given a quiet place in bright sunshine.
-Bill Wilson, "Grapevine" January, 1953.
FEBRUARY ~UNITY LIVEWIRE~ 2016
“Easy Does It” NO SMOKING AT THE INTERGROUP OFFICE “First Thing First”
50 % Lorain Inter-Group Office 15%NE Ohio General Service, Area 54 710 Broadway Avenue, Lorain, Ohio 44052 P.O. Box 91384
Make checks payable to Lorain Inter-Group Cleveland, OH 44101-3384
25% The General Service Office 10% To Your Local District: Lorain County Multi-District
Post Office Box 4459, Central Station, New York, NY 10163-0459 ATTN: Joyce L Treasurer-(440)315-1183
Make checks payable to General Service Office 710 Broadway Avenue, Lorain, OH 44052
Make checks payable to Lorain County Multi-District
TUESDAY NIGHT HAVEN
1536 E. 30TH LORAIN, OH
7:00
2/2 Dicussion 2/9 Larry H. 2/16 Al S. 2/23 Bobbi M.
Area 54 meets every 3rd
. Sunday @ 2:00 pm Area
Assembly, Committee Reports
12 Step Recovery Club, 1480 Pearl Rd.,
(In Brunswick Plaza) Brunswick, OH 44212
U.S RT 42, 1/4 Mile South of State RT 303.
G.S.R/D.C.M. Meeting(s): The Multi -District meeting at
10:30AM on the 1st
Sunday of every month.
No Children Please!
The Lorain Inter-Group Meeting is the 1
st Sunday of the
month at 12:30PM It is very important that all the
Secretaries of each Group attend this meeting. Your
participation is encouraged and greatly appreciated.
No Children Please!
Advisory Board Meeting: The meeting will be held at 6:30PM
on the 3rd
Wednesday of the month, at the Inter-Group
Office. Closed to Advisory Board Members ONLY! Please.
ATTN ALL GROUPS: Please help us to help you!! If you have changed GSR’S (General Service Representative) in your group, have changed your Primary Mail Contact and have not attended the Monthly Multi-District Meeting to file a Group Change Form. Please do of the following-. 1) Attend 1
st Sunday of the Month @
10:30AM, 2) Call your District Committee Member listed on the last page, Or 3) Call the Inter-Group Office with your new information so it can be passed on to the appropriate person (DCM).
There is always A Place and A Space for your Groups Messages, News, Activities and Anniversaries in The Live Wire! Please Contact: Trini M. (440)574-0143 Bobbi. M (440)537-4280 Office Main Number:
(440)246-1800
*ATTENTION*
Please submit your groups’ or personal anniversaries to
the LiveWire by the 20th of
each month. Anniversaries will not be carried over to the next year for publication automatically. Thank you for your cooperation.
*For information on Cocaine Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Marijuana Anonymous, Heroin Anonymous, or Al-Anon meetings,*
710 Broadway Ave, Lorain, OH (Intergroup) will now meet at 7:30 PM
Monday Night North Ridgeville New Life Women’s Discussion 38363 Center Ridge Rd., North Ridgeville will now meet at 7 PM
Announcements For The Good of AA
7th annual Cabin Fever Steak Fry
When: March 20th
Donation: $20.00 Where: Birmingham Youth Center Donation includes: 12-14 oz. strip steak cooked to order, baked potato, salad, 1st beverage, and dessert. All are welcome! For more info: Dave G. 440-723-1923
Help Carry The Message!
Volunteers are needed to speak at Detox Sundays at 4:00 PM
Wednesdays at 7:30 PM at EMH and Mercy Hospital
Also for a meeting at Lakepoint Nursing Home
Call Christabel: 440-787-3363
**Anniversary Meeting** Leading The Way Women’s Group
Calvary Ridge Church of The Nazarene 34881 Center Ridge Rd, North Ridgeville,
is having their Anniversary meeting on Saturday, February 27th! Food will be served at 9:00 AM and the lead will be at 9:30 AM.
For more information contact: Dominic Verdell-440-236-8282
Ext. 203
A SPECIAL THANK YOU….. To ALL who volunteered over the Holiday Season at the Lorain County Intergroup Office. It was a great success and we look forward to seeing you all again!
DONATIONS: When making donations to the Lorain Inter-Group, Area54, Multi-
District or General Service Office in New York. PLEASE Identify yourself by
placing the Groups General Service Number on the donation. The Groups
General Service Number is located in the meeting schedule or the internet@
aaloraincounty.org under A.A. Meetings. Please put your Area District Numbers
on the donation to identify your group. If you don’t have a General Service
Number attached to your group-Please Contact your DCM-District Committee
Member located in the LiveWire he/she will register your Group.
Thank you for your cooperation!
FINANCIAL REPORT – December 2015
ATTENTION: Lorain County A.A. Community Help is needed
for various committees! Interested please contact an
Advisory Board Member/Committee Chair. INTO ACTION!
COMMITTEE CHAIRS: Livewire Trini M…………………………………………………. (440)574-0143 *EMAIL [email protected] Internet Committee (aaloraincounty.org) Mike………………………………………………….. (440)670-9910 *EMAIL [email protected] Correctional Committee Andy K. ……….……………………………………… (440)343-3644 *EMAIL [email protected] Bud Y. ………………………………………………. (440)506-3131 Public Information Committee Christabel ………………………………………….. (440)787-3363 Picnic Committee Art C……...………………………………………….. (440)773-9474 [email protected] Pig Roast Troy S…………………………………………….…. (440)365-9081 Memorial Day Breakfast Steve S ……….……………………………………. (440)308-1352
District Committees Multi District Chairperson: Sean M. ………… (440)310-1934 District 19A (Sheffield Lake, Avon Lake, Sheffield, Avon,) (N. Ridgeville, Eaton, Columbia, Grafton) DCM Mike W. ……………………………… (440)396-5069 Alt DCM Ray B. ……………………………… (440)223-3017 District 19B (Lorain City Meetings, and Part of Vermilion) DCM Tom M. …………………………….....… Alt DCM * * * * * * Position Available * * * * * * * District 20A (All of Elyria City Meetings and Carlisle) DCM Dena J. …………………………… (440)396-9861 Alt DCM * * * * * * Position Available * * * * * * * District 20B (All Meetings at the Arid Club) DCM * * * * * * Position Available * * * * * * * Alt DCM * * * * * * Position Available * * * * * * *
District 20C (Lagrange, Penfield, Brownhelm Twp., Amherst, Henrietta Twp., S. Amherst, Kipton, Oberlin, Camden Twp.
Pittsfield Twp., Brighton Twp., Wellington Meetings.) DCM Christabel R. ……………………… (440)787-3363 Alt DCM * * * * * * Position Available * * * * * * *
District 24 (North Olmsted, Fairview Park, West Lake)
DCM Mark P. ..………………………………... (216)406-1169
Alt DCM Bob P. .……………………………….…. (216)224-7657
Expenses:
Rent $ 700.00 Columbia Gas $ 284.00 All Service (Phones) $ 207.13 Ohio Edison $ 179.88 Time Warner $ 109.77 House Managers $2,318.63 PayCor Fees $ 85.35 Literature Purchases $2,305.47 Petty Cash $ 100.00 Berry Yellow Pages $ 23.85 Total Expenses: $6,314.08 Donations/Rents $ 4,043.10 Literature Sales $ 2,588.09 Fund Raising Income $ 60.00 Interest Income $ .03 Total Income: $ 6,691.22 Income for Month: $ 6,691.22
Expenses for Month: $ 6,314.08
GAIN for the Month: $ 377.14
Rents
Blue Monday
Friday Morning Survivor
Mid Week Morning discussion
Monday Happy Hour
Multi-District Meeting
Serenity Hall
Sharing Our Sobriety
Strength in Sobriety
Tuesday Night Central
Unity Hall Discussion
We Care Tuesday
Donations Amherst Saturday Group Amherst Who Me Anonymous Avon Healing Women Blue Monday Carlisle Lunch Bunch Elyria Men's Stag Elyria Monday Closed Discussion Friday Morning Survivor Friday Night Amherst Friday Night Haven Grafton Wednesday Night Harbortown Breakfast LaGrange Monday Night LaPorte Tuesday Group Mid Week Morning discussion Monday Happy Hour Monday Morning Live Discussion North Ridgeville 1st Step North Ridgeville Men's Oberlin Group Oberlin Women's Closed Group S.I.O.G.A. Saturday Night Security Serenity Hall Sheffield Lake Civic Center Group Sheffield Lake Monday Night St Anthony's Friday Night Stepping Into Sobriety Strength in Sobriety Sunday Open Men's Discussion Thursday Women's Sobriety Group Wellington Thursday Night