The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
Tradition Two: "For our group purpose there is but one authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants - they do not govern."
Excerpt from Paths to Recovery, p.147, paragraph 2 "...What, then, is the difference between Al-Anon leadership and governing? ... Al-Anon offers suggestions, experience and our Traditions without absolute rules and regulations. ... We let newcomers know the meeting structure and important group conscience decisions ... we share our experience when we believe our Group might be going astray..."
Concept One: "The Ultimate Responsibility and Authority for Al-Anon World Services Belongs to the Al-Anon Groups."
Excerpt from Paths to Recovery, p.249, paragraph 4 "...Al-Anon's structure is often described as an upside-down triangle, with the Al-Anon groups at the top. ... At the narrow point at the bottom of the triangle are our trustees and staff at the World Service Office (WSO)."
Having the honor to be one of the trusted servants, I felt it necessary for myself to gain a good understanding of how the structure of our whole program works. I am still learning about this. I know when I joined Al-Anon, the Steps and Traditions were always read at the beginning of my local ftf (face to face) meeting. I didn't pay much attention to the Traditions, thinking they were "dry" and that the Steps is what was really applicable to me in my recovery. What I have learned is that the Traditions are JUST as valuable and CAN be applied to my own personal recovery and to how I relate with my family, friends, work, etc. I have since studied them in our Step/Tradition meetings held here on Thursday nights. I have also just begun looking at our 12 Concepts, and I can see that these too can be just as valuable to me as the Steps and Traditions. I would dearly love to see them added to a study group, such as what we have Thursday nights for the Steps and Traditions. These 3 things - Steps, Traditions, Concepts - are our foundation, our legacies of the Program. We ALL have an equal voice and say, we ALL are just as important as anyone else in our group. We follow these unenforceable guidelines, discussing matters in our business/group conscience meetings, allowing HP to be the ultimate authority by group majority vote on matters. What I think might be the right thing to do just may be voted elsewise by the group, and ya know, thats okay! That is HP talking and HP knows/understands much better than I do. Keeps me humble to remember that. The key is group harmony/unity and following our Traditions/Concepts as they are set out. It has worked since the creation of this program so many many years ago, and the love and understanding one can feel among the members is just awesome.
I needed to remind myself of all this. To remind myself that I am just one of many humble trusted servants, and that what I want to aim for is recovery for myself and group unity. If at any time I begin to think and act as if I were Mrs. Al-Anon Incarnate Herself, then by golly that's the time I oughta be set straight! LOL There are so many others who know more, have experienced more, than I have. I am forever grateful they keep coming back and sharing with us. I'm not a Know-It-All, I'm certainly not cured!, I still have much to work on.... I am just like you - trying to find the path to serenity and to keep on course with it through the rest of my life. And I need to always focus on my part, on what I'm doing.
Thanks for being here!
Luv, Kis
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Let your light shine in the darkness. "I can't just bring my mind to meetings...I must also bring my heart."
Thank you so much for your service and the recovery you bring to this group.
I am from a face to face group that is very strong in using the Traditions, and they are of absolute critical importance to the health of our meetings and the overall recovery available, to newcomers and to those of us who regularly attend alike. I have been told the Steps protect me from myself and the Traditions protect the group from me. : )
I am glad to see the Traditions and Concepts brought in and applied here by one of our trusted servants. Thank you so much for your post!
Absolutely just what I needed to be reminded of. It is one of the beautiful things about alanon that attracted me in the beginning, that we are all equal here. And that as the individual we have a voice to speak with which will be heard. I also so appreciate all of the history of the program which has made it what it is today....a wonderful healing place full of love, caring and friendships that I have experienced in no other place.
I also so understand the wisdom of trying to keep to the traditions which have been handed down as a proven method of recovery. I am grateful for any recovery from wherever it comes from and I have learned so many things that have helped from outside of alanon (take the bible for instance! ), but I am also grateful that al-anon is a PROVEN method of recovery from which all of my understanding that I NEEDED recovery myself sprang from...opened my eyes to my part, made me willing and able to work on me.
I Love Al-anon and Alcoholics Anonymous. What a gift from our HP to us all.
And I am so grateful for those that came before, those that keep coming back and for those that show up daily looking for our help.
