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.
I have been reading and posting on this site for about 6 months now. About 2 months ago I started attending f2f meetings and have been doing so since, at least 2 a week. I am building a strong support system for myself, when I choose to reach out to it, which I am still having trouble doing. I have been reading some of the CAL and have set a goal for myself to get together my own library of literature, books, pamphlets etc. I get so much out of the sharings here but the piece that seems to be missing for me is the connection back to the literature. The tools, traditions, steps and concepts that make this all possible. I know that they are embedded in all that people here are doing but I guess I just need it said more explicitly. I just discovered yesterday that I could search the posts by topic and had an idea.
I was wondering if there would be a way to also list references to CAL when the topic came up so that in addition to ESH, we would be able to have direct reference to the components of the program that might help. I am not sure if this is making sense.
There are so many people here that seem to working very strong programs and I know that many people do not get to many face to face meetings for one reason or another and I thought that tying the topics people share on back to the literature might be helpful for many others maybe not just me.
Any ideas, suggestions. I am envisioning like a cataloge type thing where people with strong knowledge of various topics could submit readings that have connections that way in addition to getting the sharing people would also be able to go into the literature for more in depth connections to how the program works and what might be helpful to take a look at as far as tools, slogans, traditions, steps etc...
Just a thought.....sometimes I have them and they seem so simple to me and I figure that there must be a way, but not sure how to get there.
I'm not sure how we could list the CAL that relates to a post everytime.
One thing I love about our CAL literature is the index in the back is quite extensive. I shared a non cal parable or story that I found posted here. I asked at my meeting if anyone had a problem with it before sharing it. They did not. Just in case, I had read the story, pulled at words or what I felt were Alanon Topics that it related to. I then hit my C2C (only cal I own so far) and checked the index for those topics and wrote them all down in the list. I then went and read those pages and highlighted ones that struck me.
For me it was a fun and wonderful exercise. I also ended up reading certain pages out of the CAL at that meeting too.
I'll often hit the index in a meeting if I remember reading something that hit me or if I'm just looking for reinforcement of the topic. At meetings I'm at people will often check the index and look for pages and read a page or part of a page as part of their share like this too.
Not sure if this helped at all.
Bob
__________________
You are a perfect child of God and God and I love you just the way you are! (added by me...in that special alanon way)
This is one of the reasons that we so often suggest going to f2f and reading a lot of the Literature to newcomers here.
I don't really know if there is a way, technically, to do what you are suggesting, but if there is, and someone can figure it out, I'd be happy to play my part.
This site is an important part of my program, for me. However, it is a bit, um, lopsided? Because there are so many newcomers, and because the fourums are always here, 24/7, to vent to, there tends to be much more emphasis on the A than there maybe really should be, for a balanced alanon program.
I would really like to emphasize to newcomers that venting, and hearing the horror stories of others, is only a small part of the alanon program. Even using the slogans and tools to make our lives better is just a small part. Eventually, in order to really reap the benefits of the program, we need to work the steps. Reading the Literature is a vital part of that.
I have found that it is really easy to build up an alanon library. Check out thrift shops, garage sales, and library sales - the books are everywhere. I have about twenty alanon and related (Getting Them Sober, for instance) books that I have picked up in thrift shops in the last couple of years. Also, our f2f group will lend out the books, if you aren't ready to buy them; I bet yours will too. There is also the Forum magazine, which is just great, full of useful stuff, and CAL. It comes in a plain envelope, and is not very expensive.
