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.
Todays reading is about how the climate in an alcoholic home can be one of division and separation. The writer describes seeing parents divided during arguments fueled by alcohol, siblings being divided when hearing why cant you be more like your brother or sister and division when the writer wanted to share his/her fear associated with fathers drinking and was told there is no problem. Coming to alanon showed the writer that the strength of the program us found in tradition one: Our common welfare should come first; personal progress for the greatest number depends upon unity. The writer began to understand that in order to grow in recovery, we work together to face the effects of alcoholism.
This reading immediately brought to mind the power of the statement: you are not alone. Anyone who has lived in a home affected by alcoholism will understand the comfort in knowing that they are not isolated in having to sort out feelings of anxiety or sadness, inconsistency or instability. Knowing that everyone in an Al-anon group is there for a common purpose is reassuring and so helpful in recovery.
A quotation from Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions for Alateen (p.28): The unity of our groupprovides us with a core of stability we can depend on.
I remember the profound feeling of a weight slipping off my shoulders when I found Al-Anon. The stability is what keeps me coming back! (and the good people of course! wink)
In my household, today is Super Bowl Sunday!
My team was knocked out, but my father's favorite team is in, and we have a great afternoon filled with delicious finger foods all planned! We love watching the commercials that end up getting those expensive air-times as well! I am blessed that I get to watch the game with my parents. My mom won't really hear or see it, and she may not understand it either. But that is OK. We are together. So I am blessed.
Grateful today, Let's GO KANSAS CITY!
PNP
__________________
"The wolf that thrives, is the one you feed." - Cherokee legend
"Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields... Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness." Mary Oliver
