Any Saturday in Al-Anon world could be a workshop Saturday. It all depends on where you are and what your district or area is up to.
Workshops today. Notes of resources to look into:
- Blueprint for Progress
- Alateen’s Fourth Step Inventory Workbook
“Remember to take your Higher Power with you.”
“We don’t want God to get a busy signal when He’s ready to get back to us.”
“Lighten up, babe, and kick it upstairs.”
“We are not here to analyze ourselves but to build our lives.”
“My should-maker got me in trouble.”
“In God’s time, not mine.”
“I can teach my little girl self. I can love her and cherish her. And I can sign my letters to her, ‘Love, God’.”
“My part is often J&C – judgmental and critical. What I was really doing was expecting someone else to fix a problem that I own.”
“How is my favorite little victim today?”
Good activity for the future. Take a large ball of yarn. Have participants stand in a circle. Each person will pinch a place on the loose end of the yarn, say a character defect they are willing to admit to owning, and then roll or toss the ball of yarn to the other side. After everyone has had a turn, each pinching the yarn, a web will have formed. Point out that this web is actually a safety net, because we share so much of ourselves, have so much in common, that this is a safe place.
Meanwhile, I’m still working that 4th step, still in the “my part” column, but I’m past all the resentments and about halfway through the fears. Sex conduct and other harms are fairly short lists compared to my resentments. then I get to go back to the top and finish the last bit, the “where I was” column. That’s where I was selfish or maybe self-seeking, fearful or perhaps dishonest or inconsiderate. Or any combination thereof.
The 4th step is so good for marking patterns. For instance, nearly every character defect I’m finding has at its root my lack of acceptance. Here I was so proud of myself for being such a rational, practical, realistic person! But I was beating up on myself, refusing to accept my human propensity for error. I was beating up on others for not living up to my expectations. I haven’t been accepting of human beings as human, at least not until recently.
And most of my fears have to do with not trusting my Higher Power.
Terribly interesting. To me, anyway.