Month: March 2014
Am listening to The Recovery Show right now. This is not an Al-Anon podcast, but Al-Anon members share their experience, strength, and hope in an anonymous fashion. I like it!
Things to think about, share about, and explore.
What’s the difference between … ?
What’s the difference between … ?
|
consideration
courtesy
compassion
caring
|
codependence
managing others’ feelings
|
|
acceptance
|
accepting unacceptable behavior
|
|
boundaries
|
controlling others
|
|
suggestion
carrying the message |
advice
|
|
confiding
sharing news |
gossiping
|
|
letting go
|
being a doormat
|
|
working the steps
|
step study
thinking about the steps
|
|
accepting responsibility for my behavior
|
accepting responsibility for other people’s feelings
|
|
communicating clearly
|
making someone understand
|
|
taking responsibility
|
controlling outcomes
|
|
care giving
|
caretaking
|
|
open meeting
|
closed meeting
|
|
love
empathy
|
pity
|
|
self care
keeping the focus on myself
|
selfishness
self-will
|
|
parenting
helping
being a good relative, friend, neighbor
service |
enabling
doing for others what they can do for themselves control |
|
surrender
|
submission
resignation
|
|
want
|
need
|
|
loving interchange
|
crosstalk
|
|
amends
|
apologies
|
|
Al-Anon
|
therapy
|
|
a spiritual program
|
a religious program
|
|
HP’s will
|
my will
|
|
intuition
|
stinkin’ thinkin’
|
|
detachment
|
cutting off
estrangement |
|
privacy
|
dishonesty
lying by omission
evasion secrecy |
Can you think of more differences to explore? Please feel free to share!
Oh those pesky, pesky policies in the service manual. Who are they to dictate how my Al-Anon meeting is run?!?!
“They” are “we”.
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. — Tradition Two
The ultimate responsibility and authority for Al-Anon world services belongs to the Al-Anon groups. — Concept One
I am the GR, the Group Representative, for my home group. I get the group conscience of my group and take it to Area assemblies. My Area Delegate takes the group conscience from all us GRs to the World Service Conference.
Usually, by the time something has become a policy, it has been talked to death, with all options explored and a universe of opinions added. Policies happen by consensus and often by unanimity. That’s a Higher Power as he may express himself in our group conscience.
Al-Anon was here long before I was, and the way it was when I found it was decided by its membership. I can participate in that now. But it really helps me to remember that “they” are “we”.
I’m a little discouraged. Generally, my spouse hosts a discussion group a few times a year that involve using the 12 traditions in our personal lives, and I’m now involved in hosting as well. Used to be, it was hard to get a seat in one of these, they’d fill up so fast, and people would have to wait for the next round.
We had one scheduled for January and had to cancel because nearly all the confirmed participants canceled the week prior. There’s one this weekend, and it too is being swept by last-minute cancellations. This happened for one of the sessions last year as well.
This is baffling. Is it God trying to tell us to stop hosting them? We usually schedule one when lots of people start asking us when the next one will be, expressing a lot of interest in participating.
We’ve decided that our boundary is going to be that when people start asking again, to tell them we’ll happily chair it, but they have to host it. I expect most if not all will decline, but that gives people a chance to find their level of commitment before we discover it in their last-minute cancellation.