Wed Night AA Riverside Men's Group

Hello everyone,  This is your weekly reminder of this week's meeting. We will be reading  A Vision of Recovery p494-500   of the book Alcoholic Anonymous. Please find below, after the message, all of the pertinent info about the where & when. A big thanks to last week's speaker Ralph T. who gave us an excellent overview on what it was like, what happened and what it's like now! A few weeks back, I heard a really excellent share by  Scott T. from Coldbrook, NY . This guy went from being tossed in jailed multiple times to being invited to speak at the White House - and he had a (poorly chosen) sponsor from the Quincy Bay Group in Boston named Fred who smoked pot!! - (not THAT Fred!!) Anyways, he said something that really put it's spikes in my mind and made lots of sense to me. What he said is, and i'm paraphrasing here, that being an AA member, even one sober for some years, doesn't make anyone of us into an expert or an authority on the mat...

My Sponsor sent me the following link the other day: http://www.barefootsworld.net/ aagreshamslaw.html It was an excellent read!!  I believe myself to have started out with medium-coffee and gradually moved toward strong-coffee. So I know full well that he's right when he says that not applying the full measure of the program, in the best case, only got me abstinence and, in the worst case (as happened to me before), instead of graduating to strong-coffee I could've slipped back into active alcoholism. Thankfully my sponsor likes his coffee BLACK!!! lol I'd be willing to bet that there is a strong correlation in group size and the strength of their "coffee". Larger groups tend to dilute the message a lot in hopes of avoiding controversy. I tried going to a 100+ AA group in Miami (The Coral Group) and couldn't find sobriety there (that's where I had the sponsor who had me call him every single day and NEVER ONCE picked up the phone).  Smal...

Good evening gents,  Just your weekly reminder for this week's Wednesday night AA meeting. This is the last Wednesday of the month which means we will be having a  Speaker Meeting.   Curious side note about the month of May this year, it has both 5 Mondays & 5 Sundays. According to the  not-at-all  dubious website where I read this, this only happens once every 800 years!! That kinda got me thinking about the opportunities we're given in this life. God knows I've squandered my share and sometimes it weighs on me. Great nuggets of wisdom on this topic are easy to find; When God closes a door he opens a window, There is no Yesterday or Tomorrow - There is only Today, Let Go and Let God or Be Dragged.... etc,etc,etc... Those are all true and all good but sometimes the past (and it's wreckage) can seem to follow you around like a dark cloud and it feels like we'll never get out from under it.  When I find myself in that situation, I fi...

Hello friends,  This week we will be reading  On the Move p486-493  from the book Alcoholic Anonymous.  I just heard an excellent speaker tape last week by a speaker named Scott T. from Coldbrook, NY. If you know how to look up speaker tapes I highly recommend this speaker. One of the highlights of the share was that he read out a poem I'd like to share with you called The Man in the Glass.   The Man in the Glass When you get what you want in your struggle for self And the world makes you king for a day, Just go to the mirror and look at yourself, And see what that man has to say.  For it isn't your father or mother or wife, Whose judgment upon you must pass; The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life Is the one starring back from the glass.  He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest. For he's with you clear up 'til the end, And you've passed the most dangerous, difficult test If the man in the glass is your friend....

Good evening everyone,  This week we will dive into  Building a New Life p476-485.  Speaking of building a new life... Many of us just got back from the convention in Manuel Antonio and it was truly excellent!!  Myself, I met some new friends and strengthened my friendship with old ones. I heard some amazing stories and listened to some great shares that resounded deep in my soul, making me want to look deeper into my self and my work with the program.  I remember being told that staying sober is done one day at a time, this holds true whether you've got 24 hrs or 40+ years - all any of us have is today. But also, that we are embarked on a lifetime journey of spiritual growth that never ends.  Like many other things in the program, I remember feeling like there was a contradiction  hidden   somewhere in between the lines - there isn't.  Of course, if it were up to me we'd have nothing bu...

Good evening folks, First of all I want to thank Alex Go. for sharing last week, and volunteering no less, it was a n excellent share and we thank you for your service! This week we will be going through  Twice Gifted p470-475  in the big book.  Last week, my buddy Clive T. brought Dr.Bob's version of the Third Step Prayer for us to close with, which is copied down below if you're interested. It reminded me of a time when I was fresh out of rehab, still knee deep in denial about how futile fighting this disease is and yet fully aware something was wrong with me. I had been sober maybe 38 days (30 of which were in the rehab) and I decided to take a summer college course that went on a 30-day overseas field trip, what could go wrong? I lasted about 24 hrs before I had my first beer with the group and the remaining 29-days was pure misery. Everyday praying no one would order that first drink, struggling my hardest to control that urge, eventually givin...