Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
January 30
All men should strive to learn before they die,
What they are running from, and to, and why?
James Thurber
I met a woman who changed residences every six months. In a can- conversation, she admitted that she harbored major fears about opening up to an intimate relationship. You cant hit a moving target, she confessed, as a description of her protection strategy.
When we are excessively busy, we are running from ourselves. Workaholics, busyholics, and planaholics are terrified to be with themselves, dominated by the fear that they will be consumed by the loneliness or pain they have denied the empty feelings that well up in quiet moments.
Several years ago, I noticed that I had slipped into a pattern of obsessive doingness. At the time, I was ending a relationship, and I felt terrified at the prospect of being with myself at home alone. But I recognized that this was something I had to do, and ultimately the experience turned out to be one of the greatest blessings of my life. I had time to be with myself and face myself. I looked squarely at the fears and old patterns that kept me on the run, and I made conscious choices to use my alone time as a healing, nurturing, and meditative experience. Now I can be with myself or be with people, and enjoy either experience.
A Course in Miracles explains that the fear to look within is not a fear of the darkness, but a fear of the light. If we stopped running, we would have to confront the things that frighten us?and that is wonderful, for on the other side of the shadow is the light. If you look yourself squarely in the eye, you will not find a demon, but a god.
Help me slow down enough to know Your presence.
I will be still and touch the Peace You give.
In quiet I find the God within me.
A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen
All men should strive to learn before they die,
What they are running from, and to, and why?
James Thurber
I met a woman who changed residences every six months. In a can- conversation, she admitted that she harbored major fears about opening up to an intimate relationship. You cant hit a moving target, she confessed, as a description of her protection strategy.
When we are excessively busy, we are running from ourselves. Workaholics, busyholics, and planaholics are terrified to be with themselves, dominated by the fear that they will be consumed by the loneliness or pain they have denied the empty feelings that well up in quiet moments.
Several years ago, I noticed that I had slipped into a pattern of obsessive doingness. At the time, I was ending a relationship, and I felt terrified at the prospect of being with myself at home alone. But I recognized that this was something I had to do, and ultimately the experience turned out to be one of the greatest blessings of my life. I had time to be with myself and face myself. I looked squarely at the fears and old patterns that kept me on the run, and I made conscious choices to use my alone time as a healing, nurturing, and meditative experience. Now I can be with myself or be with people, and enjoy either experience.
A Course in Miracles explains that the fear to look within is not a fear of the darkness, but a fear of the light. If we stopped running, we would have to confront the things that frighten us?and that is wonderful, for on the other side of the shadow is the light. If you look yourself squarely in the eye, you will not find a demon, but a god.
Help me slow down enough to know Your presence.
I will be still and touch the Peace You give.
In quiet I find the God within me.
A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen
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I invited Bill to have dinner with me last Sunday. He wasn't willing to drive 7 hours to mid Michigan and teased me with his beautiful ribs!!! So, of course I ate alone and had cedar salmon
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check out that smoke ring. It tasted really good. I smothered it with Maulls BBQ sauce which is Local to St. Louis and one of the best I ever had.....
Thanks!
But for us who grew up on his brand of humor, all this is trumped by such masterpeces as "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and "The Unicorn in the Garden."
To wit:
The Unicorn in the Garden
By James Thurber
Once upon a sunny morning a man who sat in a breakfast nook looked up from his scrambled eggs to see a white unicorn with a golden horn quietly cropping the roses in the garden. The man went up to the bedroom where his wife was still asleep and woke her. "There's a unicorn in the garden," he said. "Eating roses."
She opened one unfriendly eye and looked at him. "The unicorn is a mythical beast," she said, and turned her back on him.
The man walked slowly downstairs and out into the garden. The unicorn was still there; he was now browsing among the tulips. "Here, unicorn," said the man and pulled up a lily and gave it to him. The unicorn ate it gravely. With a high heart, because there was a unicorn in his garden, the man went upstairs and roused his wife again. "The unicorn," he said, "ate a lily." His wife sat up in bed and looked at him, coldly.
"You are a booby," she said, "and I am going to have you put in a booby-hatch."
The man, who never liked the words "booby" and "booby-hatch," and who liked them even less on a shining morning when there was a unicorn in the garden, thought for a moment. "We'll see about that," he said. He walked over to the door. "He has a golden horn in the middle of his forehead," he told her. Then he went back to the garden to watch the unicorn; but the unicorn had gone away. The man sat among the roses and went to sleep.
And as soon as the husband had gone out of the house, the wife got up and dressed as fast as she could. She was very excited and there was a gloat in her eye. She telephoned the police and she telephoned the psychiatrist; she told them to hurry to her house and bring a strait-jacket. When the police and the psychiatrist arrived, they looked at her with great interest. "My husband," she said, "saw a unicorn this morning."
The police looked at the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist looked at the police.
"He told me it ate a lily," she said. The psychiatrist looked at the police and the police looked at the psychiatrist. "He told me it had a golden horn in the middle of its forehead," she said.
At a solemn signal from the signal from the psychiatrist, the police leaped from their chairs and seized the wife. They had a hard time subduing her, for she put up a terrific struggle, but they finally subdued her. Just as they got her into the strait-jacket, the husband came back into the house.
"Did you tell your wife you saw a unicorn?" asked the police.
"Of course not," said the husband. "The unicorn is a mythical beast."
"That's all I wanted to know," said the psychiatrist. "Take her away. I'm sorry, sir, but your wife is as crazy as a jay bird." So they took her away, cursing and screaming, and shut her up in an institution. The husband lived happily ever after.
Moral: Don't count your boobies until they are hatched.
The End