All Pennsylvania Al-Anon News

On Monday, Sept. 11, I got to my home group meeting for the first time in two weeks. It felt so good to be there! We met in a pavilion by a lake, which offered a peaceful breeze now and then as we read and shared from Courage to Change (B-16). Our topic was Changed Attitudes. I realized I needed to be there before I developed a bad one.

Calling all GRs going to Assembly! Please consider attending one of two workshops on The Power of Service. You’ll have an opportunity to do actual service, share your service journey and receive a raffle ticket for A Little Time for Myself (B-34), Al-Anon’s newest daily reader.

I have learned through Al-Anon that fear rides under my need to control and the illusion of power that it may give me. Naked, dumb fear. Fear of failure—that I won’t live up to the crazy, impossible expectations I give myself. That fear perched in my psyche long ago, when I thought I had to do it—whatever “it” was—all by myself. It was the price of being “independent.”

It seems like life went into hyper-drive after Memorial Day. Suddenly there were parties to attend, flowers to plant, windows to clean, and a $1,100 car air-conditioning bill to pay. Yikes. Oh, I got to my meetings, thank Higher Power. But I wasn’t taking the time to really pray or even read my monthly issue of The Forum. I was sliding into my alter-ego, the Control Queen, and I was not very happy with myself.

It is May 3—the second day of wet snow mixed with rain. Two weeks ago, in 80-plus degrees, my husband and I drove to Pittsburgh with a freshly broken air conditioner. That sweaty ride seems like a dream now.

We Al-Anon members know how working our program can restore us to sanity. Our Conference Approved Literature can play a big part in the process. Today I’d like to talk about how we can use our literature to spread the word to family members suffering from alcoholism.

My sponsor, who chaired the meeting, called Paths to Recovery (B-24), Reaching for Personal Freedom (P-92) and Al-Anon’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (B-8) “the core books for the Steps.” They are the Big Three.