Literature/Forum Corner

The latest news from our Literature/Forum Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Area Assembly. Ellen C. is serving a three-year term on Panel 61. Ellen interfaces with the World Service Office’s Literature and Forum teams and shares that information with the Area’s Districts and Groups. She also encourages the display and distribution of CAL at meetings, the Assembly, and Conventions; provides information on new pieces of literature; encourages members to submit personal sharings to the WSO for use in publication of new pieces of CAL and issues of ​The​ ​Forum.

Bookmarks – May – Life is Good

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.

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Bookmarks – April- Choosing to Spread the Word

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.

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Bookmarks – March – The Big Three

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.

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Bookmarks – February – Who was Lois W.?

Her husband, Bill, co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous. She threw a shoe at Bill and yelled, “Damn your old meetings,” when he asked if she was ready to go to a meeting with him. Then she realized that her own life had become unmanageable, and that she needed help, according to “Al-Anon History” under the Newcomers section of pa-al-anon.org.

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Bookmarks – January – Change Starts with Me

It’s January! Yipee! A great time for belt-tightening of all sorts. For instance, I confess to eating so much candy and cookies over the holidays that my tongue put on a coat of something funky—probably in self-protection! So I stopped eating that stuff. My tongue is grateful.

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Bookmarks – November – God Jobs

My husband calls them “God jobs”. They’re those times when the Higher Power is clearly, unquestionably present. I’m talking about those amazing moments that have no other explanation—when the thing that is happening is clearly “meant to be.”

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Bookmarks – September – The Power of Repetition

In a recent Forum issue, I read a sentence that stopped my eyes. It talked about Al-Anon as a program of repetition. What hit me was how true that is in my life: I need to work my program every day, or else I suffer the consequences of my default urge to control.

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Bookmarks – August – Oh Them Changes

Can you feel it? The calendar page flips to August and a change takes place. The days can still be sticky and hot, but gradually, or sometimes all at once, the evenings shift cooler. Parents, usually moms, are getting children ready for school, or planning that last family vacation before summer ends. My fair-weather feathered friends are booking flights to South America.

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Bookmarks – June – It’s the Best of Times

It’s the worst of times.
It’s June.
It’s time for graduations, baby showers, weddings, vacations, kids’ and grandkids’ ball games, gardening, Al-Anon conventions, you name it. While all these occasions can be joyous, they also can also be stressful, especially when they come in bunches.

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