I know it’s retreat time when I skitter from one activity to the next, squeezing one more thing in the five minutes between my last activity and the next. My life moves at the pace of a rushing river rather than meandering stream. Yup, time to go offline for a while. I am reading the …
Serenity is not in things but in what we make of things. —Epictetus, Greek Stoic Philosopher (55-135 AD) Some of us are truly happy over the long haul. However, most of us don’t know how to sustain authentic happiness. We may give ourselves some thrills in the short run but are unclear how to maintain …
The Phoenix · Threshold to 2022 “Thresholds are dangerous places, neither here nor there, and walking across one is like stepping off the edge of a cliff in the naïve faith that you’ll sprout wings halfway down. You can’t hesitate, or doubt. You can’t fear the in-between.” — Alix E. Harrow We are once again …
The Phoenix · Summertime “In summer, the song sings itself.” — William Carlos Williams We are in the fullness of summer, the season of light, vitality, and rest. A few years ago, I visited Norway during their time of high sun. Long days stretched into midnight and began anew at 4:00 a.m. I recalled the …
“God speaks to us every day only we don’t know how to listen”.— Gandhi Unfortunately, too many of us don’t believe in a Higher Power, let alone actually listen to that voice within ourselves. It’s the guidance that summons us to bring out the better part of ourself and connect to others in ways that …
The Phoenix · The Time is Now The eyes of the future are looking back at us, and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. Terry Tempest Williams I write this as winter’s cold and ice extend across our country, shattering records unbroken for hundreds of years. Texas’ whole electric grid is failing, …
I was reflecting on community the other day and thinking back on all the people who have flowed through my life since I joined the community of recovery. There are those that have only come in and out with a face at some meeting or a chance greeting during and after in the halls. There …
“Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God….” Step 11 What is prayer? Prayer is conversation with an inner voice, a higher power, a felt presence. Many call this conversation partner God. Some use other names: YHWH (Jehovah), Allah, Gaia, Spirit. Whatever the name we give it, we seek contact through …
The quick answer to the question posed in the above headline is no. The 12 steps are a spiritual program developed through Bill W and others’ experiences of being in the grip of alcoholism. Bill W. was not the first, but was himself the beneficiary of another recovering alcoholic’s testimony of the power of working …
It was the last day of a graduate class I was teaching on the Spirituality of the Twelve Steps. I asked the class what was most striking to them from the lectures and conversations we’d had. As though she had been given the question earlier, a woman immediately shot her hand up. “I learned again and …
