Friends of Bill W.

[LeftWriteFemme]

March 4


A Duck Trying to Teach a Fish to Swim



Just because you’ve been in the water doesn’t mean you know how to swim. Just because you swim in the water doesn’t mean you can teach me how. Floating on top and plunging your head under the surface occasionally, doesn’t qualify you to safe guard me. Poaching is unpleasant to those of us caught, we that were foolish enough to believe that birds of a feather can teach school are picked off and swallowed by the benevolence of so much quack.



Stand up to extend your reach



*

AND I BELIEVE YOU

"This will be easy." Says my sponsor.
"Oh yes, simplicity itself I'm sure." I respond
"I've participated in these plans before."
"We get good results." She retorts

I love how you pick goals.
They seem like intellectual straight lines
And turn into roller coasters.
You do it with an open face, not a modicum of guilt.

Why should I feel guilty?
You keep getting better.
I keep staying sober.
What is there to feel bad about?

The guileless look on your face,
I fall for it every time but no more,
I know you're cunning.
You know this will be hard.

I remember when we worked on Honesty.
What could be simpler?
Or Hope, how sweet a concept.
Or the thirty rounds on the floor with Setting Limits.

I've begun to realize you're like,
The bean seller that Jack met.
You say they are magic beans
And I believe you.

You say they'll grow to the sky
I know they will
And I will climb them
Just don't tell me it will be easy

[LeftWriteFemme]

March 5


What and When, When and How……and Why


Arriving at the place where I have nothing to prove, afforded me the luxury of not having to proclaim the amount of time I have, when I share in a meeting. Taking the score keeping out of the equation I was then able to think of what it was that motivated me to speak in a meeting. Self-Possession, a great gift to inhabit, a greater gift to demonstrate; quiet dignity is a real favorite of mine. If I am calm yet in control, if there is time, if there is a lull, I can share parts of my experience. If I have chaos, an agenda, a theory, a grudge it is all better left unsaid in the meeting and saved for the less vulnerable ear of my sponsor. For if I am wrong I might persuade in error and if I am right I might convert in righteousness.
Why is it that what I never say rings louder than anything I do?




Leave gossip where you find it




*

MOTE

I dug the mote, the alligators came on their own.
The rain fell, I did not bid it.
I've burned all the bridges
I've sold the farm.

I wonder at the company I keep
The birds fly in and stay for a season
Friends used to wave as they passed
Now my island is overgrown.

I stand to my chin in the tall grass
I guess it's a matter of maintenance
What I don't keep pruned grows back
The connections I don't secure weaken and fail.

I am subject to all that falls, if I don't keep my roof on.
The wind chaps me without the walls of my home
No clothes and I burn
No joy and all I do is cry.

It takes more than a continuous ditch
To protect my heart.
More than water and reptiles
To safeguard my soul.

[Tommi]

It's been a bad week...a sad week, and I feel weak.

It has been a journey. I have found the mountains, and loved to climb them. When little creatures and kids fall down, I know I can pick them up and cradle them until they heal, or pass into the valley of death.

"Steel on the outside , velvet on the inside", she says, in the special way she sounds when she knows, and I know, I am filled with the awe with the power of clarity, in those few words.

Ice water has been my drink of choice today. How about you?

[LeftWriteFemme]

Originally Posted by Tommi

It's been a bad week...a sad week, and I feel weak.

It has been a journey. I have found the mountains, and loved to climb them. When little creatures and kids fall down, I know I can pick them up and cradle them until they heal, or pass into the valley of death.

"Steel on the outside , velvet on the inside", she says, in the special way she sounds when she knows, and I know, I am filled with the awe with the power of clarity, in those few words.

Ice water has been my drink of choice today. How about you?

I'm so sorry that you have been having to go through all of this. The price of loving those feline deities is their life span is so much shorter than ours and we are destined to live so much of our lives missing them. I love you and hope that today is at least a break from the sadness and grief.

All my love,

the girl

[LeftWriteFemme]

March 6

The Price of Today’s Ride



Much of my spiritual awakening has been spent separating myself from the nightmare of the past, reassuring myself that in fact, it the horror, is over. As my present has improved my reactions are still invested with the hide or fly coping of a child dealing with terror. Things get better yet barricades are erected, departing flights secured. Disengaging the clutch of fingers wrapped so tightly around the escape hatch takes a great deal of my short supply of faith and confidence. Laying down my anticipatory reluctance in favor of optimism has had the breathtaking feel of pain, though in fact it was only the separation from a poisonous crutch and the vacuum it creates. Allowing myself to see beauty at the same time as I deal with the truth of the past; standing in the full light of morning and not blocking out the brilliant pain of night is the outstanding gift my spiritual path affords me.



Open stored creativity



*

ECHOES OF ACTION

Squares of light outline a patchwork on walls and ceiling.
Ripples of water formed this ancient glass.
Three hundred years these waves have shone through those panes.
Three hundred years these waves have held,
Like stability in a world of change.

Looking through the window
The City rams life down it's own throat.
The ripples are invisible,
Caressing currents imbed the glass
The wavelengths shining projections only with the street lights.

How much mundane activity is captured,
Only revealing itself surreptitiously.
What is not echoed from year to year comes to final rest.
My voice does not terminate at my mouth
How therefore can I consider a blunted end to my behavior?

[Tommi]

Originally Posted by LeftWriteFemme

I'm so sorry that you have been having to go through all of this. The price of loving those feline deities is their life span is so much shorter than ours and we are destined to live so much of our lives missing them. I love you and hope that today is at least a break from the sadness and grief.

All my love,

the girl

Dusty was happy and healthy looking when I went there I went to pick him up and take him to the Vet for his diagnosis. . Knowing death will be scheduled when he turns the corner of health is just weighing heavy.

Was Dr. Death so wrong? We can put animals to sleep....what about it .hearinig you song about algae ...and I smile.

Thanks for the love, the daily inspiration above and the poetry below it. I love having dessert with my coffee.

All my love backattcha.

PS.. I saw that Greyson is signed up for the Reunion.


Should you stop in here, just WaVvinnng at you.. Hi Greyson, HEllo anyone that stops in to read. Jump in the water's fine.

One hell of a week....so, Oscar Movie Preview day is today. The music will be good..

[Greyson]

Waving "Hiya" to Tommi and Lefty. I don't know why, I am just partial to calling you "Lefty."

[LeftWriteFemme]

Originally Posted by Greyson

Waving "Hiya" to Tommi and Lefty. I don't know why, I am just partial to calling you "Lefty."

I have to tell you a million years ago when I was creating my screen name it never once occured to me that I was going to spend my life being called "Lefty" ..........lol

Waving HI back at you, Greyson!!!!!!

[Tommi]

Originally Posted by Greyson

Waving "Hiya" to Tommi and Lefty. I don't know why, I am just partial to calling you "Lefty."

Hey there Greyson , so good to see you... We are setting up some times and places for meetings at the Reunion. More to follow...Any suggestions are welcome.

Friends of meetings!

Cold embers to a Fire Within. That's how many of us felt, caught between conflicting moralities, maladaptive behaviors, and little understanding, support, or hope of finding it. We had to break our personal block to transcendence. Many of us found it in 12 step programs (Friends of Bill). Meetings will be held on Friday____ and Saturday at ____ and on Sunday at _____. All meetings will be in the ___ Room - "Our Place". No meeting is scheduled for Thursday. If you are interested in leading a meeting, speaking, volunteering in some way, send a PM.