District 5 Al-Anon/Alateen

AL-ANON BULLETIN BOARD, GREETINGS, and MEMBERS’ WRITINGS

In 2012 we are focusing on ONE SLOGAN each month. You are welcome to share on ANY topic at any time!
Bulletin Board Topics – TOPIC THIS MONTH is FIRST THINGS FIRST!	NEW: Sharings on the Al-Anon Slogans.		Sharings on the Twelve Steps.
	Sharings on the Twelve Traditions.		Sharings on Gratitude
	Acceptance	“Progress Not Perfection”		Serenity
	Sponsorship	Changing Resentments		“Barefoot” board
Greetings & Messages	Post greetings and messages –congratulate a member on an anniversary, thank your sponsor or another member, send a holiday greeting, or ???
Members’ writing	For YOUR poetry, essays, or other forms of sharing – please contact us to contribute!

This web site is for YOU – District 5 members and members from around the world – and we created this page as one way for YOU to share your experience, strength and hope with other visitors to this site! The bulletin board and area for sharing can be another way to facilitate a “loving interchange of help among members.” You can share your writings, ideas, thoughts, wisdom, humor, poetry, questions, sayings, gratitude, topics for meetings, “learning experiences” you’ve had, congratulations to others, art – anything Al-Anon related that you would like to share! To share on this page, please send us an e-mail at afgdistrict5@gmail.com!

Please note that in keeping with Al-Anon’s Traditions and principles – we can not post messages or information about groups, programs or enterprises other than Al-Anon, no matter how worthwhile they may be. We can not post quotes or material from literature that is not Al-Anon “conference approved” literature. We can not post full names or personal contact information for you or for others, so please include either your first name, first name/last initial, or initials; or you may post as “anonymous” or with a non-identifying nickname (e.g. “Serenity Sam.”)

You are welcome to share your personal experiences and feelings related to messages posted by others. Please consider that in Al-Anon, we share our experience, strength and hope to help others and ourselves; we do not provide direct advice to others, or tell another person what to think, what to do or how to act. Please feel free to share things that you have learned at meetings or from others – but please remember that personal information and stories that you hear from others in meetings must not be repeated outside of the meeting.

DISTRICT 5 Al-ANON BULLETIN BOARD

Please also check out our pages for sharings on the Al-Anon slogans, the Twelve Steps, the Twelve Traditions and our Gratitude List page.

To share on this bulletin board, please e-mail us at afgdistrict5@gmail.com.

Topic:	ACCEPTANCE is often the answer to finding serenity. Would you please consider sharing YOUR experience with “acceptance” – what does it mean to you, what Al-Anon tools help you to accept things you can not change- please e-mail afgdistrict5@gmail.com to send YOUR share about “acceptance!”
Date posted	Messages on “Acceptance”
09/05/08	I came to Al-Anon hoping to change my daughter’s behaviors. I wanted to find out how to get her clean and sober, how to help her want to be the person she could be if drugs and alcohol were not in the way. I did everything I could do to help her stay clean after treatment, but she relapsed. She has been in and out of recovery. She is currently in relapse, but she knows how and where to get help and I have hope that she will keep making the effort for recovery. I also know today that nothing I can do will “make” her stay clean and sober. I can encourage her, believe in her, and love her, but pushing her, believing her when she lies and tells me what I want to believe, and trying to make her do what I think will help her, will not help. Accepting my daughter’s addiction and that I can not make her condition change is painful and difficult but it’s reality, and it is necessary for me to accept this reality for my own sanity and to be able to help my daughter. I am afraid for her, but I also have hope. Acceptance of the reality of my daughter’s addiction and its effects on her allows me to be afraid without acting on my fears, which only makes things worse for all of us. ~ Marty.

Topic:	SPONSORSHIP! Share YOUR experience with sponsoring others, being sponsored, what sponsorship means to you, tips for sponsoring or being sponsored, or other ideas - please e-mail afgdistrict5@gmail.com to send YOUR share about “sponsorship!”
Date posted	Messages on “Sponsorship”
07/21/08	The truth of the phrase: "You must give it away, to keep it" is very accurate when it comes to Sponsorship in Al-Anon from my personal experience. How can you gauge your rewards, while offering Experience, Strength and Hope to a newby in the Program? One very important piece of “giving it away” is taking TIME to answer questions, take a phone call and be a sounding board to those struggling to know if they indeed belong in Al-Anon. It has given me more exposure to study of Steps, Traditions, Concepts, Slogans and basics of Al-Anon. Also, introducing a relative newcomer to other literature than perhaps a Daily Reader, and studying it together benefits both of us!! Please consider stepping out of that Comfort Zone to support new members of the Al-Anon Fellowship. I've definitely received even more than I've given away, plus making another member feel even more welcome, while finding a better way of life. ~ M.S.

Topic:	Progress Not Perfection - please e-mail afgdistrict5@gmail.com to send YOUR share about “progress not perfection!”
Date posted	Messages on “Progress Not Perfection”
05/15/08	Progress not perfection reminds me to try to be the best me I can be, rather than to try to attain unrealistic goals or strive to fulfill an image of what I imagine others may expect of me or of what I imagine “perfect” would be like. “Progress” reminds me to take action, not to just wait and hope for situations to improve but to actively work to make change happen. Not perfection reminds me to practice acceptance, have realistic expectations, and to keep trying to do the right things regardless of whether the outcome is exactly what I wanted it to be. By practicing the Steps and principles of the Al-Anon program, I make progress. Even if the progress is not always consistent and never will be perfect, and even though there will always be things I will never be able to change no matter how much I may want to change them, I can make progress towards changing the things I can change and towards being a better me. ~ Judy A., Plymouth, Michigan.

Topic:	CHANGING RESENTMENTS - Resentments can be tough to live with AND tough to change – but the tools of Al-Anon can help! How have you dealt with resentments - what has worked for you, what challenges have you found, what difficulties are you working on? Please e-mail afgdistrict5@gmail.com to send YOUR share about “changing resentments!”
Date posted	Messages on “Changing Resentments”
02/21/08	I came to Al-Anon deeply resenting that I had been told to come to Al-Anon! However, my son was in Dawn Farm treatment program and I felt I had to cooperate with everything that was recommended in order to be able to help my son recover from drug addiction. All I wanted was for my son to get clean and sober. It took me weeks to be able to relax enough to really listen to what was said at meetings. Eventually I started hearing that “detachment” was not abandonment or lack of caring, that “letting go” was not giving up or refusing to provide appropriate help at the right times, and that others in Al-Anon deeply cared about their loved ones but had learned the differences between what they could and could not change about the circumstances that led them to Al-Anon. Detachment with love has helped me to accept the situation as it is (my son is in relapse) without resentment, and to keep the doors open while setting limits and not enabling his disease. I am grateful to Al-Anon for helping me to love my son while hating what his disease does to him, and for helping me to have hope for our future instead of despair over the present. ~ M.W.; Ypsilanti, Michigan.
01/22/08	Here is how Al-Anon helps me to change resentments: - Working the Steps helps me identify the resentments I have and their causes. It also helps me to identify how I respond to things that cause me to have resentments, and what my role is. - I may not be able to change the things I resent, but I can change my responses, and the Steps, slogans and other program tools help me to respond with acceptance, love and forgiveness to things I otherwise might feel resentful towards. - Al-Anon helps me to see that not everything is about me, and to not take things personally. Resentments don’t last as long or seem as bad when I realize things are not personal. ~ Amanda
01/22/08	Changing Resentments: I sometimes resent people who have what I want. I have problems with not wanting to let go of material possessions. I save way too much because I might need it later or it is too good to let go of. Three of my family members have no problem tossing out or passing on. I am working on letting a family member help me sort thru and pass on material items I can't let go of. Only because of Al-Anon am I even letting this person help me. ~ Mary

Topic:	SERENITY - please e-mail afgdistrict5@gmail.com to send YOUR share about “serenity!”
Date posted	Messages on “Serenity”
11/01/07	Serenity: Serenity for me is about feeling like I can deal with what happens. I may not be able to make things go my way, but I will be able to make good decisions and cope with the outcomes. Al-Anon helps me to have the tools to do this. Before, I would expend all my energy trying to make things come out “right.” Today I know that all I can do is do my best to do the right things; I have no control over how those things will turn out. To me, serenity is truly about accepting the things I can not change while having the courage to do the right thing even when it’s hard to do. Sometimes this means taking action and other times it means letting go. I make the best decision I can and feel OK with that. To me that’s serenity. Thanks for letting me share. ~ Julie K.

Topic:	“BAREFOOT” TOPIC board – Please e-mail afgdistrict5@gmail.com to share about YOUR topic!
Date posted	Messages – this board is for YOUR topics!

MESSAGES: CONGRATULATIONS, THANK-YOU’S, HOLIDAY GREETINGS, GET-WELL WISHES – and other messages from Al-Anon members to/for other members! (Note: you can post a message or a card – and we can help make a card on request.) – Please e-mail afgdistrict5@gmail.com to have a card or greeting posted!

Greetings and Messages
Date posted	Greetings – Messages will be posted below!

01/01/10	Happy New Year from District 5 Al-Anon – please click here for a card from us to you!

ARCHIVED MESSAGES	Archived 2009 messages and cards – please click here to read them!
	Archived 2008 messages and cards – please click here to read them!
	Archived Winter 2007 Holiday cards from District 5 and its members - please click here to read them!

WRITINGS, ART and OTHER EXPRESSIONS by AL-ANON MEMBERS

This area is for YOU to share your original work – poetry, essays, photos, art or other forms of expression. Serious or humorous, your expressions are welcome - please e-mail us at afgdistrict5@gmail.com to contribute!

Member’s writings
Date posted	Writings
01/07/09	I’m Patty from Ann Arbor. Maybe we've met. Maybe not. I go to a lot of Al-Anon meetings in Ann Arbor. I've been attending since 2006. My New Year's resolution is to be happy. That would involve knowing myself and what pleases me, and then doing it, no matter what anyone else feels like doing. Putting the care of me before others is hard to do. My dad drank, my mom raged, I'm an adult child of an alcoholic, and codependent. I married a man just like me and had two daughters who are adult children of an alcoholic. Now I have granddaughters who are codependent.....What I have learned in the last 3 or so years is that I do not have control over anyone except myself. I can control my actions, my thoughts, and, on a good day, my emotions. It's sort of like meditation. The urge, thought, emotion, impulse comes and I acknowledge it and let it go. If I am around those that I love I can simply say what I'm feeling. That usually does it. The emotion seems to easily melt away when I can voice it as an observation and not get into the energy of all the drama. So now I practice being happy, positive and compassionate---for myself and others. I let the squirrel that races around my head screaming at me to “Do something” go play in the trees. I imagine what I would say or do for a friend or child who is feeling the pain I feel and find that I can nurture myself. Sometimes I even do it! It is also hard for me when my beloved doesn't like me taking care of me. Today I heard that I am "self centered." I'm thinking that that is a good thing. It's my 50th birthday today and I have come a long way to be able to be centered and grounded in myself. Much Love, ~ Patty
11/19/07	A letter to my alcoholic Father – by Donna C .... I wrote this letter when I was 28 years old ... I am now 60 and I still read it and understand the burdens we as alcoholic children endure. The pain never goes away even after the person dies. The drink was so much a part of us and our childhood that it is still part of you now ... (please click here to continue reading Donna’s letter and sharing!)

To share on this bulletin board, please e-mail us at afgdistrict5@gmail.com!

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