A REDISCOVERY OF LIFE

A formula for true happiness...........if you want it.

To "FEARLESSLY GO" that is the state in which I
want to live the rest of my life

This man talks of such things

There are three more Youtube clips from this workshop
Check them out if you wish.

AWARENESS AWARENESS AWARENESS

"Waking up"

Death of the ego.

Where suffering comes from.

Freedom and happiness and

Who is "I" rather than "ME"

This sequence of you tube clips made by Father Anthony de Mello a Jesuit priest who challenged the dogma of the church and who subsequently died in suspicious circumstances is a

 "Profound life changer from which there is no return."

Just love this poem:

The Touch of the Masters Hand

Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin,
but held it up with a smile; "What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who'll start the bidding for me?" "A dollar, a dollar"; then two!" "Only
two? Two dollars, and who'll make it three? Three dollars, once; three
dollars twice; going for three.." But no, from the room, far back, a
gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow; Then, wiping the dust
from the old violin, and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody
pure and sweet as caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low,
said; "What am I bid for the old violin?" And he held it up with the bow.
A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two? Two thousand! And who'll make
it three? Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice, and going and
gone," said he. The people cheered, but some of them cried, "We do not
quite understnad what changed its worth." Swift came the reply: "The touch
of a master's hand."

And many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin, A
"mess of pottage," a glass of wine; a game - and he travels on. "He is
going" once, and "going twice, He's going and almost gone." But the Master
comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul
and the change that's wrought by the touch of the Master's hand.

Myra 'Brooks' Welch

TWO WOLVES

Two Wolves - A Cherokee Parable

An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life...

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

"One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.

"The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

"This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,
"Which wolf will win?"

The old chief simply replied,
"The one you feed."
~Author Unknown

HOLD FAST by Mercy Me

RECOVERY VIDEO

Nothing has worked so effectively, for so many people,
for so long. There is a way out of active addiction and it
lies in the power that is to be found when one addict or
alcoholic helps another by sharing his or her experience
strength and hope in recovery.

For me the "only game in town" is 12 Step recovery.
I tried pretty much everything else and none of it came
close.

This is a really hopeful video set to a great track.

HAZELDEN

Just a few words about Hazelden to which I have no connection.

The Hazelden Foundation is widely considered the most influential chemical dependency treatment center in the world today. It provides residential and outpatient treatment for adults, young people, and families affected by chemical dependency. Further, it trains addiction professionals and is a vast publishing empire dealing with recovery related literature.

Hazelden was the first pioneer 12 Step treatment facility and this approach was to pave the way for countless other centres worldwide to follow in its wake.

It opened in 1949 on a farm in Minnesota USA. There was no model to follow other than it provided an environment where alcoholic men could dry out and then be introduced to, and educated about, the A.A. program. This was the core philosophy of 12 Step facilitation.

It was admission to a similar 12 Step treatment facility in the UK, based on this model, that saved my life in 2002.


I work in a similar 12 Step treatment facility today. 


When I see the word "Hazelden" my heart softens a tad!

This a great starting link if you are new to recovery or are considering treatment.

Recovery networks and communities: blogs, chats, forums and online meetings -- Hazelden


Never forget AA/NA/CA is not Treatment and Treatment is not AA/NA/CA. Treatment may get you into recovery...........staying in recovery requires more........ much much more. How to do this you will find with "Fellowship"and a "Program".
.

PLEASE HEAR WHAT I AM NOT SAYING - a poem by Charles C. Finn

When I first came to the rooms I was finally 
among people who knew me. I knew they 
knew me . And more.... I never felt judged. 


Therein lay salvation and I see that today.

The most powerful lines of this wonderful 
poem for me are: 


"That's why I frantically create a mask to hide 
behind, a nonchalant sophisticated facade, 
to help me pretend, to shield me from the 
glance that knows.
But such a glance is precisely my salvation, 
my only hope, and I know it."

Here is the full poem:

PLEASE HEAR WHAT I AM NOT SAYING

Don't be fooled by me.
Don't be fooled by the face I wear
For I wear a mask, a thousand masks, 
Masks that I'm afraid to take off 
And none of them is me. 

Pretending is an art that's second nature with me, 
but don't be fooled,
for God's sake don't be fooled. 
I give you the impression that I'm secure, 
that all is sunny and unruffled with me, 
within as well as without, 
that confidence is my name and coolness my game, 
that the water's calm and I'm in command 
and that I need no one, 
but don't believe me.

My surface may be smooth but
my surface is my mask, 
ever-varying and ever-concealing. 
Beneath lies no complacence. 
Beneath lies confusion, and fear, and aloneness. 
But I hide this. I don't want anybody to know it. 
I panic at the thought of my weakness exposed. 
That's why I frantically create a mask to hide behind, 
a nonchalant sophisticated facade, 
to help me pretend, 
to shield me from the glance that knows.

But such a glance is precisely my salvation, 
my only hope, and I know it.
That is, if it is followed by acceptance, 
If it is followed by love. 
It's the only thing that can liberate me from myself 
from my own self-built prison walls 
from the barriers that I so painstakingly erect. 
It's the only thing that will assure me 
of what I can't assure myself, 
that I'm really worth something. 
But I don't tell you this. I don't dare to. I'm afraid to.

I'm afraid you'll think less of me, 
that you'll laugh, and your laugh would kill me. 
I'm afraid that deep-down I'm nothing
and that you will see this and reject me. 

So I play my game, my desperate, pretending game 
With a façade of assurance without 
And a trembling child within. 
So begins the glittering but empty parade of Masks, 
And my life becomes a front. 
I tell you everything that's really nothing, 
and nothing of what's everything,
of what's crying within me. 
So when I'm going through my routine 
do not be fooled by what I'm saying. 
Please listen carefully and try to hear what I'm not saying, 
what I'd like to be able to say,
what for survival I need to say,
but what I can't say.

I don't like hiding.
I don't like playing superficial phony games.
I want to stop playing them.
I want to be genuine and spontaneous and me 
but you've got to help me.
You've got to hold out your hand
even when that's the last thing I seem to want.
Only you can wipe away from my eyes
the blank stare of the breathing dead.
Only you can call me into aliveness.
Each time you're kind, and gentle, and encouraging,
each time you try to understand because you really care,
my heart begins to grow wings -- 
very small wings,
but wings!

With your power to touch me into feeling
you can breathe life into me.
I want you to know that.
I want you to know how important you are to me,
how you can be a creator--an honest-to-God creator --
of the person that is me
if you choose to.
You alone can break down the wall behind which I tremble,
you alone can remove my mask,
you alone can release me from the shadow-world of panic,
from my lonely prison,
if you choose to.
Please choose to.

Do not pass me by.
It will not be easy for you. 
A long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls.
The nearer you approach me 
the blinder I may strike back. 
It's irrational, but despite what the books may say about man 
often I am irrational.
I fight against the very thing I cry out for.
But I am told that love is stronger than strong walls
and in this lies my hope.
Please try to beat down those walls
with firm hands but with gentle hands
for a child is very sensitive.

Who am I, you may wonder? 
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet
and I am every woman you meet.

       By Charles C. Finn