Drinking won’t take away your problems, but it will sure give you some interesting new ones!

Your mind is likely to take you to familiar places. It’s all it knows! If you want change in your life, to get out of ‘the same old same old’, then talk with a trusted friend, sponsor, Higher Power. Somebody/thing other than your self. Then trust and let go!

Take some Good Orderly Direction for a change!

This is the time that so many make resolutions to change. The focus typically is on changing people, places or things. Doing more or less. Trying harder. Change jobs, relationships, activities. But we all know what happens to New Year’s resolutions! In the end, nothing changes.

The reality is that ‘nothing changes if nothing changes‘. Real lasting change comes from within. The following illustration makes this point in a light hearted way:

The obstacle is the journey.

Leap on!

Codependency, just like any other addiction, does kill. The person suffering from obsessive care-taking may not experience the dramatic death or lock up of an active alcoholic or addict, but they will surely die a spiritual, emotional or mental death. The family members and loved ones of addicts need recovery too. They are suffering from the same disease of addiction. First and foremost we recommend Al-Anon Family Groups, but many co-dependents need a residential treatment to learn the tools of recovery.

The dynamics behind the destructive effects of codependency are difficult for many to grasp at first. This little metaphorical story helps to illustrate:

One day a little girl was down at a seaside dock with her parents. She skipped down the pier and came across an old man doing some crabbing. The little girl was fascinated! The old man pulled the crab trap out of the water and put several squirming, pinching crabs into a steel bucket that already contained some live crabs. He then turned away to re-lower his trap.

“Hey Mister!” the little girl was concerned, she spoke, “your crabs are trying to get out of the bucket! Don’t you want to put a lid on them, so they don’t get out?”

The old man turned to the little girl, and to the crabs, who were scrambling to pull themselves out of the bucket, and said, ” Girl, them crabs is just like people. When one crab gets a hold of the top of the bucket, and tries to pull his self up and out, dem other crabs reaches out and pulls him back down”.

Pay attention to who is in your bucket. Do they really want you to succeed and leave them behind?

I love using Zen Koans in recovery work and generally people loved to be baffled by them. Sometimes though, I think (which is not condoned in Zen) that the ancient and hard to pronounce Japanese names and foreign customs serve to distract a more modern Western audience. A parable or teaching story works best by meeting people exactly where they are and with what they are familiar with. Jesus told stories about shepherds and sheep, while Lao Tzu spoke of oxen and rice paddies. I’ve just brought some of our favorite Zen stories into Canadian culture in the 21st Century. Here is some Zen of Recovery, I hope you are scratching your head.

EGO

Bruce was fairly new to AA and sobriety, but he had been very successful in his business and active in his church. Bruce considered himself to be a humble and dedicated member of his new 12 Step Fellowship. Bruce scheduled regular meetings with his carefully chosen sponsor, Frank.

One day during their weekly visit, Bruce asked his sponsor, “What is ‘ego’, according to AA’s spiritual principles?” Frank’s face turned red, and in a very condescending and insulting tone of voice, he shot back, “What kind of stupid question is that!?”

This unexpected response so shocked Bruce, that he became sullen and angry. His sponsor then smiled and said, “That Bruce, is ego.”

 

Looking for God?

Seeking IS Finding. Keep looking!

 

 

You can rock all day long and get nowhere….except more worried and exhausted.

Are you done rocking? Time to move on?

We’ll give you a hand up!