" QUOTES"
" Insanity is doing the same thing over and over
and knowing what the results will be and doing it anyway."
=============
PRISON DIARIES
My name is — and I am an alcoholic.
“After 12 months sober in 2003-4, I had ‘just one drink.’ I did this
for a month or two before I had just two. Six months later—I was
a full-blown alcoholic. I had a nice Cadillac and over $1,000.00
saved in my checking account. After marrying a woman I met in a
bar we traveled to many towns in one long drunk. A fifth of Vodka
at home, an argument, passing out, and a later call to the police
brought the police to our ‘Domestic Disturbance.’ I refused to go
outside. They sent the dog in. I came out with the dog on my upper
thigh. This last drunk, on Aug. 26th, 2005, was my last day drunk
and free. I’ve been in jail and prison and A.A. since. Please help
me to contact an A.A. group to have a meeting the day I get out.
I’ve done A.A. before. I wasn’t ready. I’m ready. I’m serious. I’m
an alcoholic with 2 1/2 years sobriety.anon
=================
AL-ANON (related)
I didn’t believe it when my mother first told me she was an alcoholic. My image of an
“alcoholic” was an old man stumbling down the road in dirty clothes with a brown bag
covering a bottle of something in his hand—the town drunk.
My mom told me she was going to A.A. One day, she approached me and said there was a
place where teenagers could meet called Alateen. She asked if I wanted to go. I said “no.”
One day my mom walked up to me and said, “I got you a scholarship to an Alateen
conference and you’re going. I don’t know if you need a break from me or I need a break
from you, but you’re going!”
After packing, my mother drove me to a church and escorted me to a room in the
basement. She gave me a hug and a look of reassurance. “You’ll be alright!” she said and
left.
In the room, I saw kids talking and smiling. Then it was time to start the meeting. Scared,
I sat in a chair with a pole between these people and me, just in case something happened.
I found myself thinking these people were a little strange, and I really couldn’t grasp the
language they were all speaking. After the meeting, we held hands, said a prayer, and put
away our chairs.
I didn’t say much because I felt nervous. Everyone seemed very kind and acted pleasant to
each other and to me.
When we arrived at the member’s house, each of us was given our own bed. Mine was really
comfortable, and I felt more relaxed. I slept well, and morning came quickly.
At the convention the next morning we sang songs and heard stories about “cold pricklies”
and “warm fuzzies.”
There were different meetings we could choose to attend. It was my choice—no one told
me what I had to do. That weekend, I got a crash course in Alateen.
I made tons of friends, felt safe, talked to peers who had the same problems, and found
out that I was not alone. Until then I had been isolating myself from the world. I learned
so much about alcoholism.
After the closing meeting, hugs were given, t-shirts were signed, and phone numbers were
exchanged. A lot of weight was lifted. Many long-lasting friendships were made.
I felt exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. Hope was not lost. It had just begun.
===============
ABRAHAM
1. It’s not the big issues…..
It’s not the big issues that make up the balance of your vibrational offering. It’s the little issues. It’s how you feel when you are driving in traffic. It’s how you feel every time you open that drawer and it’s a mess and you can’t find anything in it. It’s how you feel about the day to day experiences that you are having. It’s how you feel about the people you are working with and the personality conflicts or alignments that you have. In other words, the things that are rolling across your mind on a pretty steady basis they set the tone of your vibrational frequency and so you just gotta ask yourself, "Is my frequency anywhere near the frequency of who I really am?" "Is my chronic frequency anywhere near the vibrational reality that’s in the process of becoming?"
We want you to know this vibrational reality that we are talking about it’s not something to just discard as non-reality. It is the preface to all that you call really reality. Real reality. Real life reality is always prefaced by a vibrational reality. There is nothing that you see or know, none of this knock on wood stuff, none of this stuff that you are translating vibrationally through your eyes and ears and nose and mouth and fingertips. Nothing that is the reality that you call reality is anything more than extended vibrational reality. This is where it all starts and this is where 99.99% of it becomes before you see it. This reality is valid, it’s vivid, it’s real and it’s worth turning your undivided attention toward. San Diego 08
===================
Vernon Howard’s SECRETS OF LIFE
"Self-knowledge is the great power by which
we comprehend and control our lives."
Vernon Howard
===================
A SCATTERING OF SEEDS
When a man’s thinking is airtight, his mouth usually leaks.
Homeglow after Visitors
Two couches
smile in dim light
over the active
weights they
recently bore.
Spots on the wallpaper
remember certain
apt verbs.
Ceiling regions
glow with laughings
over sudden quips.
Hopes,
confessions,
worries
have now slipped out
through the windows
to germinate or vanish
in the sod outdoors.
Are the smiles,
the glows,
the illuminations
that haunt our home
still stirring within
our sometime
visitors?
A spring inside
the older couch
chuckles.
Alan Harris
======
SEEDS FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR MIND
Buddha/Zen Thoughts
It is not proper to watch other people. This will not help your practice. If you are annoyed, watch the annoyance in your own mind. If others’ discipline is bad or they are not good monks, this is not for you to judge. You will not discover wisdom watching others. Monks’ discipline is a tool to use for your own meditation. It is not a weapon to use to criticize or find fault. No one can do your practice for you, nor can you do practice for anyone else. Just be mindful of your own doings. This is the way to practice.
-Ajahn Chah, "Bodhinyana"
You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice
because thorns have roses.
–Tom Wilson
Native American
"As we plunge ahead to build empires and race for supremacy we should stop and listen to [the female] song of life.
For without the female there is no life."
–Oren R. Lyons, Spokesman, Traditional Circle of Elders
Women are created with the ability to produce life. Women have a special tie to the Earth Mother.
They have something in common. They are the source of life. The Earth Mother gives songs to the Woman to sing.
These songs are about life, about beauty, about children, about love, about family, about strength,
about caring, about nurturing, about forgiveness, about God. The World needs to pay attention and listen to Her. She knows.
Great Spirit, let me listen to Her songs.
===============
A SCATTERING OF SEEDS
Stronger than most armor are motives clean and seen.
Penetration
Pierce with pointed mind through veils of falsity
Toward evanescent Truth.
Smile through hard frowns
Toward patient Joy.
Pray through frozen images
Toward warm Oneness.
Love through burning hatreds
Toward brilliant cool Light.
When Light floods the heart,
No veil can block,
No frown can discourage,
No image can conceal,
No hatred can destroy.
The proper moment is now.
The proper place is here.
The proper act is giving.
The proper feeling is love.
Alan Harris
======
HUMOR
Confessions
The priest was waiting on Saturday afternoon for his usual parade of people coming to confession. In comes a man so drunk, he is stumbling down the aisle, bouncing from pew to pew. Finally he finds the confessional, goes in, and shuts the door.
The priest goes in his side and waits. Nothing happens. He clears his throat so the fellow might know he is there and ready. No reaction. Finally, he starts losing his patience and bangs sharply on the wall three times.
The drunk fellow in the confessional says, "It’s no use knockin’…There’s no paper in here either!"
============