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[bballdad]

I`m Tommy and I am a alcoholic.

I read this article and I knew it spoke directly to my heart.The one place we all can surely connect at/with.However,this is not necessarily for newcomers..


Welcome home-it`s good to see you!
the author writes:
I myself will always remember the first time I visited Dr. Bob's house in Akron, Ohio. I walked up the long steps to the front porch and stood at the front door; a young man I had never seen before came to the door and opened it, and simply said quietly, "Welcome home."

I have been at twelve-step meetings where a newcomer stumbled in, weeping and crying, as he choked out his story past his sobs. And finally someone in the group said quietly, "Welcome home." What does that little phrase mean? It means you're O.K. now, you're not lost anymore, you're not going to have to cry that way anymore -- though it's perfectly O.K. to cry -- but you're safe now, and we're going to get you all well again.

Wouldn't it be great to-be-at-home-with-God, where all your tears will be wiped away? To-be-at-home-with-yourself? Simply to-be-at-home-in-the-world, wherever you go?

Because then you can enjoy anything and everything else that's really worth enjoying and appreciating. The theologians stood around outside and talked about God; the desert monks sat inside and dined with God. The twelve-step program is not talk-about God, but a way of living that leads us to being-with God.

One of the most powerful passages in the Big Book is the section called the Twelve Promises:

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. [I really think so,but thats just me!]They are being fulfilled among us -- sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.

As Brooklyn Bob F. says to newcomers who walk into their first A.A. meeting, if this is the way you would really like your life to be, "this is not the best place for you to be, it is the only place for you to be." Why must it necessarily be a completely spiritual program?
Because of the realization that comes in the twelfth promise above: everything else was secondary, for it was only God working secretly within our souls, who -- often without us even being aware of it -- did for us what we could never in a million years have done for ourselves.

Listen to the gentle laughter and look at the smiles on the faces of the good old-timers and hear the simple words with which they greet you when you arrive at their door:

"Welcome home." They are but earthly channels, for it is God himself speaking to you, and telling you that you can lay down your burdens now, for you -- the wandering, lost child -- have come home at last.

Glenn C

[ANGELINA243]

Thank you! You have no idea how much I needed to hear this right now.

[lizw]

Great post.

We got an old americain guy here who has been sober forever and he says 'welcome home' to everyone when they share. And when he shares he talks alot about "being home in AA."

Some people mock him a bit, as he does have problems other than alcohol, but I've always thought it was quite nice. It's the message not the messenger right?

[Tazman53]

Welcome home!!!

What a statement, so true for an alcoholic in AA. I have gone to AA meetings out of town and I did feel at home.

You know we in AA are far from the only ones who need/love to hear that statement. If you know any Viet Nam vet say that to them with all of the sincerity and love you would say to a person in AA and then give them a hug....... you will see thier faces light up even after all these years.

[debs4321]

[IMG][/IMG]

This is a picture of Dr. Bob's house that I visited this year on Founders Day.

All is true.

I was at home.

[debs4321]

A bit of history of Dr. Bob's

Did you know that there are exactly 12 steps leading up to the front door at Dr. Bobs. With a small landing at the 3rd., 7th and 12th step, for prayer. The house was bought with the steps already intact. And also the house was bought well before Dr. Bob met Bill Wilson.

A God thing???? my thoughts............absolutely!!!!!

[Tazman53]

I heard a lady speak at a state convention, at the time she had 48 years sober, part of her story was being at Ebby's graveside when he passed..... she commented that she had an odd sense of things when she realized that counting herself, there were exctly 12 people at his grave side. She said there was no planning to who was going to be there and does not even know if Bill W. noticed the number or not.

[dancinggirl]

My "welcome home" place is this site...and you people. I feel relief on Monday's when I can get back to my store where my computer is and catch up on all the news/postings that I missed yesterday.