Friends of Bill W.

[Bootsandheels]

Hi All,
I'm new and I have 9 yrs and 5 mos. sober by the grace of my HP and the program! Nice to meet you all and thanks for starting this thread. I managed to stay sober through a breakup this year with an ex who went back out with the same amount of time and is still out...This is a killer disease.
So grateful to still be here...



Boots

[LeftWriteFemme]

Welcome and congratulations!!!!!

Originally Posted by Bootsandheels

Hi All,
I'm new and I have 9 yrs and 5 mos. sober by the grace of my HP and the program! Nice to meet you all and thanks for starting this thread. I managed to stay sober through a breakup this year with an ex who went back out with the same amount of time and is still out...This is a killer disease.
So grateful to still be here...



Boots

[Greyson]

Originally Posted by Bootsandheels

Hi All,
I'm new and I have 9 yrs and 5 mos. sober by the grace of my HP and the program! Nice to meet you all and thanks for starting this thread. I managed to stay sober through a breakup this year with an ex who went back out with the same amount of time and is still out...This is a killer disease.
So grateful to still be here...



Boots

Again, welcome to the Planet and congrats on your progress in recovery. Yes, I know sometimes as my years of sobriety roll by, I can forget just how devestating addiction to alcohol and/or drugs can be.

[LeftWriteFemme]

August 14




Participant Observer


Underneath it all I am more than naked; I am hidden by exposure. My body can never be as nude as life with you in my thoughts. My mind is a polygraph you wander through. I have determined this is more than safe and unlock the closets. You are not my warden looking for contraband, nor the janitor looking for trash, you are here, you are my friend having a better look around simply to know me better and to love me well. Your unfamiliar stride is exciting, I show off the places I long for you to see and stand aside from the rest, it is all yours to look through. I do not resist. You are my peaceful guardian; I am your willing charge.







Sit with impatience and sooth it

*

CAMPAIGN

Sobriety is the Santa Clause that brings delightful gifts
Which make me smile.
Recovery is the Gene
Which comes from staying out of bottles.
The Jin makes treasure possible
But doesn’t bring it to the door.

The ads and billboards of illusion built a world of booze
But no hope for a real life.
I have learned to turn from all the lies of picking up
And live in the possibilities which open
Only when I put down the drink and the thinking.

I don’t need to pin up stockings
Or rub lamps, just take direction
And make willingness my campaign.

[LeftWriteFemme]

August 15



The Dark Fantastic


When the tornado touches down worry ends; the anticipation is over and thought stops. Tragedy is funny that way. In the aftermath I find out what mattered and what didn’t; whether I have helped or injured myself trying to plan for the worst. I fail to realize there are cloud filled days when nothing happens and days when trouble comes from out of the blue. What matters ultimately is if I was happy yesterday all the way into today until the thunder struck. Greed is not: living for today; greed is my attempt at gathering the future while dragging the past.






Compel your brilliance to shine

*


AUTUMN

The falling leaves slap my hand
As I ride the road a fifty mile per
My arm dangling.

Exposed they stand stark,
Stripped naked to the soul.
The growth of this years yearnings on the fringe.

I can follow this lead
Remove pretence not clothing
Stand before all who have an interest in seeing me.

Unashamed of my wants and the things I reach for
I can cast off the uniform of evolution
And enjoy a long winter of truth.

[LeftWriteFemme]

August 16



Single Serving Sterling


When the menu of life feels vast I must focus on my teaspoon; a simple tool that fits well in my hand, whose use I well understand. The possibilities conceived when I ponder the intangibles conspire to suck me down the rabbit-hole where all that’s left to me is a drug. When I come back to stir my tea and lick the spoon clean the world revolves around me and without need of my completed unified theory. Need looms, loss stacks, salvation keeps a steady distance, my only hope is to drink my tea, I shan’t even sharpen my spoon; I can and need to stay out of my fear built prison and off the streets of hell. My task is at hand and the size of the scoop is a reminder to take all of life in small doses.




Treat hope as a living thing; feed its hunger, quench its thirst

*


NATURAL LAW

Gravity is always in effect
But invoke the laws of lift
And you can make a stone fly.

I have no gills
But strap on a tank and rebreather
And I can share space with the sharks.

Given enough willingness and step work
I can walk through the world sober
Though every cell of my body is alcoholic.

The laws of nature are fluid
When I flow with them I can keep my goals.
Instant gratification is often my stumbling block.

Gaining access to my far-flung desires
Is not impossible
But it is also not immediate.

[LeftWriteFemme]

August 17


Go where it’s warm



The intangible rightness of cohesion is difficult to explain. What is it that makes a group congregating into a congregation? What makes a rag tag tousle into a home group? It is the thing I yearn for, but dare not chase. I know this too makes a grub into a butterfly, yet private transformation seems necessary, where the change of masses is gratuitous. A thousand geese fly overhead; arrows of individual miracles, pointing the way to the meaning of it all.







Score your rhythm so you can reflect the music of your soul

*

THE DREAMER

What about the dreamer?
What about her, responds my sponsor.
You ask me about her like I was the one
Who pushed her off the cliff.

Are you saying I pushed her,
I questioned my sponsor.
Yes, that is just what I am saying.
Do you need me to sing it?

You wanted the dreamer to fly off,
To safety and happiness
And wanted her to take you with her.
In an attempt to grab hold of her ankles
And propel her to heaven
You threw her off the precipice.

Now she is broken and bleeding
Far from your sight
Your dreamer is damaged
And you ask about her?

Do you want to know what you did
And how to remedy it
Or were you looking to duck responsibility?

QUACK------

[TenderKnight]

OK, first off, welcome to the folks that are new to the thread and Congrats to you, LeftWriteFemme on your milestone

Now, I need to share this because I could use some advice.. I went to meet with the intake person for the treatment program that I'm wanting to get into. It is a LGBT focused rehab and a residential program. I was told that I would probably have to be housed with the females.. Even though I am trans and have been on hormones for over a year now. She asked if I had had surgury and I said no.. This seemed to emply for her that it was natural that I'd be in with the girls.

I know transwomen that have been through the residential program and were not forced to be with the men. I guess I am the first FTM that they have had to deal with. On learning this I am now really stressed out and pretty depressed. The thought of being housed and treated as a woman after all these years of fighting to be seen and treated as a man in the recovery community, it is making me sick. I am going to talk with my sponcer about it and I am looking into getting an advocate, but jesus, this is a blow for me right now.

Not to mention the 2 to 3 month waiting list for women.. The one for men is shorter.. That part just fucking pisses me off to no end. All that aside, I know that I need treatment. I know that my sobriety means life and death for me, literally. My job means nothing, my apartment means nothing.. I am willing and ready to drop it all in order to get the help that I need.. But I can't help but feel that I have just been descriminated against and it hurts deeply.

As I said, I am talking about this with my support system here in real time, I am going to meetings and not using, but fuck.. It's friggin hard for me right now.. I just feel pretty hopeless in a lot of ways. Blah.. This too shall pass and I am taking it minute by minute right now.. Looking and getting lots of AA hugs, but I still feel like my ass is about to fall off and I feel lost.

*sighs* Venting here.. Will be ok, going to see about staying with my sponcer tonight, being alone right now isn't looking too good..

Love and Light,
Tony