The New Horizons group in Bend, OR

To those now in its fold, Alcoholics Anonymous has made the difference between misery and sobriety, and often the difference between life and death.

A can, of course, mean just as much to uncounted Alcoholics not yet reached. Therefore, no Society of men and women have ever had a more urgent need for continuous effectiveness and permanent unity.

We Alcoholics see that we must work together and hang together, else most of us will finally die alone.

That's my dryer. The 12 traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous are we AAS believe the best answers that our experience has yet given to those ever urgent questions. How can a a best function and how can a a best stay whole and so survive? And because it's August, I'm reading the 8th month of the year. Tradition is tradition 8. So Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non professional. We define professionalism as the occupation of counseling Alcoholics for fee

or higher, but we may employ Alcoholics where they are going to perform those services for which we might otherwise have to engage non Alcoholics. Special Such special services may be well recompensed, but our usual a a 12 step work is never to be paid for.

OK, so the format of this meeting is as follows. Our speaker will read and share something from the 11th with us for about 20 minutes. During this time please keep on mute. When the speaker is done sharing and reading, I will call names for sharing. If you unmute your phone to thank the speaker or to share, Please remember to mute yourself again promptly. We will end the meeting at 1:00, so

Chris will share with us for about 20 minutes

and please allow me to introduce Chris Lord's yours. My name is Chris R I'm a very grateful recovered alcoholic. What a nice bunch that gum it's a I'm I'm digging these zoom deals. I know there's the people out there that want to complain about them all the time, but I got to say it's AI get to see some of my buddies from England in there and Kathleen's from my old Home group where I finally got sober, guys. I mean, come on, where? What are the odds of me getting a chance to see her? Good heavens. And

that was a long time ago. I'm not going to tell him how long ago that was, Kathleen, because I don't want to, you know,

that's a long damn time. I got it. Yeah. It's, it's just so good. I'm talking to a bunch of my peeps, little little little AA folks and little service junkies in there and, and got. I'm just, I'm grateful to be asked to do anything. And I'd rather do this too. That noon meetings are cool. You know, sometimes I talk to California and I got to do it in my pajamas because it's too Dang late. It's Yeah, I don't want to do that anymore, but

got to do what you got to do.

It's a it's, I don't, I'm, I'm pretty overwhelmed today. It's a it's a, it's an honor to get a chance to, to be a part of that. I got to do my first

face to face conference this weekend out in far West Texas and first time in five months I've been in front of a podium out there and it's just, you know, I don't know it, it was nice and nobody was trying to hug me. It was, it was, it was OK, you know, So I don't know what we're going to do after this virus goes away. We'll have to start hugging. I guess I don't want to.

Some of us like the hug, some of us don't. No hugs, no bugs. Y'all remember that?

Finally got sober in 1987 folks. And today I have a Home group called Ingram Solution Group. It's a little big book group and up there in Ingram, we got a little AA club up there and, and there's a bunch of groups that meet there. The only requirement is you've got to be a literature based meeting. You can't if you just have open discussion and want to talk about your cat, you can't, you can't have a meeting there. But if you want to talk about the literature you can. You can meet there anytime and we kind of get all the little thumpers in the Hill Country in that one spot.

Pretty cool. I because a bunch of guys got around me in 1987 after a stupid suicide attempt at at Lewisville Group in Lewisville, TX. There's a couple of guys that opened a big book and they qualified me that night and showed me for the first time what it was to be an alcoholic. And I will forever ever be indebted to big book thumpers, folks that are carrying big books that actually know what the solution is. I love everybody in Alcoholics Anonymous folks, but you know, each group's different, every groups autonomous

traditions. We explained tradition 4 and but I'm going to hang out with the thumpers. I'm going to hang out with the people that are actually doing something other than talking about steps. They're actually doing the work. And I don't know,

I'm constantly amazed at the miracles I get to see in this fellowship. Never saw as much love as I've ever seen in this in this world until I got down Cox Anonymous. But but my life changed completely because of the 12 steps. So I would never knock the fellowship in any form or fashion. But it's the steps that changed me and just but I'm an 80 for seven years. Nobody will show me, and not trying to be

harmful in any way at all, it's just part of my story. But

just at some point in time, we just started stressing going to a meeting every day. That was the ticket instead of sitting down and open a big book and actually work in the steps. And my life changed guys. And I haven't thought about taking a drink and I don't do anything stupid. In a couple of months, I'll have 33 years. So I'm, I'm forever grateful. One of the things I was fortunate to have some pretty good sponsorship early on that kind of got me through this work quickly.

There was none of this step a month stuff. We, we got through the work quick.

Within a few weeks. I've, I'm, I've done a fifth step and the guys in that group, guys and the girls, women in there were showing me the disciplines of 1011 and 12. I mean, every day with that meeting, we would talk about, you know, steps 1011 and 12, the disciplines. And I had some good guidance early on from some folks that, that kind of explained it. If you look on the bottom of page 85, if you've got your book, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'm going to

absolutely read a little bit here. The step 11 is is like 3 1/2 pages.

It's short. Step 11 suggests prayer and meditation very bottom on page 85. We shouldn't be shy on this matter of prayer. Better men than we are using it constantly. It works if you have the proper attitude and work at it. It would be easy to be vague about this matter, yet we believe we can make some definite and valuable suggestions. It always amazes me Bill Wilson in the in the clarity in the way he wrote this. Basically what he's saying is I'll paraphrase it. Stop

tiptoeing around this stuff about God.

It this is unapologetically about God. Our job is to try to get connected and it doesn't matter how you do it. I mean, God, when they wrote the, the traditions, when they wrote the steps, it was just this wonderfully open. Don't get me started. I mean, it was, it was the bomb guys. I don't care who you pray to or who you meditate around, but but, but you're going to have to do it. And to get the, my, my friend Charlie over in Austin, he says the 11th step is not for extra credit.

You know, it's just like, it's one of his steps and we're supposed to do it. And and then he gives these, these great guidance and he, he gets pretty, pretty clear.

I just lost my spot there.

When we retire at night, top of page 86, we constructively review our day. Where we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once?

Where are we kind and loving and towards all? Were we kind and left loving towards all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others or or we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life?

But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse, or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review, we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures we should take. 11 steps stuff guys, the nightly review. I've got an app on my phone right here. It says the 10th step. That's the title of it. You can, you can get in an App Store says the 10th step and they give you nightly review. I don't, I don't know where these people get this stuff. 10 step is the stuff that we do all through the day, folks.

That's I step on somebody out there and you know, I had to do it just morning got kind of quick with a person I work with and had to kind of walk back over his man. You know, I shouldn't have done that. I I'll set that straight. That's ten step stuff. I didn't have to do a night review on that. I mean, I knew the minute the words came out of my mouth and the tone I used that I've done something stupid. Hard to believe after 33 years that I can still do stupid stuff.

Just shocking. But but we do. And the 10 step step

on awakening. Let us think about the 24 hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self pity, huge, dishonest and self seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all, God gave us brains to use our thought. Life will be placed on a much higher plane when we are thinking

if when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.

One of the things

someone pointed out years ago

if and I can send it to you, I'll put my e-mail in that chat if you want and any of this a couple of things I wanted to mention short time I got with you says in the 1938 dictionary. If you look at meditation, you're going to see that it meant thoughtful contemplation. God, there's so many people out there. Guys, look up meditation on the Internet and you, you got 1000 thing and there's some of them are really good guys and some of them are just crazy.

I mean, what Bill Wilson was not asking us to do was to leave our bodies and go to an astral plane and expect our belly buttons. It was thoughtful contemplation. I got a day ahead of me. I got a bunch of stuff I got to do. What can I do in my life here? How can I get through this and be, be, be an example of God's kids, be an example of a man in Alcoholics Anonymous? How can I keep from stepping on other people and, and, and still get the stuff done? I mean, I it's in meditation, folks. I'm supposed to contemplate about

my day. Bill Wilson talks about it in these pages. He said as we go through the day, you know, we pause when agitated or doubtful. He's, he wants us to think about this. Folks,

if you, if you listen to some folks, and this is just my thought, guys, if you listen to some folks out there, they get on this big old tear about the newcomer. You know, you're not ready to think. You know, you have to run everything by me and you have to talk to me about it. And I was so blessed when I got to Lewisville Group that I ended up with a bunch of people that didn't spend much time at all telling me what I could not do. They told me everything. Buddy, if you're ready to try to chair a meeting, come up here. Let's go.

Anybody telling me I couldn't start a business, they did not tell me I could not date in recovery,

Buddy, if we're doing prayer meditation, we're staying spiritually connected. The chances of getting ground up out there are pretty slim. I just, I just, you know, there's a power out there greater than ourselves, folks. And I'll mention this

Bill Wilson says there's a little quote, I just was, I was looking at it this morning. If we expand even 5% of the time on Step 11 that we habitually and rightfully lavish on Step 12, the results can be wonderfully far reaching.

Bill Wilson, 1958.

Yeah, I got to meet a guy that not long ago that it actually taught Bill Wilson how to how to meditate. Transcendental Meditation in the 60s. Fascinating stories. I mean, Bill Wilson until the day he died, was a seeker of power, of a seeker of this guidance. What a wonderful guy. I mean,

so good. But Bill Wilson continues to put all the emphasis on it. Our our job is to stay spiritually connected. My own sponsors used to say it, Chris, early on your job was to stay spiritually connected. 33 years over 32. Excuse me, no fronts. My job is to stay spiritually connected. It's the same thing. You know, we got this little guy and he's been drinking and doing some of those outside issues maybe and he's just all all messed up. And then we get detox good and we come to meetings and we start actually

doing this work. I don't mean just sitting in a meeting, grab scratching. I mean actually participating, doing some service work, helping out the group, volunteering to chair some meetings, doing something. And all of a sudden, folks, we are going to intuitively

get God's guidance. If we'll shut up long enough, turn the TV off, get rid of the music, guys, just get quiet, Then what's going to happen in that quiet time is that we're going to start getting some guidance. My experience that, that God's trying to show us,

I ain't no guy in a meeting not long ago, he's always say, oh, the only thing this thing is about is not drinking. That's all it's about. It's not about being happy. It's not about getting. I mean, he's just basically contradicted everything that was in the big book. My book says it's going to start with getting sober. The rest of this is about how to have a cool life, how to be happy. For God's sakes. That's what this is about. I mean, who wants to be dry sitting in a meeting absolutely miserable? That's called spiritual malady. It's called untreated alcoholism. We don't want that

and don't have to. I know too many people. The happiest people I know are in Alcoholics Anonymous Anonymous, and some of the most miserable sobs I know are in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Yeah. Oh, and if you sit down and get him to talk a minute, you'll find out they're not doing any of the disciplines of 1011 and 12. I'll just throw it out there, guys, especially sponsorship. But this meant this meditation piece, guys, Bill Wilson got pretty, pretty, pretty direct with what he wanted us to do. I get this is my what I end up doing

my sponsor Mark, I had Mark Houston for a bunch of years and he was a meditating fool. I come from a lineage clear back to Bill Wilson folks. I can trace my little lineage back about about nine folks and get the bill and

all of them, if you if you talk to her, you listen to any of their talks. They talk about the necessity of prayer and meditation. It wasn't an optional thing and it was

God.

There was a guy named Paul M in my linens. He'd meditate an hour and 30 minutes every day to 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes at night. And I strive to do the same. He, he, he was an amazing guy and wrote a bunch of great articles for the Grapevine and I've got them. If you ever want them, I can send them to you. But he, he talked about this getting quite business because it's in that stillness. They all talk about getting in a little place. I'm sitting at my desk right now, right out on the I look out my wind and see the Guadalupe River and, and I'm sitting there and I got a little

out there and I've got all my little stuff, all my little a, a look, I've got a little rule 62 token somebody gave me this weekend. And, you know, it's like I keep all my little AA stuff right here and at my desk and, and all my little, I've got some spiritual stuff that I keep on my desk and, and

I made a deal with Patti. You know, I'll be nice if she'll leave my desk alone. So she's not your messing with my stuff. This is my stuff. And the what we sit down here and I get quiet and that's what we do. You know, I get up early in the morning, she stays up late and I get up early and then and I get to a place where I can get quiet and, and shut my little eyes and take some deep breaths and start contemplating the day. I always, always, always have a little notebook. Always

when I sit down and meditate, if I'm on the road in a hotel room, I'm here. I always sit down with a little notebook. Because folks, the purpose of doing this is not to relax. The purpose of doing this is to get the guidance that I need. What do I need to do in my life? Do I do, am I digging my job? Am I, Do I want to be doing what I'm doing? Am I in a cool relationship? All of this guidance that you're going to get will come to you in this quiet time. And it takes discipline

on markings to have me sit down with a, with an egg timer and I'd sat back in the day. Y'all remember those? Now you've got phones, you can just hit them. There's some great sites you can sit down and do meditation and, and, and meditate with hundreds of thousands of other people at the same time.

There's a lot of power. I mean, it's, it's, it's pretty amazing what technology can do. But, but you sit down and just try it for 5 minutes. And if you can get 5 minutes, you're going to get distracted. You can get 5 minutes and then do it for 10 minutes. I always try every day at least to do 15 just to get quiet and get centered. But listen to the guidance. I got to say this real quick. So I let y'all go.

I talk about this and I'll give you the example, but I've had thousands of examples of the same thing. I was sitting at this desk one night and I was one morning early and I was I was doing my meditation and this guys name crossed my mind and he'd been my host out in Arizona one time and it'll talk. I did and I hadn't talked to him in years and but a name just crossed my little mind in the middle of this meditation and I made a little note and then after it was all over with on the way to work, I called this kid

and and it was early because I forgot the time difference. It was way early and he was at the butt early and and but I called him on the phone and he got real quiet. He said, can I call you right back? He was crying. I could hear it in a voice. And he called me and he I hung up the phone and he he did 10 minutes later, he called me right back. He said, why in the hell did you call me this morning? And I said, buddy, I don't know. And I told him I meditate and his name crossed my mind and I just was just checking on him, seeing how he was doing. And he had a big old fight with a guy in

and he walked away from a a not six months earlier, just just a big old hassle. You know how things get. And he just got his feelings hurt and he said, you know what, I'm out. And he left. But you know what happens when us when we don't, when we don't do groups like this and we don't have anybody to lean on, we get sick. And that's exactly what this little guy, he hadn't drank it, but he was thinking about committing suicide

out of the clear blue sky. We started laughing. We started business a little bit and I told him to get his butt back in there and make amends to that old geezer and go back to the Home group. And he did. He called me back. I talked to him all the time. And

why are the clear blue sky? Because God's in charge, folks. God's guiding us and telling us what we're supposed to be doing. And the people in this little gathering of that nice beautiful people of 100 in here, I got to tell you, there's something. You can see it in the rooms. You some of your nodding your head, you've done it. You've experienced the same kind of stuff

and some of your grinding your teeth looking around. I had a couple of them shaking their head like this. OK, All right. You know, I spent my life talking about stuff I didn't have any experience with. Don't you love it when you go to a meeting and the topic is four step and the little guy says, well, you know, I've never actually done a four step, but. And then he's going to talk 20 minutes about nothing. He's not. Yeah. OK. There's a lot of people out there. I bet you the majority of people in Alcoholics Anonymous don't meditate on a daily basis.

I bet you

and I hope they start because I get to tell you we need a lot of centered folks out there helping us, bless their little hearts. It's one of my favorite steps and I sure appreciate Carrie letting me, letting me come up here and do this. I think the keyword when we're talking about 11 step is practice. It's going to, it's awkward, it feels stupid. You're going to sit there, get quiet. You hear the guys vacuum cleaner next door, the guys mowing the lawn out here. Your mind immediately goes, that's OK, notice it, see what it is, that's fine. Then just go straight.

Back to what you were doing, and pretty soon all that stuff closes out and all you can do is you're centered. All you're doing is thinking of the cool stuff that God wants us to see. This program is now and always has been about power.

I'm sorry. I know there's some people in there that love that I'm powerless over everything. I am not,

not in 33 years.

I got some power because I got a whole bunch of people just like y'all out there helping me stay on the path. My job is just to stay connected with you all in God. So thank you all so much for letting me share.