Face-to-Face, Where the Rubber Hits the Road

I am grateful for the face-to-face meeting I attended (and led) today. We had a newcomer and we usually talk about Step One when a newcomer is with us.  Often, we also add another choice have more flavor in our meeting.   Folks were invited to share a favorite Slogan if they desired. 

On Step One.  There is no doubt about it, Step One is a doozy for many of us, bringing up all sorts of memories. Inwardly, I reflected back to twenty years earlier, to my first bout with my illness. Coincidentally, it occurred in April, in conjunction with a huge move across the Atlantic.  Now our family begins  this April, facing another big change,  due to the possible closing of my husband's workplace during 2011-2012. 

We are powerless, but not helpless. Waiting for an axe to fall is no fun, but we have found our ways to be at peace with this as-yet-unsolved problem. Peace is a one-day-at-a-time proposition. I can't plan on having acceptance for my emotions for any other time, really, than this moment.

Today as I shared, I wondered if I "should" tell the story of my "qualifying program experiences."  My hospitalizations, my relapse just this past Thanksgiving... and all my triggers, and how I really cope when the chips are down.  Today I was at peace with all these "stories" and comfortable in my own skin, so it could have been the perfect time to share  "success." But then I found myself more interested in talking about family matters and how I cope with more mundane triggers: people who do my inventory for me (unasked), how my Inner Critic has less of an upper hand in how I live my life.

I read the last two paragraphs from the reading in our EA big  book... on Step One. Have any of  you read those paragraphs ?  I find they make Step One accessible to the newcomer and communicate concisely the hope and promise of Step One. How difficult it is for most folks to see any hope in admitting they're powerless over emotions! I find newcomers can really take that word "powerless" personally and whether us old timers like it or not, newbie can translate it to mean helpless and worthless and hopeless... etc.

As regards the Slogans. One of our members wanted a Slogan that spoke to using personal power. Are any of you working on or pondering how to apply a Slogan? Ask and you shall receive.