Speakeasy Alcoholics Anonymous All South Bay Central Office Newsletter Winter Issue 2020 1411 Marcelina Ave, Torrance CA 90501 | Email: [email protected] | Phone: (310) 618-1180 The Speakeasy is published by the All South Bay Central Office of Alcoholics Anonymous. Opinions expressed are those of the writers/ contributors and not of Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole or of Central Office. We welcome and need your input, opinions, humor and comments. Send them today. “Gratitude as the Antidote to Despair” One day, I walked into a women’s group once in a while, alcoholics have had what are to get drunk again, but I wasn’t entirely sure meeting at a private home in Torrance, CA. I called vital spiritual experiences. To me what he meant. It then occurred to me, was holding back tears. Everything was fall- these occurrences are phenomena. They “I could ask him.” ing apart. Or so it seemed. And when I Jim was his name. He was a plumber in the shared, the tears flowed. My worst fear was Verde Valley in AZ. He asked me, “Are you coming to life, or rather, my worst fear was glad you didn’t get up with a hangover being brought to life by my very sick brain “A complete change takes place in our today? Are you glad that you didn’t ruin because I didn’t want to face reality as it is/ approach to life. Where we used to run something (or worse) somebody last was. I shared with this group of women how from responsibility, we find ourselves night? Are you glad you’re here and not in I was preparing for the fight of my life. A jail, hospital, or dead?” I had to admit that accepting it with gratitude… “ custody battle with my ex-husband after it yes, I was glad for all of those things, but I was clear (in my mind) my daughter was “Keys to the Kingdom” Alcoholics Anonymous didn’t think about being grateful for being hurt. I was afraid and every word that them. He then said, “Not everybody gets to came out of my mouth spoke my fears into stay here, but those who do are usually existence. After I shared, the hostess of the pretty grateful to be here and that makes it a meeting shared something about gratitude. I appear to be in the nature of huge emotional lot easier to stick around. Take action do not recall her exact words, but she displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, (meeting commitment) be grateful (thank revealed one major lesson apparently, every emotions, and attitudes which were once the those in service), and help (listen to) some- AA could benefit from: gratitude is the anti- guiding forces of the lives of these men are body else.” dote to despair. As soon as she said it, suddenly cast to one side, and a completely Today when I struggle, writing a gratitude something in my brain shifted. new set of conceptions and motives begin to list is always a great start. I put sobriety at In November 2020 I started a gratitude dominate them” (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. the top, because without that, all bets are challenge: everyday, I text a couple of my 28). off. When I’m done I move around and do sobriety sisters three things I’m grateful for. When Sponsors suggested I move back to some sort of exercise. If I don’t get relief, I And the ladies text something back that they the Midwest in 2018 and 2019, I balked. reverse the order and then if nothing is are each grateful for. Perhaps it was this Something had to shift in me to make me changing, I ask for help. Move first, write practice that allowed me to face this battle. willing to do something I once dreaded. My second, call third. Sometimes I’ll even pray I returned to the scene of the crime in the sobriety date is May 21, 2016. I recall an old- and meditate! middle of Winter. timer once stating plainly: “Alcoholism is a Some days I don’t want recovery, I want Each day, I ask myself: “What is good in my disease of perception.” It took 4.5 years but relief. That’s when I have to remember that life?” Today, I am grateful for my daughter with the support of my tribe and the tools of recovery will take me to relief. I just need to who is my best teacher. I am grateful to have recovery, I’m showing up. work at it a little bit, use the tools, and Rule arrived safely to face my family afterward. I am grateful for the opportunity to edit #62! I am grateful for all the people who loved me and prepare the Speakeasy newsletter. That —Jim H., Redondo Beach back to life—who shared their time, shared service work has helped me to grow their stories, their money, their access to immeasurably. Gratitude. Gratitude. Use it. INSIDE THIS ISSUE resources, and are still doing so. I am grate- It works! ful that my regular meetings are just a Zoom —El P., Torrance, CA to Dayton, OH Steps, Traditions & Concepts 2 call away. I am grateful that I am able to keep my service commitment, hosting a Zoom AA A Grateful Journey Into The Light 3 meeting. I am grateful for my new family, the In my first 90 days of sobriety, I heard a members and non-members who call to speaker say, “I stay in gratitude because Ashley’s Story 4 check on me. They care, they really care! grateful alcoholics don’t get drunk.” And I Gene E., A.A. #28: “The Booze Fighter” 5 There are really good people in the world! remember thinking, “I wonder what that The good doctor wrote: “Here and there, means. Am I grateful?” I knew I didn’t want ASBCO Bulletin Board 7 Step, Tradition & Concept All South Bay Central Office 1411 Marcelina Ave Step Torrance, CA 90501 “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” Open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., M-F 9 a.m.—7 p.m. Sat & Sun Tradition Web site: www.southbayaa.org “Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside Email: [email protected] Phone: (310) 618-1180 contributions.” 7 Concept “The Charter and Bylaws of the General Service Board are legal Board of Directors instruments, empowering the trustees to manage and conduct world 4th Tuesday of the month 6:30 p.m. service affairs. The Conference Charter is not a legal document; it relies upon tradition and the A.A. purse for final effectiveness.” Currently meeting via ZOOM Meeting ID: 949 9677 6629 Password: 254568 Phone: (310) 618-1180 Step “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make Intergroup amends to them all.” 4th Tuesday of the month 7:30 p.m. Tradition Currently meeting via ZOOM “Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our Meeting ID: 949 9677 6629 8 service centers may employ special workers.” Password: 254568 Phone: (310) 618-1180 Concept “The trustees are the principal planners and administrators of overall policy and finance. They have custodial oversight of the separately District 1 incorporated and constantly active services, exercising this through 2nd Tuesday of the month their ability to elect all the directors of these entities.” 7:30 p.m. Currently meeting via ZOOM Meeting ID: 929 014 8764 Step Password: panel70 (all lowercase) Phone: (310) 740-2963 “Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” Tradition District 3 “A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service 2nd Tuesday of the month boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.” 7:30 p.m. 9 Concept District 3 participants are currently being invited to attend District 1 “Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for our future Meetings functioning and safety. Primary world service leadership, once exercised Phone: (310) 971-8847 by the founders, must necessarily be assumed by the trustees.” Hospitals &Institutions 3rd Tuesday of the month 7:00 p.m. “We, in our turn, sought the same escape with all the desperation of drowning men. What seemed at first a flimsy reed, has proved Currently meeting via ZOOM Meeting ID: 845 7790 5484 to be the loving and powerful hand of God. A new life has been Password: service given us, or if you prefer, ‘a design for living’ that really Phone: (310) 707-5606 works.” (p. 28) “We want to leave you with the feeling that no situation is too The General Service Office difficult and no unhappiness too great to be overcome.” (p. 113) P.O. Box 459 Grand Central Station, NY 10163 —Alcoholics Anonymous Phone: (212) 870-3400 2 Speakeasy | Winter 2020 A Grateful Journey Into The Light The topic of my gratitude is Dr. Dorothy much to us, I believe it honors their lives and been broken. The program, the Steps, the Big Grum, the doctor that helped bring me into efforts. What a wonderful legacy Dr. Dorothy Book—it works! God did answer my the world. Not only was she there when I was Grum passed onto me, and I now have the prayers. Thank you, God! born, she was there when I got sober. She privilege to carry the message to others with A final suggestion: “Go out there and help a was my Eskimo. My first attempt at getting gratitude for what was done for me.