Hi Everyone!

Thank you for your participation and sharing during our meeting this week.

The telephone conference numbers for our group are:

Telephone conference number: (712) 775-7031 Access Code: 397-681-282

Playback recording number is: (712) 775-7029 Access Code: 397-681-282#

Playback reference number: 18

Here is the link for the MP3 of our meeting. This link will only be available for 1 week. But, I think that it may now be possible to download the MP3 of the meeting directly from the telephone conference line.

To listen to past recorded meetings, please go to the Recordings tab on the blog.

Our meetings are stored on MediaFire, a cloud storage service.

As a reminder, our group takes place on Sunday mornings at 5:30 AM EST.

Please join us as we “trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.” (AA Big Book 164:3)

This week we shared on our experiences of writing our 4^th Step inventory.

Then, we read and discussed the story in the AA Big Book Physician, Heal Thyself.

It was a wonderful discussion!

Aidel asked: “what does “Pink Seven” or a “pink cloud” mean?”

According to one site that I found online, the term refers to the extreme happiness or bliss of someone new to recovery. “Pink Seven” refers to having all the EMOTION and little of the correct ACTION for real recovery.

The danger of the emotional elation associated with “Pink Seven” is that it can misguide a person into believing that they no longer need to work a program of recovery. The delusion of complete recovery is symptomatic of the “insanity” of our disease.   The false feeling of being recovered paradoxically often leads to relapse and ultimately keeps us sick and suffering in our disease.

The 12 Steps of recovery as outlined in the AA Big Book are a specific program of action. Although abstinence feels wonderful, recovery is not an emotional experience.

Different from the therapeutic model of change, the theory of program is that our actions change our thoughts which in turn change how we feel. It is deceptively simple and ultimately deeply radical. As Bill W. said: “we can’t think our way into right acting, we have to act our way into right thinking.”

As a group, we also shared our personal reflections on this story.

Our homework this week is to spend a minimum of 10 minutes a day writing our 4^th Step inventory, using the format of your choice.

If you are using the Unofficial Guide, please follow instructions 1 and 2 and write your Grudge List.

As a group, we will be individually writing our 4^th Steps in addition to reading from the AA Big Book (63:4) on Step 4. The meeting assignments are outlined in the Unofficial Guide.

For Step 5, we will read from the OA 12 & 12, the AA Big Book and from The Unpopular Guide to Step 5.

I am so grateful to be sharing this journey with all of you!

Thank you all for sharing your experience, strength and hope.

“Together we can do what we can never do alone.”

In love and service,

Shira