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: 21
Here is the link for the MP3 of our meeting. This link will only be available for a limited time.
But, I think that it may now be possible to download the MP3 of the meeting directly from the telephone conference line for all participants.
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)
During our meeting, we read and completed our discussion on Step 4 in the AA Big Book 68:1 – 71:0).
We briefly reviewed the fear inventory and discussed the sex/harm inventory.
Attendance was low due to the holidays, but, the content was good! For those who were unable to attend, please listen to the playback recording. This meeting was full of wonderful and interesting information.
Time permitting, I will post information about the Sex/Harm inventory separately.
I would like to post the summaries of our meetings from the last few weeks before our next meeting this Sunday.
Notes from our meeting:
The sex inventory is concerned with our most personal and intimate inter-personal relationships.
Sex is a pivot point and a fundamental part of what it means to be human. “We take ourselves with us wherever we go.” Therefore, our relationship with food mirrors our relationship with life. How we behave around food, is similar to how we act in our intimate relationships too. It is about placing God into EVERYTHING, not just the food.
As it says in the AA Big Book, “we treat sex like any other problem.”
Lawrie C., in his book wrote that “relationships are about our past; fears are about our future and the sex inventory is about our present.”
We are spiritual beings having a physical experience, not physical being having a spiritual experience.
So many difficulties in life arise when one lives driven by one’s primal instincts, rather than according to one’s highest spiritual values. Just as food needs to be consumed in moderation and balance, so too sex needed to be used in a proper way.
It is impossible to be happy if sex is used to satisfy one’s instincts and solely for physical pleasure. Sex has to be about the connection between 2 people’s souls and a spiritual expression of love. Ultimately, it is about one being loved and being loving. As with all our actions, feelings and thoughts, it is about “how would God have me BE?”
We discussed how the sex inventory overlaps with the harms inventory. According to Lawrie C., sex in the 1930’s, when the Big Book was written was not only about procreation, the same way that love wasn’t only about romantic love. Our use of language has changed over the years that the Big Book was written. In the 1930’s, sex had to do with the energy between 2 people of any sex, who may or may not have been physically intimate with each other. It is in our most intimate relationships that we do the most growth.
We also read and discussed the next story in the AA Big Book, Student Of Life.
Here is a biography that I found by the writer of the story:
Our homework was to continue writing for a minimum of 10 minutes a day our 4th Step inventory, using the format of your choice.
For clarity, I have made a PDF of the post on the various Step 4 inventories outlined in the OA 12 & 12.
This is the post as a word document:
Our goal is to share our inventory list (not the details of the list) on April 30 with each other. Let’s all try to complete our inventory by that date.
Next week, we will read and discuss Step 5 in the AA Big Book. After that, depending on interest, we will read Step 5 in the AA or OA 12 & 12, followed by 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
Emotional Sobriety And Food 