(If someone is logging in from their phone.  Remember to remind them to hit, *6 to unmute.     *9 to raise hand.. 

***Before the meeting starts, ask someone to volunteer to be 5 minute time keeper.  Or until this becomes more of a habit, just do yourself.  (Can we have a volunteer to be our timekeeper? shares are 5 minutes , with a 1 minute warning.   All you do i time on your phone or there is a zoom timer , and at 4 minutes say "1 minute".  and at 5 minutes, say "time".  (or you could play an alarm on your phone to let people know time is up).   ******

HI everyone. My name is __________., and Im in recovery for ____.  Welcome to BOE, our Weekly "talking Circle."   We welcome everyone, not just alcoholics or addicts.  We believe that recovery is a process of improving our health and wellness so we can strive to reach our potential and get closer to creator.   We respect all 12 step programs including: AA, Wellbriety, Alanon, and ACA- adult children of alcoholics.    

Who will read  " more about alcoholism" page  30 in the AA big book, Chapter 3 -  ( copy and paste this into chat)   

https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt3.pdf

    "More About Alcoholism Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death. We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed. We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals usually brief were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better. We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing a making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn't done so yet.

Who will read how it works, page 58 AA big book.   (copy and paste this into chat)  https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf

HOW IT WORKS Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly follo9wed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest. Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it — then you are ready to take certain steps. At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely. Remember that we deal with alcohol — cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power — that One is God. May you find Him now! Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon. 

________  

Can we have a volunteer to read the 12 steps of AA?

AA 12 STEPS    (Copy and paste this into chat)

https://www.aa.org/the-twelve-steps

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable. 

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 

(9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. 

Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.’’ Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas: a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. c) That God could and would if He were sought.

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The steps are meant to be worked with a sponsor, and in the order they are written.  If you are looking for a sponsor or a temporary sponsor- message us, speak up, on text us, there are people here willing to sponsor.

Tonight we are going to  (LEADER CHOOSES)   ____________  (Meetings vary- speaker, topic, Study Recovery book: AA, Alanon, Wellbriety, checkin, daily reflections.)    

Our talking circle is  now open to sharing.                                                                                                                                                                                 

 Please raise your hand. If you are calling in, hit *6 to share.  Part of sharing is sharing the time so that everyone has a chance to share.  Sharing will be 5 minutes, with a 1 minute  warning.   If you don't get to share, please stay on after this meeting.     Please share using "I " statements.   Anything that is shared at this meeting, needs to stay at this meeting.   Who would like to start?

(CLOSING)  Before we close,   does anyone have a burning desire. A burning desire means you are fighting off the urge to drink or have thoughts of hurting yourself or others.

Thank you for joining us at BOE.  Recovery and growth happen when we get out of isolation and talk with one another.  We have phone numbers on our website boelives.com.  Please pick up the phone and call us.  You will be helping us as much as yourself.  Also on our website we have links to other meetings and recovery literature to read.  

We’re now going to close the meeting.  Who would care to lead us in a closing prayer?   (LEADER CAN CHOOSE) (serenity prayer, lord’s prayer, personal prayer, native prayer

• Third Step Prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous page 64

 God, I offer myself to Thee
To build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.
Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties,
That victory over them may bear witness
To those I would help of Thy Power,
Thy love and Thy way of life,
May I do Thy will always!

• Serenity Prayer

God grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And the Wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time.
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as he did, this sinful world as it is,
Not as I would like it.

Trusting that he will make all things right,
If I surrender to his will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this world
And supremely happy in the next

• Oh, Great Spirit prayer-    

  Oh, Great Spirit,
whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be superior to my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes,cho