(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, you may want to make sure zoom  timer is up(it's in the apps) set for 5 minutes. it will beep at 5

Welcome to our Tuesday, BOE- Balance offers Empowerment , Recovery Talking Circle.  My name is ___________ and I  am __________.

We welcome you.  This meeting is open to anyone.  You do not need to be an alcoholic to attend and share. Many of us were raised in alcoholic families or have experienced trauma. This is a safe place to heal and grow.

Last year we read the AA big Book- Alcoholics   Anonymous.  We are going to spend some time this month on learning more about Wellbriety.   

Wellbriety talks about the healing forest. If one tree (person) in a forest is sick, it may be due to the soil (community) being unhealthy. Therefore,  Healing the tree alone doesn’t work if it’s replanted in the same unhealthy soil.  Part of our mission is to provide support and phone/zoom accessible meetings to Native Americans in rural areas where there are not in persona meetings.  This will support in “HEALING THE WHOLE Forest”,, not just the individual.  Wellbriety also emphasizes  systemic and communal healing, including restoring traditional family systems, community roles, and spiritual life.

Please check out our Website Nativeempowerment.org to learn more about what you can do to help heal the forest.  I am also putting a link in the chat… this is a place to add your phone number and to get the phone numbers of other people in recovery.  You are not alone.  A big part of recovery is reaching out and getting out of isolation. 

Today we are reading ________________________________________

Cut and paste into chat- https://www.nativeempowerment.org/empowering-sobriety   https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QojQLpsb9p3jivO4MhWEanAeJGgz7gJ7oz9Qz-8qlj4/edit?usp=sharing)

www.nativeempowerment.org

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

________________________________________________________________

HI everyone. My name is __________., and Im in recovery for ____.  Welcome to BOE, balance offers empowerment, our Weekly "talking Circle."   We meeting here every tuesday and have done so since November of 2021.  We welcome everyone, not just alcoholics or addicts.  Healing is for all of us.   We respect and encourage all journeys in recovery.  Some of us use native tradition, religion,   12 step programs including: Wellbriety, AA,  Alanon, and ACA- adult children of alcoholics.  All of these programs have several things in common 1) relationship with our higher power/creator/god  and 2) working  with and opening up to one another.  Recovery doesn't happen in isolation.  For this reason, we have created a phone list,  And on our website Native Empowerment we have more resources to make it easy to find meetings and mentors.   I am putting both of these in our chat.  please add your information to the phone list if you wish. (put this in chat  https://www.nativeempowerment.org/empowering-sobriety  and   https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QojQLpsb9p3jivO4MhWEanAeJGgz7gJ7oz9Qz-8qlj4/edit?usp=sharing)

  AT BOE we have a deep respect for the Wellbriety movement and teachings.  The trauma experiencedWellbriety addresses healing entire communities Wellbriety makes the 12 steps culturally relevant and incorporates healing We respect Wellbriety because it addresses the importance of The Wellbriety Healing Forest is a symbolic and meaningful concept within Native American culture. The Healing Forest represents a sanctuary where individuals can reconnect with their cultural identity, spirituality, and community support systems. It's a place where healing is fostered through cultural practices, ceremonies, and the wisdom passed down through generations. This concept is deeply rooted in the belief that addressing addiction and trauma involves not just individual recovery but also community healing and restoration of cultural pride.  Please join our movement to help communities heal at nativeempowerment.org

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.

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