seattle area narcotics february- anonymous march 2011 feb mar newsletter.pdf ·...
TRANSCRIPT
Seattle Area Narcotics
Anonymous
Getting Past Steps 1, 2, 3 1
Clean Time Birthdays 2
Recovery Word Search 2
How to Fix the World 2
Unity Day 2011 Flyer 3
Service Page 4
Hello from the Editor 4
Inside this issue:
febRUARY-
march 2011
The purpose of this newsletter is to keep Seattle Area Narcotics Anonymous members informed of the events and happenings of our fellowship. Every at-tempt is made to adhere to NAWS guidelines and SASC guidelines for news-letters. The content contained herein ex-presses the views and knowledge of it's con-tributors, not N.A. as a whole.
We Need your
submissions!
The Seattle Area News-letter is in need of sub-missions.
It can be a personal story
of how you, the Fellow-ship, or your Higher Power helped to get you through a tough time, your views on a particular quote from the Narcotics Anonymous literature that you happen to like, or a simple expression of gratitude.
You do not have to be a professional writer and please don't worry if you think you can’t write well enough, we will be happy to make any spelling or
punctuation corrections for you. The important thing is that you will be sharing your recovery with other addicts. After all, we can only keep what we have by giving it away.
The length of your article isn’t important either. The only real criteria for submissions is that they reflect the message of Narcotics Anonymous and stick to the identifica-tion of ourselves as ad-
dicts suffering from the disease of addiction.
Submissions can be e-mailed to:
Thank you for your time and support .
24 Hour Helpline
206-790-8888 Call Before You Use!!
Seattle Area NA
Website
www.seattlena.org
I used to be one of those "waltzing
recovery" guys… steps one-two-
three, one-two-three...
What a total crock; I wasn't really
working any steps, I was discuss-
ing steps. That changed one eve-
ning at the 7th Day Adventist
hospital in Taipei.
Where my wisdom and deep per-
sonal insight had got me after a
year of recovery, was sitting in a
bar, 7000 miles from where I'd got
clean; not attending meetings,
hanging out with my using buddy
and his dealer friend. I realized
that water had sought its own
level. I was right back where I
started – almost.
There was one twelve step fellow-
ship that met three times a week.
I attended the next scheduled
meeting, at the hospital. Shortly
after I started attending meetings
again, a guy from Canada who
occasionally came into town on
business showed up. Having lis-
tened to me talk, he took me aside
after the meeting and told me
something to the effect that, "if
you don't work the steps soon,
you're going to die." He went on to
explain that, listening to my
story, he wouldn't bet on my liv-
ing really long if I relapsed. And
that I sounded like a relapse wait-
ing to happen.
That shook me to the core. I knew
he was right, and it really scared
me. In the first nine months,
when I was still in Seattle,
there'd been a couple of guys who
hadn't made it. I figured that if
I'd seen two guys buy the farm in
less than a year, this guy
(who'd been clean twelve
years) had probably seen more
funerals than I'd had hot
meals.
I was willing to set aside dis-
belief, and accept the idea that
there was a Higher Power who
could help me out. And that
I'd better get willing to let him
(or her, or it, for all I know)
lend a hand; I was in over my
head. And "willing" meant
doing the rest of the steps. If I
wasn't working on 'em, then
all my talk of willingness was
just that: talk.
That night, I stayed up late,
and wrote a fourth step. Since
I didn't have a sponsor to
guide me with some helpful
tips, it was pretty disorgan-
ized. But, it was from the
heart; I didn't leave any cards
tucked in my boot. The next
day, I got a hold of the Cana-
dian; later he was gracious
enough to hear my fifth step
before leaving town.
A fair while has gone by since
I met that Canadian guy; I've
never seen him since. But, his
gift to me; that jolt that made
me really take the third step,
has stayed with me. I've since
worked all the steps, with a
sponsor; taken service posi-
tions and sponsored others.
Once I got willing to do the
work, I got able to have re-
sults.
-Bill N.
PAGE 2 SEATTLE AREA NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS NEWSLETTER
Path
Peace
Practice
Prayer
Pride
Quality
Rationalize
Satisfy
Behavior
Gratitude
Hope
Meditation
H T B D P E A C E U Y N R
Y B I I B X E B D Q E E E
E M I P S N S D U B C T Y
Z M E Q I L O A T E I R A
I G I D W H L V I H T H R
L S K D I I E H T A C P P
A A U J T T T O A V A R E
N T U Y T A A Q R I R I J
O I B F P X Y T G O P D T
I S W M W I W G I R E E A
T F P L H O P E B O H A A
A Y N L C D T Y I E N J U
How To Fix The World - A Story told by Louie A.
A father was busy working at home on a Saturday, however his young son kept interrupting him, asking to be taken
to the park. This made it very difficult to concentrate on such important things as invoices and the bottom line. After
the tiny lad disturbed him for the third time, the dad had a great idea! He grabbed an old lexicon off his bookshelf
and tore out the page that had a full-color map of the world on it. He then tore it into tiny pieces, handed it to his boy
and said, “Son, I know you want to go to the park today, so I have an offer for you. As soon as you put this picture of
the world back together, I’ll take you to the park.” The kid happily agreed to the arrangement, while the father
smiled smugly, believing that he would have at least a few hours of quiet time to look forward to. However, the little
boy was next to his desk again in five minutes, tugging on his sleeve, with the map of the world perfectly put to-
gether. Amazed, the father asked, “How ever did you fix the world so quickly?” The boy smiled big and replied, “Oh,
Daddy, that was easy! On the other side of the map was a picture of a man. And once I put the man together, the
world took care of itself.”
Paul 02/05 1 yr
Chris P. 02/13 2 yrs
Jon F. 02/27 3 yrs
Chelsea K. 02/27 3 yrs
Dwayne 02/07 4 yrs
Almitra 02/02 5 yrs
Brian D. 02/06 5 yrs
Maureen 02/20 5 yrs
Mike T. 02/28 6 yrs
Erin N. 02/09 6 yrs
CathyJean 02/01 7 yrs
Merrilyn 02/06 7 yrs
Fernando 02/10 11 yrs
David H. 02/26 13 yrs
Lisa Q. 02/25 14 yrs
Patty H. 02/11 15 yrs
Mike A. 02/13 17 yrs
Becky G. 02/15 25 yrs
Caulda 02/29 27 yrs
Michael A. 02/18 27 yrs
Carrie M. 03/31 2 yrs
Audrey 03/31 2 yrs
Stuart R. 03/09 3 yrs
Jake W. 03/15 6 yrs
John S. 03/04 7 yrs
Laurie 03/05 11 yrs
Nader 03/29 13 yrs
Natasha 03/12 16 yrs
Karon H. 03/26 17 yrs
Vester 03/20 20 yrs
Paulette 03/12 25 yrs
Chris R. 03/03 26 yrs
PAGE 3 SEATTLE AREA NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS NEWSLETTER
Area Service Committee
2:00pm 1st Sunday of every month
GSR Orientation: 1:30 pm
Lake City Community Center
12531 28th Ave. NE, Seattle, Room 6
Assistant Recording Secretary Position OPEN
Activities Subcommittee
6:30pm every 4th Wednesday
Third Place Books
Lake Forrest Park
PR Subcommittee
4pm every 3rd Sunday
Ballard Swedish Medical Center, Room A
New member orientation 3pm
Newsletter Committee
2:00pm on the 3rd Sunday of
EVERY OTHER MONTH
Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct, Dec
Ballard Swedish Medical Center, Room C
L E T ’ S G E T I N V O L V E D ! !
WNIRCNA XXVI SUBCOMMITTEE
Pacific Northwest Convention Start-Up Meeting on February 20th at 1pm, at the Redmond Round Table Pizza.
Strengthening the Spirit: Changed to
Fridays @ 4pm & needs support!
Rainier Valley NA: Needs Support
Tuesdays @ 7:15pm
Rainier Valley Community Center
Under the Bridge & Just the Facts:
Location closed permanently. Looking
for new location.
Straight Ahead NA: Needs people
willing to accept younger sponsees
Wednesdays @ 7:30pm Edmonds
DOA: Needs people willing to sponsor
Sundays @ 8pm
Hello From The Editor
Dear NA Family,
First, I would like to thank you
for this opportunity to be of ser-
vice as your editor for the Seattle
Area Newsletter. Please, never
hesitate with any comments,
ideas or input, after all, this is
YOUR newsletter! I urge you to
get involved, especially if you
have any artwork and/or writings
that are recovery related. Let’s
make Seattle Area Newsletter the
Best in the West!! Second, I
would like to give a big THANKS
to Nikki S., who has diligently
worked at our Area publication
and is now giving her talents to a
different service position. Thanks
Nikki, you are truly awesome!!
Much Love, Virág H. (aka. V.)