TAKING INVENTORY Finding new life through Alcoholics Anonymous ELL, IT’S happened again. Every once in a while I bump into a friend who has found, (literally!) a new life through Aleoholics Anonymous. If you were to score the success rates of the many different ways of helping alcoholics and you gave AA a 9, I believe you’d have to give the next best only a 2 or 3. A.A. is that good. In my way of thinking, nothing else has come close. Of course, just like the church or Greenpeace or the Medical Association or the Vancouver Symphony or the B.C. Lions, Alcoholics Anonymous has members that are just going through the motions. Some of its members attend meetings and perhaps keep sober, but, for them, next month or next year looks dark because they are not really ‘‘on the program,”’ Once in a while an inter- viewed coach of the Lions or the Canucks will speak of a team-member who ‘‘has come to play.’’ Presumably he feels that some of the others have come to collect their salanes or get some head-lines or something other than the main purpose of be- ing a member of the team, which, of course, is to play the game they’re getting paid to play. The immeasurable value of A.A. comes to the person who is ‘‘on the program.”’ And what does that mean? Well, amongst some other things, tt means travelling along the path of the 12 Steps. Here they are: 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become un- manageable. (If you are not alcoholic, insert your favorite hang-up, like fear, pride, womanizing, being a work- aholic, etc Then study the steps as they speak to you 2 Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves the growing edge wees by Hayden Stewart Freetance Counsetior Hayden Siewart may be reached ait 261-6242 for appointments for individual, family or group counselling. could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we under- stood Him. 4. Made a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our. ‘‘wrongs’’ (my quota- tion marks). 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly ask 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 those people wherever possi- ble, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take per- sonal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admit- ted it. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood him, praying only for a knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps we tried to carry this message to Alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs. As with any set of ‘‘steps’’ or principles, the YOUR AD IN 680,000 HOMES! Cail our classitied department to piace your ad in the 75 news. papers of the BC & Yukon Community Newspapers Association blanket classifieds: one call does it all 25 WORDS $99 986-6222 North Shore News ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH. RECYCLE! co Municipalities throughout the Lower Mainiand, trom Vancouver to Hope, have joined in proclaiming April as ‘RECYCLING MONTH.’ Recycling seves tax dollars, conserves energy and natural resources and It helps protect our environment. Please do your part in the war on waste newspapers, giass, oll, cans, clothing, scrap metal and othe: matertais. There are recycling depots and pickup services in most communities in the Lower Mainland. * o » 2 » » recycle old Recycling Month activities at PARK ROYAL SHOPPING CENTRE, April 2.7. Displays and handouts all week. Saturday. April 7, clown skit every hour, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., followed by a children’s mask and hat making workshop, using recycled matertais. Free. » o ° * * » » Copies of a new Greater Vancouver/Lower Mainiand Recycling Directory are available at all public libraries or by contacting the Greater Vancouver Regional District, information Services, 2294 West 10th Ave. Vancouver 6 © V6K 2H9. 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