Morning! Tomorrow morning in celebration of recovery and carrying the message of hope,addicts from both fellowships will gather for the 1st 'Walkway over the Hudson"The theme of the walk will be 'I AM RECOVERY" Agencies that work with addicts from both fellowships will be there also walking in support.
I knew this would be controversial because of our Anonymity factor and the premise of 'PROMOTION RATHER THAN ATTRACTION.,reversal of what our traditions say.This topic was discussed at my Nar-Anon fellowship last night and it was mixed.Some dead set against it,others thought a good way to get out message.
My sponsor,grandsponsor and myself have all felt for us as individuals we will be comfortable carrying the message ,our primary purpose.We feel this will be based on 'attraction" and we will remain clear in giving only first names and remain as anonymous as we choose.
Our 12th tradtion states' Anonymity guides our fellowships interaction in society.We are not a secret organization.We are happy to see our name becoming known throughout the world.However we do not trade the name for the endorsement of any organization that may futher promote our primary purpose(5th tradition),nor do we attempt to gain public influence by asserting the prestige of the fellowships name.If we are fulfilling our primary purpose,society will see our usefulness.We have no need to trade our endorsement for support of others.The good spoken of us by our fellowships friends will be sufficient. If you have a minute I would be interested to know your thoughts on this.There will be many that will not want their anonymity to be broken as they may fear retaliation from workplaces or organizations that will shun on any affiliation with a recovery program.That is understood and I believe a personal choice.I am praying this event will be carried on in humility by its members,concentrating on spiritual principles based on group conscience and the primary purpose of "carrying the message"that an addict ,any addict ,can stop using drugs,lose the desire to use and find a new way to live.This will be a little more public then our quarterly 'speaker jams " our Saturday homegroup puts on.I would only ask ,no matter where you stand on this "event" idea , to please stop for a moment and ask the God of your understanding to let the only outcome of tomorrows walk only be focused on ' a message of hope that we can find a new way to live and "we do recover" Thanks for listening.Believe me,Im sure this won;t be the last this is spoken of and I deeply pray that it will not be devisive in forming separate camps instead of the premise of what we are doing!!!Have a blessed and productive day
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Our purpose is to remain clean,just for today,and to carry the message of recovery.
Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I dunno Mike. My mind is saying "Why not"? but my gut is saying "I don't think so" It's not the anonymity part, it's the affiliation. Will there be any "for profit" entities taking part? I suspect there will be... the TC's usually jump on this kind of thing. Free publicity and all that. Trust your instincts Mike. Pray on it. Meditate. Then follow your heart.
Thanks Don I also am a little torn here I am praying diligently.As I have stated we do not want this to be devisive and draw 2 camps of thought,but I am already feeling that...The only affiliation I know of are the detox centers,halfway house and clinics>>i'll be sick if i see T shirts or cd's being sold...but the way of the world holds no mercy! thanks for your input.........
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Our purpose is to remain clean,just for today,and to carry the message of recovery.
Thanks Raman,good idea Idid call World and it was same as I thought .we are able as individuals to do what we are going to do as long as we arent worried about our individual anonymities and we are careful with any media situation as to represent us as "we" and to do it in a spiritual group conscience walk..Thanks for your input!!In order to remain anonymous if need be we can say we are members of a 12 step fellowship carrying the message of hope...(there are tons of them)
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Our purpose is to remain clean,just for today,and to carry the message of recovery.
My anonymity is not about my recovery, its about my membership in Narcotics Anonymous. As we all know, NA doesn't hold the monopoly on recovery from addiction. People recover via many methods. This event will have a wide range of people in recovery, but that doesn't mean in NA. As long as I'm not aligning myself with NA in a public event, I'm not promoting NA. I am however, willing to take a stand for the suffering addicts and clearly state there is a way out of active addiction if they want to recover, and then its up to them to ask the question. That's where I get the opportunity to be a demonstration of the attractiveness of this fellowship. One on one, one addict sharing with another.
Thanks John ,You are absolutely right,we are people from all walks of life recovering thru many different types of programs.It will be a spiriutal journey in celebration that"we do recover! Nice talking to you thanks for the input...getting on my walking shoes!!!!
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Our purpose is to remain clean,just for today,and to carry the message of recovery.
Mike...maybe I missed it, but I don't even understand the question.
You describe an event to promote recovery from addictive disease, people willing to disclose they are living with the disorder in order to show that help and hope is available and works, and the fellowships' traditions are properly adhered to. Sounds fantastic!!!
So, what's the problem and why so much angst???
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From dying and surviving to living and thriving. LeeU
Hey Lee! I was at my Naranon 2 nights before, meeting and the chair had brought up the article that was in the paper to the group and the room was very divided on personal anonymity issues,the idea of "promotion over attraction" affiliation with outside organizations,media issues and outright anger. It Was very disheartening for me cause I was already sold on the idea,I knew where I was in the mix with it but had also heard some rumblings from others even in fellowships about the same.I had tried to talk about our homegroups speaker jams that were open forums,how we have events all the time for addicts and non addicts together and that it was up to each individuals to do what they feel as long as they were aware of traditions and willing to put out there own anonymity.I think John has said it best that the anonymity thing is not about recovery but of membership in the actual fellowships.As he stated NA/AA/CA arent the only recovery programs around.It was a controversary that just seemed to pop up.As it turned out like I said,there was no media questioning,and in fact there was not even an article in the Poughkeepsie Journal the next day.It was initially put out as an NA/AA TYPE OF EVENT AND TURNED INTO A RECOVERY HOUSE sponsoring a walk for addicts.I think the angst was the projection of what some thought it might be including myself.NA/AA flags waving,selling cd's and T shirts,and fellowship "stars" promoting the programs..I actually thought there would have been many more in attendance but it was what it was.....thanks for you input.......
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Our purpose is to remain clean,just for today,and to carry the message of recovery.
