Subj : A Call Before Using
To   : All
From : Jacques Montagne
Date : Mon Jan 29 2001 03:42 am

     Carbon Copy of a message I just sent on SIP_ACA:

==============================================================
     Date: 01-29-01    Time: 11:35a     Number: 88     
     From: Jacques Montagne              Refer: 0       
       To: All                        Board ID: JUXTA
  Subject: A Call Before Using              17: Sip_Aca
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     Dear friends,

     Simply because, for years my eyes have fallen on a token that I
carry on me, which says call before using, I am able to write to you now
instead of using.  I'm very much excited just now.  I've already had 5
good contacts on the telephone with friends this morning and that is
what is bringing me to my powerlessness over a feeling of excitement I
can't manage.  It's the case of too much good being disturbing for me.

     This is what the second phase of recovery is all about as Earnie
Larsen wrote a long time ago, the emotional recovery phase beyond
substance sobriety.  A much tougher path than simple abstinence.  I woke
up this morning with a saying I've often heard in the mouth of Robert
Schuller, the Sunday morning televangelist on the Hour of Power; "when
the going get's tough, the tough get going".

     I very seldom identified with that saying in the past, because I
was associating it to personal willpower, which is one of the subtle
forms of alienation I have come to be aware of over the years.  But
slowly, ever so slowly, I'm getting acquainted with the power of my
HIP-HOP god.  Just now, as I was writing this text, I got another phone
call from a far member of my family, a person much involved in a
Christian movement.  I may have different beliefs than her, but her act
of the heart allows me to live another hour without using.  Definitively
Grace in action!

     As my AA token hints at, if you call, grace will manifest itself in
your daily life and you won't need to use any pill or substance to help
you overcome your suffering of the moment.  With a little help from my
friends as the Beatles sang.

     What a tough spiritual lesson to accept!  Most of my ACA
alternative sharing partners find that the going is tough as hell, as
they are on their on-going recovery, or discovery or uncovery, as a
friend has been telling me for years, yet none of them would ever go
back to their former lifestyle.

     With this, I will end this humble admission of my still
uncontrollable excitement and my powerlessness over it, and I'll go and
have a proper breakfast.  It's 11:30am and I still have not had a meal,
only an orange earlier.  Understanding the needs of the body is a tough
learning path when one, like myself, has been disconnected from Reality.

 * May there be Good for All ! *

Jacques


                                                      copyright 2001, JM
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P.S. If you feel like answering, commenting or asking questions,
     BUT IN PRIVATE MODE, please leave me a message at any of the
     following electronic addresses:

A.O.L. Internet E-Mail:     for ACA:  MonTang@aol.com   (with or without
                       other topics:  JacMonta@aol.com         capitals)

BBS NetMail on Fidonet:  1:167/133           Voice & FAX: (450) 659-3417

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