Respect the Jitters
Here are stories and podcasts you may have missed from March.
Good morning! It’s the last Friday in March, the end of the year’s first quarter (Jesus!), so it’s the perfect time to recap some of the stories you may have missed.
This is also the time to send in your April Check-Ins. We want to know how you’re living. Tell us what’s up with your recovery or anything else noteworthy. We want both the great and the gross.
One wrinkle: If you’re feeling uniquely awful, is there some way to remind yourself that there are good things in your life that are much more useful to focus on? We hear from so many readers who find the honesty seen here each month inspiring and helpful.
The perfect length is 150-300 words. Here’s a great one from last month’s round-up to give you an idea of what we’re looking for:
I decided that when I cleaned up I would start going back to the doctor. It’s been 2 months and 2 days since I last used cocaine, and I’m seeing the doctor.
I never thought the hardest part of getting clean would be managing anxiety from doctor visits. When you’re waiting to learn how big the hole in your septum is (5mm btw) the gap between appointment check-in and being seen by the doctor is actual purgatory.
The nurse could tell I was nervous while she was taking vitals and drawing blood, and went out of her way to make small talk. “It’s Valentine’s Day and you didn’t bring me anything?” she asked. “If I had known it was you, I would’ve,” I said.
She told me I was doing the right thing by seeing the doctor again, and I think she was right.
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There’s more to do here. Can you help?
MOST POPULAR STORIES FROM MARCH:
About God…
by Sarah Miller
“One day, during the 2014 bout with being broke, I begged God to show himself to me, if I was really supposed to believe. That afternoon, I went to a — guess — Kundalini yoga class. We did some meditation at which point the floor spun around, faster and faster. Afterward, I asked a few people “when they put the spinning floor in.” This is a true story. I didn’t believe the first and second people I asked who said, “There is no spinning floor.” By person three I believed it, and believed God had shown themselves to me.
But it took them a long time to do it again, and not since have they responded with such fervor, so I went back to not believing.”
*****
Interview With A 50-Year-Old Sober Person: Laurie Woolever
by TSB/Oldster
“Since I got sober, I am somewhat slower to react to provocations and challenges; I have developed the capacity to take a breath instead of losing my shit. Even though I was (and still am) a pleaser and didn’t see myself as an egotist, I can see now that my behavior and thinking was very self-centered when I was drinking, and I’ve made progress in moving away from that. I used to feel that everything was my responsibility, that I had to control and manage everything and everyone, and I’ve gotten better at recognizing what is and isn’t my business.”
*****
Tom Cruise
by AJD
“In my third year of sobriety, the more I went to meetings, the more invested I became in helping others. I clapped loudly for newcomers. I took on many service positions. I wasn’t a Big Book thumper, but I was definitely energized, spiritually speaking, by The Program. And some of my shares were, in my opinion, extraordinary: Poignant. Brave. Humorous. Stick to me, folks, because there’s a real winner in town.
When I am in this zone, I think of that Tom Cruise Scientology video where he laughs like a devil and tells the world what a privilege it is to call himself a Scientologist.”
ALL ILLUSTRATIONS BY EDITH ZIMMERMAN
RECENT TSB PODCASTS
W/ Jayson Blair
W/Cory Reeder
ZOOM MEETING SCHEDULE
Monday: 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 ET
Tuesday: 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET
Wednesday: 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET
Thursday: 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET (Women and non-binary meeting.)
Friday: 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET and 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET
Saturday: Mental Health Focus (Peer support for bipolar/anxiety/depression) 9:30 a.m. PT/12:30 p.m. ET
Sunday: (Mental Health and Sobriety Support Group.) 1:00 p.m PT/4 p.m. ET
*****
If you don’t feel comfortable calling yourself an “alcoholic,” that’s fine. If you have issues with sex, food, drugs, codependency, love, loneliness, and/or depression, come on in. Newcomers are especially welcome.
FORMAT: CROSSTALK, TOPIC MEETING
We’re there for an hour, sometimes more. We’d love to have you.
Meeting ID: 874 2568 6609
PASSWORD TO ZOOM: nickfoles
Need more info?: ajd@thesmallbow.com
This is The Small Bow newsletter. It is mainly written and edited by A.J. Daulerio. And Edith Zimmerman always illustrates it. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday.
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Everything helps.
A POEM ON THE WAY OUT:
I had no time to hate, because
by Emily Dickinson
*****
I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.
Nor had I time to love, but since
Some industry must be
The little toil of love, I thought,
Was large enough for me.
*****
