(If someone is logging in from their phone.  Remember to remind them to hit, *6 to unmute.     *9 to raise hand.. 

HI everyone. My name is __________., and Im in recovery for ____. Welcome to B.O.E. -Balance offers Empowerment Recovery Meeting.  We're glad you're here.   Whatever you are experiencing this is meant to be a safe and supportive meeting.  This meeting is open to anyone wishing to attend.  You do not need to be alcoholic to participate.  We believe alcoholism is a family disease and that everyone in the family can benefit from recovery... The founder and visionary  of B.O.E was our friend/family Redcorn Gary Maloney, may he rest in peace.  We are so grateful that his parents and brothers join us from the Navajo Nation. We thank you Redcorn for your vision.

We read out of a variety of literature at this meeting ,including Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics anonymous, Wellbriety and Alanon.  Alanon is a 12 step program for anyone concerned about someone's drinking.   

Being in recovery for many of us involves: 1) getting out of isolation and attending meetings on a regular basis 2)working the 12 steps with a sponsor  3) working with others and. 4) doing service work.    It's recommended to work the steps in the order they are written with a sponsor.  There are people at this meeting willing to sponsor.   You can learn more about sponsorship online or ask any us questions after the meeting.

Who can start us off by reading page 30 of the big book, “MORE ABOUT ALCOHOLISM?”  and  STOP on top of Page 31)    ---

 Chapter 3 MORE ABOUT ALCOHOLISM" Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death. We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed. We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals - usually brief - were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better. We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn't done so yet. Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right- about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people!)

•  Would someone please read "how it works" from the AA Big Book, chapter 5, page 58?   Chapter Five
  HOW IT WORKS

    Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our directions. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a way of life which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.

    Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it -then you are ready to follow directions.

    At some of these you may balk. You may think you can find an easier, softer way. We doubt if you can. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.

    Remember that you are dealing with alcohol - cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for you. But there is One who has all power - That One is God. You must find Him now!

    Half measures will avail you nothing. You stand at the turning point. Throw yourself under His protection and care with complete abandon.

    Now we think you can take it! Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as your Program of Recovery:

1. Admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care and direction of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely willing that God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly, on our knees, asked Him to remove our shortcomings - holding nothing back.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make complete amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual experience as the result of this course of action, we tried to carry this message to others, especially alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

    You may exclaim, "What an order! I can't go through with it." Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

    Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after, have been designed to sell you three pertinent ideas:     (a) That you are alcoholic and cannot manage your own life.  (b) That probably no human power can relieve your alcoholism.  (c) That God can and will if he were sought.

______________

• Tonight we'll be reading daily reflections from a variety of programs.  does anyone have a daily reflection they would like to share?

Our meeting is now open for sharing.   What you share at this meeting, stays at this meeting. We respect each other’s anonymity.  You can share on the readings or whatever is on your heart or mind.  If you are having thoughts of drinking or hurting someone, please speak up, or ask to talk to one of us after the meeting.

Thank you for joining us at BOE.  Recovery and growth happen when we get out of isolation and talk with one another.  We have phone numbers on our website boelives.com.  Please pick up the phone and call us.  You will be helping us as much as yourself.  Also on our website we have links to other meetings and recovery literature to read.  

We’re now going to close the meeting.  Who would care to lead us in a closing prayer?   (LEADER CAN CHOOSE) (serenity prayer, lord’s prayer, personal prayer, native prayer

• Third Step Prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous page 64

 God, I offer myself to Thee
To build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.
Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties,
That victory over them may bear witness
To those I would help of Thy Power,
Thy love and Thy way of life,
May I do Thy will always!

• Serenity Prayer

God grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And the Wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time.
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as he did, this sinful world as it is,
Not as I would like it.

Trusting that he will make all things right,
If I surrender to his will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this world
And supremely happy in the next

• Oh, Great Spirit prayer-    

  Oh, Great Spirit,
whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be superior to my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes,