You must give it away.  That lesson remains a large part of my serenity and my sobriety.  This was a "higher education" sponsor - sponsee work event from thought to action and of course  I attended all classes for fear of the consequences of if I didn't.

Aloha MIP Family.  My wife and I just returned from day of public information work bringing the program and it's availability out into a Health and Wellness Fair on the campus of one of our Hawaiian High Schools.  Yeppers a large family of other providers were available from food education to "Say NO to Meth", of course AA, NA, CA, Foster Families and many many others.  We didn't just sit and "talk Story" with them we associated with family going from table to table with the meet and greet and introductions and invitations.  We are an island nation an though there are hundreds of thousands and millions of people around the core care-givers and local and with a little bit of story we know each other and each others families and each others stories.   It is a reacquaintance event and I would just love to have the hundreds sitting in a great room; the elders, the "now bees" and the up-coming generation listening and telling the stories of where we come from.  "Who you"? is a geneaology question...it's not all about you. Its about where you are from also; the island, the district, the people the family.  I met up with some "Now bees" who "take care" in the addictions field...they "malama the addicted and come from the addiction" and are also from the last village I lived in on the island of Oahu where I come from; ...part of my own "who you"? story.  I left the area, the district and the town to chase after my children that the court awared to my addict wife and I rarely went back and when I did the disease had grown out of hand and was still growing.  I didn't go back because people told me that what I had left was gone and there wasn't the spirit any longer.  The two I was speaking with instantly brought me back into connection and I started to cry because I am not home anymore and my origins are there; my special and sacred places in which my spirit and soul were created.  It's okay to cry over that longing and I got the hugs that reconnected me...and older man to his roots.  No I cannot go back for now...the ground is poisoned and so is the air and the water, the ocean is vacant from those of us who use to go to it and gather from it and let it feed our families.  Alcohol and Drugs and that is why we needed to be on hand to let other know that there is a solution(s) and that on a regular basis we get to gether to help save lives.  Two Alateen sponsors there (L and myself) building connections were none already exist and finding others who want it to exist badly. I was so very glad that one of the possible/probably connections is with an organization of my culture who got excited at the possibility and the renewed hope.  One of the largest if not the largest killers of indigenous peoples and nationals are alcohol and drugs....still.  I was attracted to their table because of the large portrait of our last Queen who loved her people greatly and wanted or freedom from opression and capture.  Did she know that the greatest opressor would be alcohol and drugs?  I don't know.  It doesn't matter.  What matters is that we know and we know how to defend against it.  We have had our lives saved and been given a program which if lived daily to the best of our abilities, given by our elders who ever they have been, could and would save the lives of countless others...when we gave it away just because it works.

One part of my membership in the fellowship is the Al-Anon Declaration...all of the members there this afternoon...M, L, A, one other and myself...hold that declaration a responsibility in keeping our recovery.  "When anyone...anywhere, reaches out for help I want the hand of Al-Anon to always be there and for that....I am responsible.   In order to keep it, you have to give it away.   Mahalo for letting me share. (((((Hugs)))))