The only requirement for membership is an interest in recovery...

‘The only requirement for membership (of AA) is a desire to stop drinking. The only requirement for membership of a Recovery Centre is an interest in recovery.


It’s been a good few days. I got to speak on Skype with David Clarke on Sunday morning. (Yes, our David! You didn’t know I moved in such illustrious circles, did you!)

I was also privileged to chat to Linda, David’s partner, and Ben, his son, for the very first time. Trouble was, David and I spoke for so long I missed the morning service at the local church here in White River Junction, Vermont. Instead I ended up joining a Sunday school class where members were discussing how the Catholic Church had fallen out of favour with the developing world from around the 10 century onwards. Members blamed outside influences for this. But I piped up and suggested that the most damage was probably done from within (as it always is!).

I remember reading a brown-covered, bland-looking volume about the life and doctrines of Meister Eckhart (c1260-1327), a Dominican friar and German philosopher, a spiritual psychologist, who was renowned for his preaching to lay people about his vision of the relationship between man and God. His central theme was ‘the presence of God in the individual soul, and the dignity of the soul of the just man’.

What attracted me to that particular book I do not know! But as soon as I started reading it, I was fascinated. I was excited, even, before I sensed he had a message for me, personally! And indeed, he did. By reading that book I learnt so many things about God – things that were to become the very foundation of my view of life.

In essence, I learnt that I could have a direct relationship with God, one to one, and also that he was available where and when I needed him. I didn’t have to take the scenic route to God. I could even catch him in his kitchen if I wanted to. This was the kind of relationship I needed with my ‘higher power’, because I didn’t know when or where I’d next be tempted to drink. Whenever that might be, I’d need instant access to his help. From then on it became my main objective in life to improve my understanding of God and to deepen my relationship with Him. That, and maintaining my sobriety – because, in effect, they mean the same thing.

Now that was fine and dandy for me. Not so, however, for the Catholic Church. Not taking the scenic route (religion) to God was tantamount to committing heresy in Eckhart’s days. Indeed, Meister Eckhart was put on trial for heresy after his death, and found guilty.

I, on the other hand, through his teachings and his philosophy, found a new life.

I heard on the news programmes on Sunday night that Joycelyn Elders, the former U.S. Surgeon General, had called for Cannabis (Skunk) smoking to be de-criminalised.

Whilst agreeing with her that I don’t want to see the lives of our young people blighted by the stain of a criminal record. I’m not too sure, either, that I want to make it legal for them to shuffle aimlessly through their lives in a de-motivated, semi-conscious, Zombie-like state.

On Monday morning (18th October), I attended the Vermont Recovery Network quarterly meeting held at the Kingdom Recovery Center in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont.

This building will have special significance for many – it’s the historical birthplace of “Dr. Bob,” co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. If I’m lucky, and if my meeting on Friday with Barbara Cimaglio, Deputy Commissioner Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programmes at the Vermont Department of Health, ends on time, I might even get to chair a meeting in the Wilson House, “Bill W’s” old home in East Dorset, Vermont. Now, that will be something to write home about!

There were several items on the agenda that interested me very much. The discussion on Programme Standards and Staff Supervision Protocols and a review of Recovery Coaching Tools & Participant Understanding, for example.

“We’re moving forward by the skin of our pants!” as one contributor said. This is new territory indeed! Up to now, no supervision has been in place for Recovery Coaches. Instantly, I was transported back to Bill Wilson and Dr Bob’s early challenge when developing the AA 12-Step programme: “How not to screw this up!” And that’s what was uppermost in these peoples’ minds also – as they struggled with introducing structure and outcome measurements into Recovery Coaching which, by its very nature, is the antithesis of these things.

“At the Vermont’s Network of Recovery Centres, we work to engage those who are new to recovery; those who struggle to feel welcomed in traditional settings, youth, disabled people, senior citizens, and people whose recovery includes the use of medications and therapy.”

“We’re the people who help the people who don’t make it in AA” was one further comment I heard.

And then I got to hear this definition from Mark Ames, Vermont Recovery Network Coordinator: ‘The only requirement for membership (of AA) is a desire to stop drinking. The only requirement for membership of a Recovery Centre is an interest in recovery.

Prior to these discussions, however, we had attended a workshop presented by Yvette Stevens, an experienced substance abuse clinician who is currently working for the company that distributes Suboxone. Her presentation covered the rationale for and process of medication assisted recovery. Yvette also discussed the recovery needs of this population and the need for further public education in establishing a recovery oriented systems of care, sensitive to the needs of this population.
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Tuesday (19th October) I travelled down to meet Ed Battles, Director of the Turning Point Recovery Centre in Springfield. Ed showed me around this wonderful setting and took me next door to show me around their brand new Modular 8 bed roomed Home, which will become a transitional home for released prisoners. This beautiful house was gifted to the centre by Matt Foley and Susan Sundstrom from Woodstock, Vermont. They wanted to donate it to a non-profit organization.

And how much did they have to pay for this wonderful new resource?
Well, $1.

“And they wouldn’t even accept that!” added Ed respectfully.

“What’s the one single biggest attribute needed to run a place like this, Ed” I asked.

“Passion for recovery”, he replied without a moment’s hesitation.

I also got to speak to Wendi Lashua Germain, Director of Springfield’s Restorative Justice Centre. “Our mission is to empower local organizations, individuals and schools committed to peacefully resolving conflict addressing crime and building a safe and healthy community.

We adhere to a non-violent and empowering vision where differences are respected. Conflicts are addressed through open and respectful communication guided by trained community members.”

And what had brought Wendi into this field?

“I was a victim of crime and I did not feel I had a voice in the system. And Restorative Justice really looks at those that are harmed. When I was harmed, nobody asked me what I wanted, nobody cared. The person who harmed me went to jail and it was over. And that didn’t work for me. And when I heard about Restorative Justice I volunteered to work here and that’s how I started…”

I then travelled with Mark Ames up to White river Junction and spotted wild turkeys and deer on the way – turning back on ourselves once so that I could see the deer properly. We lunched at tiptopcafe, the original site of the Second Wind Foundation, Vermont’s first ever Recovery centre. They were a victim of their own success apparently. So many visitors’ cars clogged the car parking facilities that the landlord asked them to move on.

My discussion with Mark Helijas (who started it all and who had the vision for the Vermont Recovery Network) and Mark Ames was truly inspirational. I can’t do it justice here, so I won’t try.

Suffice to print for you Mark Helijas’ vision:

“Everyone, everywhere has access to vast and varied
recovery support services, that no one feels the
ongoing desolation of this disease, that those who
have suffered no longer live behind a veil of stigma,
but rather they feel society’s admiration and
appreciation for the struggle and courage it takes
for them to live a life reclaimed from darkness;
viewed as people who have taken hold of an
extended hand and worked mightily to reclaim the
spark of Divine inspiration and live a life in the
Right for everyone to see.”

Mark Helijas

The music I’m listening to tonight is Feeling Good sung by Michael Bublé

And I’m reading The Books Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth. 7th Ed., by Dick B.

And that’s all for tonight folks.

Sleep tight everyone. Good night. Nos dawch pawb. Cysgwch yn dawel.