“LOVE AND FORGIVENESS” RETREAT
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE LIVING ROOM, CARDIFF
Friday 16th to Sunday 18h March 2012
Coleg Trefeca, Brecon Beacons National Park,
Theme – “Came to believe”
"A mind once stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Has your life been directly or indirectly affected by addiction? If so this weekend retreat is for you – it will be centred around the 12 step recovery program and key principles of love and forgiveness – we believe that a life characterised by these profound ways of living will equip us to live a life of not only being “sober”, “clean” or “abstinent” but developing a way of living that will emotionally equip you to deal with whatever life throws at you.
It is about you not putting things off any longer but finding a power greater than yourself to help you live an abundant life that is not scripted by your family, environment, peer group or anybody else that controls you. At this retreat you will:
Learn about the 12 step program of recovery;
Break through the fears that hold you back (including unconscious fears);
Reflections on Scripture and other spiritual resources;
Boost your self esteem;
Learn how to forgive and heal the wounds of the past;
Improve your communication skills.
FRIDAY: Introduction and welcome meeting; exploring addiction, powerlessness and the unmanageable life; identifying the exact nature of the things that are dominating your life; sharing in a safe environment; releasing the toxic effects of resentment and anger; making amends.
SATURDAY: Exploring belief systems; power; sanity; making decisions, taking inventory-identifying the exact nature of the things that dominate your life; sharing in a safe environment; releasing the toxic effects of resentment and anger; making amends; time for quiet reflection and guided mediation.
SUNDAY: Group meeting and final meeting to conclude the weekend.
Each part of the weekend involves large group meetings; small sharing meetings and one to one sharing – practical workshops and relaxation times - the sessions are lead by experienced teachers of the 12 Step programme of recovery.
“This retreat gave me hope and courage to face myself – in getting away from the busy life I lead, to deal with the truth of my past, being in a safe place with like minded people has set me free from the confusion and helped me to forgive”
“My world is not such a dark place as I know I am no longer alone – I now understand the recovery program for myself and able to experience the freedom it promises”
Cost for the weekend: £120 - This includes accommodation, all meals, tea and coffee throughout the weekend and study resource material.
CONTACT: SHARON at The Welsh Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs, 58 Richmond Road, Cardiff CF24 3AT; T. 02920 493 895; E. info@welshcouncil.org.uk; Web. www.welshcouncil.org.uk.
“LOVE AND FORGIVENESS” RETREAT
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE LIVING ROOM, CARDIFF
Friday 16th to Sunday 18h March 2012
RETREAT DETAILS
VENUE: COLEG TREFECA, Trefeca Village,Talgarth, LD3 0PP. On the B4560 road between Talgarth and Llangors. Abergavenny is the nearest railway station (18 miles). – For further information on the venue please go to the following website : www.trefeca.org.uk Street map: www.streetmaps.co.uk. If you have any difficulty with transport there are usually spaces in the cars that go from South Wales – so that can be arranged.
REGISTRATION
Everyone attending MUST register. Registration is on Friday 16th March 2012 until 5.00pm. Please allow 30 minutes for this process. Registration opens at 3.00pm.
At registration:
- you will receive your workbook
- name badge
- shown to your room
- shown around the venue to familiarise you with the layout – meeting rooms and dining area etc.
RETREAT TIMES
Friday 16th March: 6.00pm to 10.00pm
Saturday 17th March: 9.00am to 10 pm
Sunday 18th March: 9.00am to 1.30pm
Please note that the times are approximate only – the retreat providers are committed to the highest standard of presentation and aim to ensure that all the material is covered, therefore the time schedules may vary. There are regular comfort breaks throughout and an hour for breakfast, lunch and evening meal with other times out throughout the weekend.
DRESS - There is no dress code - please dress comfortably – we hold some outdoor activities – depending on the weather it is worthwhile to bring a sweater and waterproof.
DISABLED ACCESS – There is disabled access throughout the venue.
CONTACT:
To book your place contact SHARON at The Welsh Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs,
58 Richmond Road, Cardiff CF24 3AT; T. 02920 493 895;
E. info@welshcouncil.org.uk; Web. www.welshcouncil.org.uk
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Landing lights in the dark
How one Person in Recovery sees Living Room Cardiff, the new recovery centre for Cardiff and South Wales.
I think in metaphors all the time, it's almost a compulsion, but as I am something of a story teller by trade, I think it's naturally how I am meant to think. I teach history, and from time to time historical visions come to me, and they help me to explain and comprehend my own recovery.
One such image has stayed with me for a while now, and it concerns the fate of American airmen during the Second World War, as they flew in the twilight across the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean.
They had been sent out to find the Japanese fleet; I can't remember if this was at the Coral Sea or Midway or Leyte, but it was long before the outcome of the war was certain.
They had flown from the decks of America's aircraft carriers, their only home in tens of thousands of square miles of ocean, searching for the Japanese.
When they found them the fighting was bloody and many on both sides were lost, the Americans, having completed their mission, flew home, but as they did, the sun began to set.
The commanders of the US fleet knew that the biggest danger to them was a Japanese reprisal attack coming at night and they decided they could not risk having the landing lights on their aircraft carriers on, as they would stand out like beacons.
So the desperate pilots, now low on fuel circled and circled, looking for ships they could not see, and could not find, until one commander, hearing plane engines that he was sure were American, relented and switched on the flood lights.
Like that, there was and island of light in the dark. Planes that were flying on fumes descended from the night, their exhausted crews tearful with relief.
How like recovery this sounds, we come from so many futile, bloody struggles, so weary and full of pain desperate for anything in the wide lonely oceans and wildernesses of our lives to cling on to, and if we have faith and don't surrender to despair, someone, somewhere will turn on the lights for us.
Once I was the pilot, skidding down the runway, now I am the man on the deck, guiding others to touch down at Living Room Cardiff, on our island of light in the dark.
Nick
I think in metaphors all the time, it's almost a compulsion, but as I am something of a story teller by trade, I think it's naturally how I am meant to think. I teach history, and from time to time historical visions come to me, and they help me to explain and comprehend my own recovery.
One such image has stayed with me for a while now, and it concerns the fate of American airmen during the Second World War, as they flew in the twilight across the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean.
They had been sent out to find the Japanese fleet; I can't remember if this was at the Coral Sea or Midway or Leyte, but it was long before the outcome of the war was certain.
They had flown from the decks of America's aircraft carriers, their only home in tens of thousands of square miles of ocean, searching for the Japanese.
When they found them the fighting was bloody and many on both sides were lost, the Americans, having completed their mission, flew home, but as they did, the sun began to set.
The commanders of the US fleet knew that the biggest danger to them was a Japanese reprisal attack coming at night and they decided they could not risk having the landing lights on their aircraft carriers on, as they would stand out like beacons.
So the desperate pilots, now low on fuel circled and circled, looking for ships they could not see, and could not find, until one commander, hearing plane engines that he was sure were American, relented and switched on the flood lights.
Like that, there was and island of light in the dark. Planes that were flying on fumes descended from the night, their exhausted crews tearful with relief.
How like recovery this sounds, we come from so many futile, bloody struggles, so weary and full of pain desperate for anything in the wide lonely oceans and wildernesses of our lives to cling on to, and if we have faith and don't surrender to despair, someone, somewhere will turn on the lights for us.
Once I was the pilot, skidding down the runway, now I am the man on the deck, guiding others to touch down at Living Room Cardiff, on our island of light in the dark.
Nick
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Gonestrwydd gyda'n hunain
Gwrando ar sgwrs am onestrwydd ar Bwrw Golwg ar BBC Radio Cymru bore ‘ma.
Mae gonestrwydd llwyr yn anghenraid cyn y gall unrhyw un ddod i berthynas â’r dwyfol. Rhaid i ddyn fod yn gwbl onest gyda’i hunan cyn y gall yn ddiogel dderbyn mynediad i deyrnas yr ysbryd a delio gydag o. Fel y dywed Morton Kelsey yn ei lyfr Encounter with God, ‘All others are either turned away or they find themselves entangled and enmeshed in the darker sides of spirituality, for God does not like false faces.’
Ychydig iawn o bobl sydd â’r dewrder a’r gwrhydri i ganiatáu i’w hunain ddod i ymwybyddiaeth lwyr o beth ydynt, a pha bethau sy’n gudd o’u mewn, a phan nad yw dynion yn fodlon gwneud hynny, mae’n amhosib iddynt gyfarfod Duw.
Dyma’r prif reswm pam na all rhai pobl, sy’n gwbl analluog i fod yn onest gyda nhw eu hunain, adfer o ddibyniaethau ar alcohol a chyffuriau eraill. Rhaid iddynt, yn gyntaf, ddinoethi eu hunain yn llwyr. Dim ond wedyn mae’r broses o drawsnewid eu bywydau yn gallu dechrau.
Mae gonestrwydd llwyr yn anghenraid cyn y gall unrhyw un ddod i berthynas â’r dwyfol. Rhaid i ddyn fod yn gwbl onest gyda’i hunan cyn y gall yn ddiogel dderbyn mynediad i deyrnas yr ysbryd a delio gydag o. Fel y dywed Morton Kelsey yn ei lyfr Encounter with God, ‘All others are either turned away or they find themselves entangled and enmeshed in the darker sides of spirituality, for God does not like false faces.’
Ychydig iawn o bobl sydd â’r dewrder a’r gwrhydri i ganiatáu i’w hunain ddod i ymwybyddiaeth lwyr o beth ydynt, a pha bethau sy’n gudd o’u mewn, a phan nad yw dynion yn fodlon gwneud hynny, mae’n amhosib iddynt gyfarfod Duw.
Dyma’r prif reswm pam na all rhai pobl, sy’n gwbl analluog i fod yn onest gyda nhw eu hunain, adfer o ddibyniaethau ar alcohol a chyffuriau eraill. Rhaid iddynt, yn gyntaf, ddinoethi eu hunain yn llwyr. Dim ond wedyn mae’r broses o drawsnewid eu bywydau yn gallu dechrau.
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
The hustling of booze at times resembles something akin to drug pushing
These are difficult times for supermarkets, price wars, falling profit margins and talk of closing huge out of town retail sheds dominate the news, and now the spectre of the Prime Minister giving consideration to minimum alcohol pricing.
Inventive solutions to these testing conditions are necessary, and it seems that Sainsbury’s has decided to sell as much cheap alcohol as possible before new regulations are introduced.
Sainsbury’s supermarket on Queen Street in Cardiff now sell a litre of white wine (or rose, if you prefer) for the bargain price of £3.20, slightly more than the price of sandwiches, a price which is guaranteed to make excess consumption an inevitability.
What could possibly motivate this pricing policy, given that the majority of evidence based research indicates that alcohol pricing has a clear relationship with excess consumption and alcoholism. All the studies that have reached the headlines in recent years seem to agree, cheap booze costs lives.
The packaging of this ‘special offer’ is interesting in itself as it is branded under the ‘Basics’ range, and sold at the queue-line for the automated tills in huge quantities.
Cheap alcohol, sold in a bargain product brand (perhaps to confuse it with the kind of cheap dietary staples that families desperate to make ends meet in a recession might buy) sold in plastic bottles with screw caps – the discerning wine buff is unlikely to be the target market.
More likely, the target market is the kind of person who values cheap alcohol, the sort of person who on a daily basis does the arithmetic of booze, calculating price against percentage per volume.
Sainsbury’s has perhaps considered that the golden age of bargain basement booze sales is drawing to a close, and that there might be few opportunities to sell the drug at so low a price as now.
Making hay while the sun shines, is, of course, a primary consideration for businesses, but if the troubles of our times are teaching us anything at all it should be this: We are more than businesses, our hearts and souls cannot be plotted into an Excel spreadsheet, we have higher responsibilities to one another than the simple mechanics of profit and loss.
The hustling of booze at times resembles something akin to drug pushing, and to sell a powerful, addictive and poisonous substance at the queue line for tills as if it were an impulse buy is a deliberate, calculated and cynical act.
Ironically, in many supermarkets, sweets and chocolate have been removed from the tills because harassed parents have often felt pressurised to buy their children unhealthy treats while doing the weekly shop.
It reveals volumes about our times that a Diary Milk or a Twix can be removed in the interests of customer health and well being, and be replaced by cheap alcohol instead.
Inventive solutions to these testing conditions are necessary, and it seems that Sainsbury’s has decided to sell as much cheap alcohol as possible before new regulations are introduced.
Sainsbury’s supermarket on Queen Street in Cardiff now sell a litre of white wine (or rose, if you prefer) for the bargain price of £3.20, slightly more than the price of sandwiches, a price which is guaranteed to make excess consumption an inevitability.
What could possibly motivate this pricing policy, given that the majority of evidence based research indicates that alcohol pricing has a clear relationship with excess consumption and alcoholism. All the studies that have reached the headlines in recent years seem to agree, cheap booze costs lives.
The packaging of this ‘special offer’ is interesting in itself as it is branded under the ‘Basics’ range, and sold at the queue-line for the automated tills in huge quantities.
Cheap alcohol, sold in a bargain product brand (perhaps to confuse it with the kind of cheap dietary staples that families desperate to make ends meet in a recession might buy) sold in plastic bottles with screw caps – the discerning wine buff is unlikely to be the target market.
More likely, the target market is the kind of person who values cheap alcohol, the sort of person who on a daily basis does the arithmetic of booze, calculating price against percentage per volume.
Sainsbury’s has perhaps considered that the golden age of bargain basement booze sales is drawing to a close, and that there might be few opportunities to sell the drug at so low a price as now.
Making hay while the sun shines, is, of course, a primary consideration for businesses, but if the troubles of our times are teaching us anything at all it should be this: We are more than businesses, our hearts and souls cannot be plotted into an Excel spreadsheet, we have higher responsibilities to one another than the simple mechanics of profit and loss.
The hustling of booze at times resembles something akin to drug pushing, and to sell a powerful, addictive and poisonous substance at the queue line for tills as if it were an impulse buy is a deliberate, calculated and cynical act.
Ironically, in many supermarkets, sweets and chocolate have been removed from the tills because harassed parents have often felt pressurised to buy their children unhealthy treats while doing the weekly shop.
It reveals volumes about our times that a Diary Milk or a Twix can be removed in the interests of customer health and well being, and be replaced by cheap alcohol instead.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
A Faustian pact
Cynicism is a word that is so frequently over used these days that gradually, over time, it loses its strength, its meaning becomes diluted. It takes financially difficult times like the ones we live through, and will continue to live through for years to come, for mercenary individuals and businesses to raise predatory practices to new heights.
There is something unique, in economic terms, about a casino, it is the only business that offers neither a product, nor a service, it fails to create anything (other than perhaps the illusion that some kind of success or wealth is possible) and instead feeds upon our very human need to feel risk, reward and excitement. Unlike smoking, which was known to be addictive for decades - and until court action wrung the truth out of the tobacco companies was not public knowledge - gambling's addictive qualities have been an open secret for centuries.
At precisely the time that ever greater demands for financial prudence are being imposed on the poorest, at precisely the time that essential services are being pared back to the bone, the Coalition are giving online casinos and betting chains carte blanche to entice another generation into indebtedness, addiction and despair.
Take the case of Think Bingo, the current sponsors of the Jeremy Kyle show. The entire point of commercial broadcasting is to find an audience and capture it with entertainment, and then deliver that audience to an advertiser who is likely to be able to sell something.
In the case of the Jeremy Kyle Show, described by Judge Alan Berg as:"A morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people whose lives are in turmoil", and that it was "a plain disgrace which goes under the guise of entertainment" and "Human Bear Baiting," gambling advertisers have chosen to ally their harmful and dysfunctional with a programme that seems to echo their values.
With a largely low income and often unemployed daytime audience, the show, once sponsored by Learn Direct, has forged a rather Faustian pact with Think Bingo to increase the indebtedness of its viewers.
Given the fact that the show claims to be a forum for good, a means by which contestants (if that is the correct term?) and audiences are helped, encouraging them to hand their hard earned money over to mercenary gambling magnates is quite a breath taking act of hypocrisy.
Given the fact that Jeremy Kyle himself deals with all manner of addicts on his show, creating an aggressive simulacrum of recovery for sick and desperate people, while in reality providing prurient viewers with an underclass Barnum and Bailey circus for them to gawp over - its association with gambling advertisers should open our eyes to its absence of any legitimacy.
Interestingly, Kyle himself said: "...Sometimes people need to be stripped bare before they can be helped."
By this he meant that his programme had some valuable role in deconstructing and deprogramming dysfunctional people, but perhaps it is time we exposed more than the private miseries of others in order to sell addictive and destructive 'entertainment'?
Soap opera Emmerdale is sponsored by Tombola Bingo, and whilst Emmerdale has higher production values and actually pays its actors instead of using a constant stream of damaged people, the fact remains that a much loved family drama is being used by big gambling businesses in much the same way that a fisherman uses a fly.
Cockney national treasure Barbara Windsor has been picked exclusively because of her demographic appeal to be the public face of Jackpot Joy, and it is no coincidence once more that the bulk of adverts featuring her are broadcast during the day. Bored, frustrated and despairing people, often unemployed, are the 'mark' in a multi billion pound sting.
We are told, repeatedly, that we are 'all in this together', that the current economic crisis is akin to the spirit of the Blitz, that national and social unity should prevail and that a pragmatic, stoic and typically British spirit of 'keep calm and carry on' should prevail.
Are any of these slogans in use in the head offices of large online gambling companies, or in the conversations had between their lobbyists and their friends in all three major parties?
It is doubtful. Because as we all try to muddle through together, to keep calm and carry on, there are powerful predatory forces encouraging harmful addictive behaviour, who see other people's poverty, desperation and sorrow, not as a tragedy, but as an opportunity.
There is something unique, in economic terms, about a casino, it is the only business that offers neither a product, nor a service, it fails to create anything (other than perhaps the illusion that some kind of success or wealth is possible) and instead feeds upon our very human need to feel risk, reward and excitement. Unlike smoking, which was known to be addictive for decades - and until court action wrung the truth out of the tobacco companies was not public knowledge - gambling's addictive qualities have been an open secret for centuries.
At precisely the time that ever greater demands for financial prudence are being imposed on the poorest, at precisely the time that essential services are being pared back to the bone, the Coalition are giving online casinos and betting chains carte blanche to entice another generation into indebtedness, addiction and despair.
Take the case of Think Bingo, the current sponsors of the Jeremy Kyle show. The entire point of commercial broadcasting is to find an audience and capture it with entertainment, and then deliver that audience to an advertiser who is likely to be able to sell something.
In the case of the Jeremy Kyle Show, described by Judge Alan Berg as:"A morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people whose lives are in turmoil", and that it was "a plain disgrace which goes under the guise of entertainment" and "Human Bear Baiting," gambling advertisers have chosen to ally their harmful and dysfunctional with a programme that seems to echo their values.
With a largely low income and often unemployed daytime audience, the show, once sponsored by Learn Direct, has forged a rather Faustian pact with Think Bingo to increase the indebtedness of its viewers.
Given the fact that the show claims to be a forum for good, a means by which contestants (if that is the correct term?) and audiences are helped, encouraging them to hand their hard earned money over to mercenary gambling magnates is quite a breath taking act of hypocrisy.
Given the fact that Jeremy Kyle himself deals with all manner of addicts on his show, creating an aggressive simulacrum of recovery for sick and desperate people, while in reality providing prurient viewers with an underclass Barnum and Bailey circus for them to gawp over - its association with gambling advertisers should open our eyes to its absence of any legitimacy.
Interestingly, Kyle himself said: "...Sometimes people need to be stripped bare before they can be helped."
By this he meant that his programme had some valuable role in deconstructing and deprogramming dysfunctional people, but perhaps it is time we exposed more than the private miseries of others in order to sell addictive and destructive 'entertainment'?
Soap opera Emmerdale is sponsored by Tombola Bingo, and whilst Emmerdale has higher production values and actually pays its actors instead of using a constant stream of damaged people, the fact remains that a much loved family drama is being used by big gambling businesses in much the same way that a fisherman uses a fly.
Cockney national treasure Barbara Windsor has been picked exclusively because of her demographic appeal to be the public face of Jackpot Joy, and it is no coincidence once more that the bulk of adverts featuring her are broadcast during the day. Bored, frustrated and despairing people, often unemployed, are the 'mark' in a multi billion pound sting.
We are told, repeatedly, that we are 'all in this together', that the current economic crisis is akin to the spirit of the Blitz, that national and social unity should prevail and that a pragmatic, stoic and typically British spirit of 'keep calm and carry on' should prevail.
Are any of these slogans in use in the head offices of large online gambling companies, or in the conversations had between their lobbyists and their friends in all three major parties?
It is doubtful. Because as we all try to muddle through together, to keep calm and carry on, there are powerful predatory forces encouraging harmful addictive behaviour, who see other people's poverty, desperation and sorrow, not as a tragedy, but as an opportunity.
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
24 Hour Alcohol Delivery Services present a mortal risk for alcoholics
In the past week, Wynford Ellis Owen, Director of the Welsh Council For Alcohol and Other Drugs visited an alcoholic engaged in an ongoing battle with alcohol addiction.
What confronted him as he stepped through the front door was a scene from hell.
In a recent blog post Wynford described the alcoholic's home as the prison of "…A still suffering alcoholic in the throes of active addiction with vomit all over the place – in Pyrex bowls and plates; on the settee; on the carpet; in the sink on top of her soaking, dirty plates; all over the bathroom; saturating her pillow and matted in her hair – and urine drenching her bedclothes and the stench permeating the whole flat. This alcoholic is being supplied with alcohol by a new breed of pariahs, the alcohol home delivery services, which she accesses by computer or telephone during the night."
In the last decade, drinks manufacturers have been inserting into their adverts the words 'Please enjoy Jack Daniels/Jacobs Creek/Stella Artois responsibly', placing the responsibility for the outcomes of drinking squarely on the shoulders of the drinker.
Is it not time that the drinks manufacturers now communicated a similar message to retailers and wholesalers of alcoholic drinks, asking them to 'Please sell our products responsibly'?
The commercial practice of selling alcohol by home delivery 24 hours a day makes the word irresponsible rather redundant. There is no legal sanction against this practice, and unlike alcohol sales on licensed premises, there is no penalty for selling alcohol to an already intoxicated person or under-age person.
Given that the market for late night parties that unexpectedly run out of wine or beer is probably rather small, the Welsh Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs believes this trade thrives on alcoholics and has found at least one example where this is demonstrably the case.
The government, both in Wales and in Westminster must act to ensure that this new and unregulated frontier in the drinks industry is forced to adhere to the highest standards of responsibility, or be forced to cease trading.
However, beyond government action the home delivery sellers of alcohol must take strenuous action in order to distinguish themselves from common drug pushers, benefiting from a veneer of legality.
The fact that it is legal to sell alcohol to a dying alcoholic at any hour of the day or night should not be confused with the idea that it is right to do so, sellers of addictive and toxic products like alcohol should actually have a higher moral threshold than other retailers, given the risks to health and wellbeing that their products pose.
What confronted him as he stepped through the front door was a scene from hell.
In a recent blog post Wynford described the alcoholic's home as the prison of "…A still suffering alcoholic in the throes of active addiction with vomit all over the place – in Pyrex bowls and plates; on the settee; on the carpet; in the sink on top of her soaking, dirty plates; all over the bathroom; saturating her pillow and matted in her hair – and urine drenching her bedclothes and the stench permeating the whole flat. This alcoholic is being supplied with alcohol by a new breed of pariahs, the alcohol home delivery services, which she accesses by computer or telephone during the night."
In the last decade, drinks manufacturers have been inserting into their adverts the words 'Please enjoy Jack Daniels/Jacobs Creek/Stella Artois responsibly', placing the responsibility for the outcomes of drinking squarely on the shoulders of the drinker.
Is it not time that the drinks manufacturers now communicated a similar message to retailers and wholesalers of alcoholic drinks, asking them to 'Please sell our products responsibly'?
The commercial practice of selling alcohol by home delivery 24 hours a day makes the word irresponsible rather redundant. There is no legal sanction against this practice, and unlike alcohol sales on licensed premises, there is no penalty for selling alcohol to an already intoxicated person or under-age person.
Given that the market for late night parties that unexpectedly run out of wine or beer is probably rather small, the Welsh Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs believes this trade thrives on alcoholics and has found at least one example where this is demonstrably the case.
The government, both in Wales and in Westminster must act to ensure that this new and unregulated frontier in the drinks industry is forced to adhere to the highest standards of responsibility, or be forced to cease trading.
However, beyond government action the home delivery sellers of alcohol must take strenuous action in order to distinguish themselves from common drug pushers, benefiting from a veneer of legality.
The fact that it is legal to sell alcohol to a dying alcoholic at any hour of the day or night should not be confused with the idea that it is right to do so, sellers of addictive and toxic products like alcohol should actually have a higher moral threshold than other retailers, given the risks to health and wellbeing that their products pose.
Monday, 2 January 2012
A few things which I regard as very important as we start on a new year
A while ago, I wanted something from a certain shop. I used to call there regularly. This particular day, however, when I tried to open the door, to my great surprise, it was locked. I knocked several times, thinking that the shopkeeper for once had overslept. Eventually, after banging at the door several times, it was opened and I could see that the shopkeeper was very wide awake indeed.
“What do you want?” he asked angrily. And then after a second thought, he said, “Alright, come in quick.”
As soon as I was inside, he locked the door again.
There were no other customers inside only myself, but there were two or three other people behind the counter, all very much occupied.
“My word, what’s going on in here?” I asked. “You all seem very busy.”
The shopkeeper answered, “It’s stock-taking time here I’m afraid, and we are closing the shop today so that we can get on with the job.”
Of course, I felt somewhat guilty and offered my apologies for interfering with their work.
Now, don’t you think we ought to do something like that at the beginning on a new year? I mean, spiritually, of course. Ought we not to look into our hearts and thoroughly examine ourselves to find out how it is with us as we face a new year?
The times are evil. There’s not much shine on our spiritual life is there? Our stock has surely got very low and the prospects are not at all bright. Let us therefore take stock of our resources. For in a certain sense, life is a business concern. A book was publishes several years ago and its title was: This Business of Living.
“What do you do when you set about this complicated job of stock-taking?” I asked the shopkeeper. “What is the first thing you do?”
“Well,” he said, “the first thing I do is to close the shop for a day or two. There is a notice in the window to that effect and obviously you hadn’t seen it, or you wouldn’t have been banging on the door a few minutes ago. It’s quite impossible to get on with this stock-taking with customers coming in twos and threes all day long. So we close the shop.”
A very good idea, don’t you think? We too could do something like that. Shut everything out; forget for a while the cares of the world, the problems of every day life, so that we can give our whole attention to the things that matter.
Wordsworth, in one of his poems, says:
‘The world is too much with us, late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers’
How true that is. In order to examine ourselves thoroughly and take stock of our spiritual resources, we must shut the door tight and lock it so that we can concentrate on the priorities of life. So, the first thing we’ve got to do is to shut the door; close the shop.
“What’s the next step?” I asked the shopkeeper. “What do you do next?”
“Well,” he said, “we make an exact list of everything we’ve got in the shop. By doing this, we find out what we are most in need of. We find, for example, that we have a good stock of one thing but that we are dangerously short of something else.”
We too must do something like that – take stock of all that we have; count our blessings, as it were. No shop is ever empty of goods. Neither is life. We all have what we might call assets – things that are of value to us and to other people. Health – that is one very precious thing. Food and clothing – they’re two others. We need all these things. We have friends, families, sponsors, and the good things of this world. Let us be grateful for what we have already in stock.
But to know just what we have in stock is only part of the purpose of stock-taking. The main purpose is to give us some idea of the things we are short of; the things we must order for the future.
Some things are more in demand than others. Go to any shop and you will find that there are many commodities there that are only asked for occasionally. But there are other things, like bread and milk, for instance, that we must keep constantly in stock - things that are needed for day-to-day living.
Life is like that too. Food and clothing, health and happiness – we want all those things. But if we examined ourselves in this manner, we might discover that there are some things that we are short of, things that are we are desperately in need of – such as discovering the secret of serenity or experiencing wholeness. You might have everything else – good name, character, wealth, friends, and all that. Yet, that is not enough. There is one thing you haven’t got – wholeness maybe - and until you get that, life is no good.
There is a lot of cheap stuff on the market today – wealth, pleasure, and so on, and we are in danger of cramming our lives with these things. But there are other things too, things that neither moth nor rust can corrupt; things that will stand us in good stead in this life: faith, hope, trust and love.
There was one other thing the shopkeeper told me. “When stock-taking,” he said “I also get a chance to clean the shop from top to bottom. You have no idea how much dust there is here, and I take this opportunity to clean the place out.”
This is another thing we could do to our advantage. When we examine ourselves, and take stock of our lives, a lot of ugly things will no doubt come to light. Habits that we have formed unawares – they will all come to light and we shall feel ashamed of ourselves.
Here is a chance for us at the beginning of a new year to cleanse our minds and souls and to rededicate ourselves to that which is pure and good and leads to sound recovery.
I wish you all a happy New Year and all that's good for 2012.
“What do you want?” he asked angrily. And then after a second thought, he said, “Alright, come in quick.”
As soon as I was inside, he locked the door again.
There were no other customers inside only myself, but there were two or three other people behind the counter, all very much occupied.
“My word, what’s going on in here?” I asked. “You all seem very busy.”
The shopkeeper answered, “It’s stock-taking time here I’m afraid, and we are closing the shop today so that we can get on with the job.”
Of course, I felt somewhat guilty and offered my apologies for interfering with their work.
Now, don’t you think we ought to do something like that at the beginning on a new year? I mean, spiritually, of course. Ought we not to look into our hearts and thoroughly examine ourselves to find out how it is with us as we face a new year?
The times are evil. There’s not much shine on our spiritual life is there? Our stock has surely got very low and the prospects are not at all bright. Let us therefore take stock of our resources. For in a certain sense, life is a business concern. A book was publishes several years ago and its title was: This Business of Living.
“What do you do when you set about this complicated job of stock-taking?” I asked the shopkeeper. “What is the first thing you do?”
“Well,” he said, “the first thing I do is to close the shop for a day or two. There is a notice in the window to that effect and obviously you hadn’t seen it, or you wouldn’t have been banging on the door a few minutes ago. It’s quite impossible to get on with this stock-taking with customers coming in twos and threes all day long. So we close the shop.”
A very good idea, don’t you think? We too could do something like that. Shut everything out; forget for a while the cares of the world, the problems of every day life, so that we can give our whole attention to the things that matter.
Wordsworth, in one of his poems, says:
‘The world is too much with us, late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers’
How true that is. In order to examine ourselves thoroughly and take stock of our spiritual resources, we must shut the door tight and lock it so that we can concentrate on the priorities of life. So, the first thing we’ve got to do is to shut the door; close the shop.
“What’s the next step?” I asked the shopkeeper. “What do you do next?”
“Well,” he said, “we make an exact list of everything we’ve got in the shop. By doing this, we find out what we are most in need of. We find, for example, that we have a good stock of one thing but that we are dangerously short of something else.”
We too must do something like that – take stock of all that we have; count our blessings, as it were. No shop is ever empty of goods. Neither is life. We all have what we might call assets – things that are of value to us and to other people. Health – that is one very precious thing. Food and clothing – they’re two others. We need all these things. We have friends, families, sponsors, and the good things of this world. Let us be grateful for what we have already in stock.
But to know just what we have in stock is only part of the purpose of stock-taking. The main purpose is to give us some idea of the things we are short of; the things we must order for the future.
Some things are more in demand than others. Go to any shop and you will find that there are many commodities there that are only asked for occasionally. But there are other things, like bread and milk, for instance, that we must keep constantly in stock - things that are needed for day-to-day living.
Life is like that too. Food and clothing, health and happiness – we want all those things. But if we examined ourselves in this manner, we might discover that there are some things that we are short of, things that are we are desperately in need of – such as discovering the secret of serenity or experiencing wholeness. You might have everything else – good name, character, wealth, friends, and all that. Yet, that is not enough. There is one thing you haven’t got – wholeness maybe - and until you get that, life is no good.
There is a lot of cheap stuff on the market today – wealth, pleasure, and so on, and we are in danger of cramming our lives with these things. But there are other things too, things that neither moth nor rust can corrupt; things that will stand us in good stead in this life: faith, hope, trust and love.
There was one other thing the shopkeeper told me. “When stock-taking,” he said “I also get a chance to clean the shop from top to bottom. You have no idea how much dust there is here, and I take this opportunity to clean the place out.”
This is another thing we could do to our advantage. When we examine ourselves, and take stock of our lives, a lot of ugly things will no doubt come to light. Habits that we have formed unawares – they will all come to light and we shall feel ashamed of ourselves.
Here is a chance for us at the beginning of a new year to cleanse our minds and souls and to rededicate ourselves to that which is pure and good and leads to sound recovery.
I wish you all a happy New Year and all that's good for 2012.
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