Welcome to soberdiver's Recovery Retreats Pages!

I have been sober for more than 26 years, which is more than half my life, thanks to the action of a loving Higher Power expressed through the experience, strength, and hope shared by others at a variety of meetings.  I've been SCUBA diving since 1993, and just love being a sober diver!  Since 1990 (when I completed a retreat-giving internship with the fabulous Fr. Tom W of Oakland, CA), I have been facilitating recovery retreats for folks in various 12-step programs across the United States and Canada.  One of these days I think it would be great to do a recovery retreat on a SCUBA live-aboard diving vessel....

Retreat Schedule 2005 -2006

Here are some of the resources I have used during recent retreats:

"God's In-Box", "Barn-raising", "Spiritual Chemotherapy", "My Mind is a Bad Neighborhood", and "Knocking on Heaven's Door" by Annie Lamott, from her former online column.  Many of these can also be found in her book Traveling Mercies.

Lyrics to "And I'll Be There", recorded by Michael Feinstein on his album Forever. Lyrics to "The Prayer", recorded by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli, from the Album Sogno.

Lyrics to "The Two Trees", by William Butler Yeats, recorded by Loreena McKennitt, from her album The Mask and Mirror, released by Warner Bros. Records, 1994

Lyrics to "The Dark Night of the Soul"  (original Spanish poem)", by St. John of the Cross, recorded by  Loreena McKennitt, from her album The Mask and Mirror, released by Warner Bros. Records, 1994

Lyrics to "The Portrait", by Amanda McBroom, from her album Growing Up in Hollywood Town which is out of print.   It can be found on the recently-released Portraits album, though.

The prayer of forgiveness from Ravensbruck concentration camp. The "Third Step Prayer" written by my friend and SCUBA-diving buddy Brian B.

"Jonah," "Of Molluscs," "Love," "The Absence of God," "If I can let you go," "AIDS" "Who Wakes" by May Sarton.  These can be found in her Collected Poems, 1930-1993, published by W.W. Norton

The poems of Wislawa Szymborska, Nobel Laureate in Literature (1996): "A Contribution to Statistics" and "Hatred" from Poems New and Collected; the poem "Kindness" , by Naomi Shihab Nye can be found in Ten Poems to Open Your Heart, edited by Roger Housden (2003).

Serenity Prayer meditation from Serenity Meditations I by Mariette Dobrowolski and Kristoph Franz.

"The Professor and the Paradox" is only found in the Second Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, which is not offically available online, but none the less is there anyway!  John P. is reputed to be the author.

The "Serenity Prayer" in the form: "Grant us serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference" is found in the story,"It Might Have Been Worse" by Chet R.,  in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Editions of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Twelve Jewish Steps to Recovery, by Kerry M. Olitzkey and Stuart A. Copans, Jewish Lights Publishing (1991) Today I Will Nourish My Inner Martyr, by Ann Thornhill and Sarah Wells, Crown Publishing Group (1998)

Link to my retreats available on CD or tape (I don't get a kickback, but my Community does....)

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