Holy Man Wandering Tuesday June 2 2026

I am a needy man.

I need air.
The word spiritual comes from the Latin word spiritus which means breath. I need to breathe, more than anything in life… I need to breathe...

When we do breath exercises in physical humility… My most profound human need is met

Now don't get confused. I still need water, food, sleep, and exercise as my most fundamental needs.

I need for safety: I need to be assured that you won't hit or hurt me or that you have a weapon.

I need to feel sure that you will not try to shame me or blame me or control me, so I have need for emotional safety as well as physical safety.

I have a need for financial safety: I need to know that I have a home to live in, clothes to wear, food to eat, transportation, medical care, and money for entertainment and vacations as part of my mental health.

Then I have a need for love and belonging: I need to have a place where I can unqualifiedly be myself, fully. I need to be not only accepted as I am but encouraged to be who I am and discover who I am can become.

And then have a need for your esteem. I need you to value me, and just say so. I need, within all modesty, to be recognised for my achievements and to know that I am valued in this community through your modest and appropriate praise.

Then I have a need for spirituality through prayer, meditation and through unselfish snervice to others, implementing God's Will so that I will be happy, joyous and free.

Next, I have a need for contentment, not only accepting my life as it is but choosing to be positive about whatever I have left

Finally, I have a need for peace of mind. As achieved in one way and one way only and that is true presenting my soul to myself..

 

Holy Man Wandering June 1, 2026

Responsibility…

The word responsibility comes from the Latin word “responsum” (one who is forced to answer to someone else).

I am forced to answer for my life. Why?

If I hurt someone else, it is up to me to make amends for that harm.

Further, if I hurt myself, it is up to me to make amends, to myself, for the harm I have caused myself.

If I ask God to take care of me, in areas where it is my job to take care of me….then, I am not being responsible.

AA says “God doesn’t fry eggs, pay bills or set alarm clocks”… You get the point.

Now I can’t stop drinking caffeine, or eating sugar, masturbating or taking pills. Truly…so that’s God’s job.

But, I can get a sponsor, go to meetings, read the Big Book, do written Step Work, pray and serve others.

If I am having a problem with God…it may be me and my demand that God do something that isn’t in his job description.

Just because God can do anything, doesn’t mean he will…or should.

Just sayin’

 

Holy Man Wandering May 27,2026

33 years ago, one of Niall's sponcees , John H. rather shyly and abashedly, asked me if I would write a document for the newcomers in his 12th Step group...And it was on.

I've written thirteen books and I've edited seven others.

A men's group asked if they could print my work for their organization..

FA asked me to rewrite their AWOL.

One of the new hybrid groups that have become popular for the last five years asked me to write their primary text.

For seven years, my primary income came from writing 12 Step books for a privately owned group.

I have edited the words of the greatest minds in the history of recovery : Bill Wilson, Gandhi, Patrick Carnes, Ellen Bass and Earnie Larsen

I have edited Plato, Confucius, Lao Tze, Buddha, Socrates and Aristotle.

I have edited Mark Twain, Jane Austin, George Eliot, John Milton and even Shakespeare.

I have edited Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Saint Paul and I've even edited the words of the Man himself… Jesus

But in 33 years, no one, absolutely no one, has edited my work.

Today, a well meaning young man took my work, ostensibly coming from very mouth of God Almighty, and changed the words.... ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
I can't stop laughing...

I guess I might've gotten too big for my britches...and I needed that.

Thanks to the young man, who shall remain anonymous, who had the unmitigated chutzpah to do that.

Thanks… Really thanks