CONTRIBUTORS

About Carol Ann Preston
Carol Ann Preston is a Certified Chaplain, Licensed Massage Therapist, and author with over 25 years experience developing and teaching award winning programs for adolescence and adults. She is gifted with the ability to communicate about subjects of an emotional nature with ease, sensitivity and honesty.

Room For Healing was created to support healing and life through workshops, support groups and retreats. Carol offers various formats for those interested in 12-step spirituality using the tools outlined in her first book, Remembering Who We Are: a workbook. She also presents on a variety of topics such as: 12 step spirituality, trigeminal neuralgia, addiction and recovery, teens for positive peer support, child abuse, domestic violence, dysfunction in the class room; guided relaxation and meditation, birth-death; the cycle of life, grief, relationships and more.

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About Cheryl O.
Cheryl O. began her recovery on Sept 18, 1985 at the age of 16. After 15 years of being sober and working the 11th Step daily she made the decision to make Jesus the Lord of her life and became a Christian. As she began to read the Bible, she was able to understand it and apply it to her life much like she had with the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. She has compiled a 171 day Meditation Book for Christians in Recovery and has it available as a free download from her website.

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Cheryl is now 41 and still sober by the Grace of God. She continues to live the steps outlined in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and continues to reach out to those still suffering. Her husband is also in recovery and they have been married for 19 years. They have one teenage daughter.

Cheryl is the owner of Cheryl's Bookmarks, a 12 Step Recovery Store. She also writes many Biblical Christian teachings on her wordpress blog and encourages many recovering people in a deeper walk with the Lord.
 
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About David Lee Byrd
David is an author of two books; his first, “Living a Spiritual Life” (LSL) chronicles his spiritual journey during the 17 years of his own recovery process. It offers insights on finding and building a spiritual way of life that avoids religious dogma and legalism.
LSL takes you on a journey of self discovery where you will find the beauty and joy you deserve in this life. The path lies within you; you are filled with a power packed potential that is just waiting to be realized.

His second book "Life Seeds" is a collection of Poetry that encompasses life’s many ups and down, its joys and sorrows. All of the poems are based on real life experiences that resonate with honesty, humor, insight, and wisdom.

As a licensed minister, certified drug and alcohol counselor, single parent, and student at Argosy University where he is working on a Masters degree in the behavioral sciences David’s life is incredibly rich and profoundly diverse.
He lives by the principles that he teaches. A promise that he made many years ago was, “to never, ever teach or encourage another person to do what he himself had not first tried, and found to be successful.”

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About Dick B.
Dick B. is an active, recovered member of Alcoholics Anonymous; a retired attorney; and a Bible student. He has sponsored more than one hundred men in their recovery from alcoholism. Consistent with A.A.'s traditions of anonymity, he uses the pseudonym "Dick B."

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About Gail M. DeWitt
Gail is over 30 years in recovery and is a licensed spiritual practitioner. She has been a dynamic speaker for over 20 years in the field of recovery. Her experiential workshops include the areas of non-violence, healing familial relationships and how to create an active personal spiritual practice.

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About Gwen R.
Gwen R. has been in Twelve Step recovery since July 9, 1991.  She is owner of TwelveBeads.com, a  200 hour registered yoga teacher, 100 hour registered yoga of recovery certified, and completed Reiki I training.

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About Jody K.
Jody K is a thirty-nine year old writer, poet, birdwatcher, gardener, activist and student. She has four teenage children, a husband with a wonderful sense of humor and five female cats (to balance the yin-yang of her mostly male home).

Though her personal philosophy leans towards Buddhist teachings, she respects and embraces all faiths as different pathways to a spiritual existence.

She was delivered from the bonds of drugs and alcohol on October 28, 2002.

Prayers Answered


About Kevin Griffin
Kevin Griffin has been practicing meditation since 1978, and doing Buddhist Vipassana practice since 1980. He has studied with the leading Western Vipassana teachers, including Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Ruth Denison, Christopher Titmuss, Ajahn Amaro, James Baraz, Wes Nisker, and many others. He has been teaching meditation in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1996.

Kevin has been actively working with the Twelve Steps since 1985, maintaining continuous sobriety from alcohol and drugs during that time.

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About Lee Siegel
I began my journey of sobriety in 2006 and from the very start, I began journaling. Initially this was to track my day-count and the meetings I attended. It quickly evolved into a method of noting interesting quotes, events, emotions, etc. Once I’d reached 90-days, when it seemed that most stopped tracking their day-count, I had already become enamored with daily writing and did not see any reason to stop. Over time, the length of time I spent on this reflection of my day increased but instead of it feeling like a chore, it became something I looked forward to and enjoyed!

You might think it obsessive but I have not missed a single day since I first got sober. I feel very blessed that I found this “habit” and it is pretty cool to be able to reflect back on any day since I put down the drink.

Because I find this to be such an important and enjoyable part of my everyday life, and because I began to see that bookstores where no longer offering anything but blank journals (plain, lined-paged, books) I decided to try my hand at compiling a journal. I began this in 2008 and had the entire contents completed but put it in a drawer and forgot about it. In 2012, while going through a divorce, living on my own, being unemployed, thus having a ton of time, I pulled out the contents. Over the four years, self-publishing had evolved. I reformatted my work and within 2 weeks, “A Year of Days – One day at a time” showed-up at my door in print! Let me tell you, being a man and never having given birth… this was the closest to that joy that I can imagine. My work in actual print… Amazing what we can do when we put down the drink.

I would love to share my experience, strength and, most of all, my hope. After all, it was only when I found hope that I became willing.


About Rabbi Shais Taub
Shais Taub is a Chabad emmisary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is also a popular teacher who has spoken around the world on subjects of Jewish mysticism and their application to our daily lives. His greatest passion is to study, discuss and teach the book of Tanya, the fundamental text of Chabad Chasidic philosophy.

Visit Chasidic Thought with Rabbi Shais Taub


About Rabbi Yisrael Pinson
Rabbi Yisrael Pinson, is the Director of the Daniel B. Sobel Friendship House in West Bloomfield, MI. Since joining the Friendship House in May 2002 he has helped create a Jewish Recovery Community where recovering addicts are helped through support, guidance, friendship & community. Rabbi Yisrael facilitates Jewish Recovery meetings, where recovering addicts from all 12-step programs meet and share regularly. He also teaches classes on Judaism & Recovery.

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About Randy F.
I have discovered the great benefits of working the steps in while I learned to grow a practice of meditation. I did this during own struggles to achieve sobriety, and, serenity within sobriety. It is my hope that this will help others to identify with my message, and allow me to reach out and help teach the beginning concepts and practice of meditation.

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