If you are in the Northwest next week, the weekend of August 27, then save some time for camaraderie and fellowship for any adults within our fellowships. This day will be a time of rejuvenation, recreation, and renewal as well as fun. The details are in the flyer below. Share in your meetings and with your friends in our fellowship. We hope to see many there. By the way, it sounds like the weather will be awesome.

Serenity at the Beach

The Puget Sound Retreat Committee, PSRC, is planning an outdoor party, Serenity at the Beach, this coming August at Seahurst Park in Burien, WA.  More details will follow but please save the date, August 27, 2022.  Our time together will be from noon until 6.  Come and go as you please during this time frame.  This will be a chance for all of us in recovery from sexual addictions and codependency to enjoy healthy community together. 

This outdoor event or party will be a prelude to our online retreat coming in October since we were not able to effectively plan for an in-person one yet again this year.  Obviously, this is due to continuing concerns and questions regarding Covid.  As we move forward in our recovery, we do hope to have an in-person retreat again in the not-so-distant future, hopefully 2023.

Let’s enjoy some time together.  We can talk and commune within this awesome site.  If you have any thoughts for us for the upcoming retreat in October, let us know.  Your thoughts and ideas guide us in planning to ensure every one of the best retreat possible.  We hope to see you there.

Published on Saturday, July 16 at 11:05 a.m. by PSRC

Can you feel the spirit of the retreat?  It is coming soon, a week or so away.  Just think about our speakers as well as the workshops and opportunities for healthy connections.  We start with a fun talent show on Friday the 27th.  Contact us to find out more or sign up to be talent.  From Friday through Sunday, August 27-29, you can choose the times and events that work best for your own personal recovery.  Together we can truly enjoy “Unity & Recovery” at this year’s virtual retreat. 

Remember to register before August 23 to ensure your space at the retreat.  We need to have an estimate of how many may attend in order to best manage our resources. 

How often can you leave a suggested donation of $20 to receive education, recovery, camaraderie, meditation, a fun talent show, and more to improve your life?  We keep the costs low by having volunteers and equipment loaned to us.  We also invest any money to fund our next retreat, which we believe will be back live and in-person for 2022, maybe even hybrid so more can attend.  Any excess monies are donated back to the fellowships in accordance with the Puget Sound Retreat Committee by-laws. 

Keep spreading the word at your meetings and with your friends in sexual recovery.  We only have a couple weeks until the big event. Remember to register by Monday, August 23, in order to ensure your spot at this year’s retreat.

The retreat is only about 3 weeks away.  We are setting up several great workshops to give you the insights you have been searching for.  Our theme this year is “Unity & Recovery.”  We have remade some of the classics like the talent show, games, writing, and crafting.  We are still seeking people to help out as volunteers or oversee workshops.  Contact us at 425-272-5740 or info@soundretreat.org. 

Please continue to pass the word out at your meetings and with your friends in recovery. This retreat promises to be even better than last year’s.

When we were deep in our addiction(s), we largely hid from others.  We had this secret.  It was forbidden and stimulating.  If others found out about this, they would hate us, shame us, or shun us.  Some may do so; however, as we go to meetings and work the steps, we find this is not entirely true.  Many accept us with welcoming arms.  We find that we are not alone in the world.  There are others like us.

Addiction is a nasty thing that largely breeds in secret. As we isolate, we often become more troubled and seek out more of our remedy, our addiction.  We may feel good for a short while, then we become more stressed or downtrodden.  This high and low feeling perpetuates itself.  It is very much like being in a squirrel cage.  It goes on in a cycle seemingly forever.  This cycle, unless interrupted, continues on and on.  Without some sort of healthy interruption, the consequences can be dire even as dire as death.

So how do we get out of this cycle?  Yes, we can work the steps.  Yes, we can go to meetings.  I propose that the real thing that happens to relieve us of our addiction(s) is a connection with others.  We share stories.  We share feelings.  We are not judged.  We make new and healthy connections.  As we connect, while also working the steps, we find the light that was missing in our life.  All of this positive change begins with making new, healthy connections.

I challenge each and every one of you to make new and healthy connections.  The connections can start at your meetings.  As you make connections there, you will find that you are better able to make connections outside of the meetings.  We find a new way of living, free from our addiction.  We find that our new connections keep us from the craziness of our addiction(s).

At the end of August, as you may know, there is a retreat that can help to strengthen your own addiction recovery.  A key reason this retreat is so powerful, and has been for many years, is that we get to connect with others.  We connect.  We are open to the healing power of recovery.  We can be free from our addiction, one day at a time.  Come and join us for the retreat again this year, August 27-29.  Make some new as well as old friends and connections.

The 12^th step states, “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all areas of our lives.”  I have paraphrased this step since the actual words will vary slightly from one fellowship to another.  The meaning is very clear, however.  The 12^th step asks us to serve others, help them rise above their addictions.

What is service anyway?  How does one define it?  A great place to start is with a dictionary definition.  A quick working definition is the action of helping or doing work for someone.  Some synonyms are favor, kindness, helping hand, assistance, good turn, and act of assistance.  I would say these are all good things.

In our recovery, one main goal is to get to the point of having a true spiritual awakening.  As you have likely heard in some of the promises listed in the Big Book, they may come quickly or slowly, but they will always come if we work for them.  Yes, it takes work.  It may be slow.  It may be less slow, even quick.  If we focus on the work, then we will see the fruits of our labors.

What does service have to do with the Serenity on the Sound Retreat, virtual or otherwise?  The service of people in our fellowship is what makes the retreat able to be successful.  When we have been in person, volunteers have helped with food, cleanup, meetings, and other things to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere.  In the virtual retreat, we have had helpers with Zoom, moderators to keep the flow moving forward nicely, speakers, presenters, and more.  This retreat came together as the result of several volunteers asking, “What can we do to help others in recovery?”  These volunteers, over the years, have become the Puget Sound Retreat Committee.  This committee is focused on the 12^th step in that they seek to always provide service to others in recovery, especially sexual addiction and codependency recovery.

In some future blogs, I will share more about some of the positive experiences that members of the PSRC have enjoyed.  In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about the service offered by the PSRC, please contact us at info@soundretreat.org or 425-272-5740.  We are here to serve you.

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by Dale E – PSRC Member (SAA/COSA)

As the webmaster for this site, soundretreat.org, I want to share some thoughts on recovery and our upcoming retreat.  I hope to update this blog regularly, about once a week up until the retreat and then a bit less after the retreat.  Please let us know what you wish to hear as well as how often.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am Dale E, one member of the Puget Sound Retreat Committee, also known as PSRC.  I am a sex addict as well as a codependent to a sex addict.  I have been in recovery since 2006 and am grateful for my own recovery.  In that time, I have gone from feeling lost and shameful to being virtually born anew so that my life once again has joy in it.  I have regained balance in my life and am moving forward. 

Hopefully you have heard that our next upcoming retreat is being held virtually on August 27-29.   Last year we were able to share recovery with our first virtual retreat.  We have taken what we learned to craft a retreat which is bigger, stronger, and more hopeful than last year’s.  We hope you will join us for the workshops, speakers, fun events, camaraderie, and recovery that you will find at the Serenity on the Sound Retreat for 2021.  Please join us all.

In order to best prepare for your retreat, we welcome any comments and ideas.  The success of the retreat comes from the people who attend the retreat.  You are the backbone and energy for us all.  So, feel free to contact us directly via email, info@soundretreat.org, or phone, 1-425-272-5740.  We check in with each of those regularly.  Ask questions, shoot us some advice or offer up some helpful hints.  We appreciate the wisdom of our fellow addicts, co-addicts, and codependents. 

Thank you for reading.  We hope to see you all again from August 27-29 and here on the site weekly.  Come and join us for 2021.

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  by Dale E – PSRC Member (SAA/COSA)

I am happy to announce that planning for the 32^nd annual Serenity On The Sound Retreat has begun.  Due to the pandemic and assorted unknowns, we will hold it virtually again this year in 2021.  Moving forward we hope to hold two retreats annually with one virtual and the other in-person.

The next retreat is scheduled for August 27-29.  Planning is just getting started.  We hope to take what we learned in 2020 and have even more opportunities for you including fellowship and workshops.  We will love to hear ideas from you as to what some good workshop subjects may be.  We are always looking for topics that inspire and promote recovery.

We are also actively seeking new members for our retreat committee.  We have a lot of experience and can use some good new blood in the group.  One of the reasons we have had so much success is that the committee is not static; it is ever-changing.  The changes allow us to grow and meet the needs of our fellow addicts, co-addicts, and codependents.  If you are interested or know someone who can help please contact us directly at info@soundretreat.org or 425-272-5740.

Please stay tuned to the website, www.soundretreat.org, as well as our emails to follow.  There is quite a lot planned for our upcoming retreat.   Our next retreat committee meeting will be held from 3-5 p.m. on June 13.  We’d love to have you join us at our Zoom planning meeting.

Thank you.  We look forward to hearing from you.  See you this summer.

by Dale E – PSRC Member (SAA/COSA)

Have you heard yet? There is another retreat coming for us early in 2021. After the success of this past retreat, we wish to continue and pay things forward. We also learned a lot about how we can improve our next retreat.

Please keep your eyes peeled on this page. As we all know things are constantly changing and hopefully improving. We are shooting for sometime in early February. Planning is beginning now. If you have a desire to contribute in any way, let us know. We always need help and support. Is there a better way to do service as our 12th step suggests?

I hope to continue posting at least twice a month. So check things out on this page. We also always welcome any suggestions you may have. We seriously consider your valuable contributions.

Thank you for being here and listening. You are our lifeblood.

by Dale E – PSRC Member (SAA/COSA)