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Rank: Advanced Member  Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "When A.A. Came of Age":
"Then Bill [D., A.A. #3] told us how, during the night, hope had dawned on him. If Bob and I [Bill W.] could do it, he could do it. Maybe we all could do together what we could not do separately. Two days later Bill suddenly said, 'Henrietta, fetch me my clothes, I'm going to get up and get out of here.' Bill walked out of that hospital a free man and he never took a drink again. The spark that was to flare into the first A.A. group had been struck."
© 2001 AAWS, Inc.;
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pg. 72
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
March 9, 2010
Entanglements
Tying our sobriety to someone we are emotionally involved with
proves flatly disastrous.
"I'll stay sober if so-and-so does this or that"
puts an unhealthy condition on our recovery.
We have to stay sober for ourselves,
no matter what other people do or fail to do.
We should remember, too, that intense dislike
also is an emotional entanglement, often a reversal of past love.
We need to cool any overboard feeling,
lest it flip us back into the drink.
c.1998 AAWS, Living Sober, p. 62
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Keep your sobriety first to make it last.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
R E L A T I O N S H I P =
Really Exciting Love Affair Turns Into Outrageous Nightmare;
Sobriety Hangs In Peril.
Today's Meditation:
The grace of God cures disharmony and disorder in human relationships.
Directly you put your affairs, with their confusion and their difficulties,
into God's hands, He begins to effect a cure of all the disharmony and
disorder. You can believe that He will cause you no more pain in the doing
of it than a physician, who plans and knows that he can effect a cure, would
cause his patient. You can have faith that God will do all that is
necessary as painlessly as possible. But you must be willing to submit to
His treatment, even if you cannot see the meaning or purpose of it.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may willingly submit to whatever spiritual discipline is
necessary. I pray that I may accept whatever it takes to live a better
life.
Today's Quotable:
And the wind said: "May you be as strong as the oak, yet flexible as the
birch; may you stand tall as the Redwood, live gracefully as the willow; and
may you always bear fruit all your days on this earth." Native American
prayer
Today's Tool:
My tool for today is Reach out and ask for help.
I often have a need to struggle with an issue for far to long. Until the discomfort and confusing emotions make me so uncomfortable that I become willing. I do not need to stew so long. I know what to do. I can ask for my sponsor's or friends experience strength, hope, and guidance.
I must humble my self and ask for help if I want to quiet the committee that resides between my ears.
Yours in recovery, on life's terms, and One day at a time.
Klaus
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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STEP FIVE: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
"This vital Step was also the means by which we began to get the feeling that we could be forgiven, no matter what we had thought or done. Often it was while working on this Step with our sponsors or spiritual advisers that we first felt truly able to forgive others, no matter how deeply we felt they had wronged us. Our moral inventory had persuaded us that all-round forgiveness was desirable, but it was only when we resolutely tackled Step Five that we inwardly knew we'd be able to receive forgiveness and give it, too."
c. 1981, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 57-58
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
March 10, 2010
Resentments
If you have a resentment you want to be free of,
if you will pray for the person or the thing you resent,
you will be free.
If you will ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself
to be given to them, you will be free.
Ask for their health, their prosperity, their happiness,
and you will be free.
Even when you don't really want it for them,
and your prayers are only words and you don't mean it,
go ahead and do it anyway.
Do it every day for two weeks and you will find
you have come to mean it and to want it for them,
and you will realize that where you used to feel
bitterness and resentment and hatred,
you now feel compassionate understanding and love.
c. 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 552
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Trying to pray is praying.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A S A P = Always Say A Prayer.
Today's Meditation:
Make it a daily practice to review you character. Take your character in
relation to your daily life, to your dear ones, your friends, your
acquaintances, and your work. Each day try to see where God wants you to
change. Plan how best each fault can be eradicated or each mistake
corrected. Never be satisfied with a comparison with those around you.
Strive toward a better life as your ultimate goal. God is your helper
through weakness to power, through danger to security, through fear and worry
to peace and serenity.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may make real progress toward a better life. I pray that I may
never be satisfied with my present state.
Today's Quotable:
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein
Today's Tool:
I came into AA with a powerful resentment against two people that were important to me. My entire head was rented out to them and there was no room for recovery to enter. Before I ever took the first step, my sponsor made me read the story "Freedom From Bondage" about a woman who prays for her mother to be free of a lifelong resentment. He told me if I prayed for them, by name, each one separately, for God to give them all the things I wanted, I could be free. He told me to ask that God give them health, prosperity and happiness and then to add precisely the things I most wanted to that prayer so they could have it.
It was the hardest thing I ever had to do.
And one of the most amazing. Today, I am free of that resentment to the point that my heart is full of gratitude for them. They helped set me free. My life before recovery was full of conflict with other people. And while my relations with others are not completely perfect and conflict-free today, I have a tool that sets me free from my old tools of judgment, resentment and conflict. If I pray for others, we are both set free.
Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for being out there and thanks to all those who checked in this week. See you on the road...
In love and service,
Glenn
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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STEP TEN: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
"[A] great many of us have never really acquired the habit of accurate self-appraisal. Once this healthy practice has become grooved, it will be so interesting and profitable that the time it takes won't be missed. For these minutes and sometimes hours spent in self-examination are bound to make all the other hours of our day better and happier."
c. 1952, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pages 89-90
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
March 11, 2010
Humility
You get just a little sobriety, and you get just a little humility.
Not much, just a little.
Not the humility of sackcloth and ashes,
but the humility of a man who's glad he's alive and can serve.
You get just a little tolerance, not too much,
but just enough to sit and listen to the other guy.
Somewhere along the line, if you've forgotten how to pray,
you learn a little about that too. . .
And you realize that if you put all this together, you get a little humility,
a little tolerance, a little honesty, a little sincerity, a little prayer
-- and a lot of AA.
c. 2003 AAWS, Experience, Strength and Hope, pp. 201-202
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
B O G G L E = Bad Or Good, God Loves Everyone.
Today's Meditation:
Breathe in the inspiration of goodness and truth. It is the spirit of
honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. It is readily available if we are
willing to accept it wholeheartedly. God has given us two things-His spirit
and the power of choice-to accept or not, as we will. We have the gift of
free will. When we choose the path of selfishness and greed and pride, we
are refusing to accept God's spirit. When we choose the path of love and
service, we accept God's spirit and it flows into us and makes all things new.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may choose the right way. I pray that I may try to follow it
to the end..
Today's Quotable:
You can't expect to hit the jackpot if you don't put a few nickels in the
machine. Flip Wilson
Today's Tools:
“Nothing is wasted in God’s economy.”
--From somewhere in As Bills Sees It
One of my sponsors used to remind me that folks who irk me are my teachers. Whether I’m irked or not, people are my teachers and there are lessons to be learned. Sometimes I have to look a little harder for these lessons than others. Still, the lessons are there. Lessons I’ve learn from watching/interacting with others that come to mind include:
When in doubt, don’t.
When tragedy strikes, go to a meeting (the other stuff can wait).
How I don’t want to act.
How I DO want to act.
Helping drunks works magic.
You can’t save your butt and your face at the same time.
Nothing is wasted in God’s economy; all my experiences can be put to use.
What lessons have you learned?
Ariana
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "Getting ahead:"
"Ever since I became extricated from the turmoil of alcoholic living, it has interested me to muse over this business of Getting Ahead. In the excesses of my alcoholic-inspired ambition, I used to imagine that to Get Ahead I would need to be like some preternatural bulldozer, plowing its way upward and onward, plunging inexorably over the embankments of life, grinding, heaving, snorting, reckless of obstacles, impelled by the virtues of ambition and the seductions of success -- the kind of success that comes effortlessly to us from a barroom bottle.
"I did not know then that if you want to Get Ahead with any degree of peace, you must first learn to Stay Here...It takes humility to ask, patience to wait for the answer, and faith that the answer will come. These, it strikes me, are hardly bulldozer "'virtues.'"
c. 1973, Came to Believe..., page 114
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
March 12, 2010
Ninety Days
Angry doesn't begin to describe how I felt
when I had to admit I was an alcoholic.
Even though I was grateful not to be nuts, as I'd first supposed, I felt cheated.
All the people I saw sitting around the tables of AA
had been granted many more years of drinking than I.
It just wasn't fair!
Someone pointed out to me that life was rarely fair.
I wasn't amused, but extending my drinking career
simply wasn't an option anymore.
Ninety days sober cleared my thinking enough
to make me realize I'd hit bottom.
c. 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 314
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
I came; I came to; I came to believe.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A B C = Acceptance, Belief, Change.
Today's Meditation:
Do you want the full and complete satisfaction that you find in serving God
and all the satisfactions of the world also? It is not easy to serve both
God and the world. It is difficult to claim the rewards of both. If you
work for God, you will still have great rewards in the world. But you must
be prepared to sometimes stand apart from the world. You cannot always turn
to the world and expect all the rewards which life has to offer. If you are
trying sincerely to serve God, you will have other and greater rewards than
the world has to offer.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may not expect too much from the world. I pray that I may also
be content with the rewards that come from serving God.
Today's Quotable:
Most people live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to
try. Mary Kay Ash
Today's Tool:
Do One Thing Differently
A good tool, but hard to accomplish. I have recently come to terms with the
fact that most of my pain is caused by my own thoughts and actions, or
inactions. Which leads to the conclusion that I need to change, not the
world. But that's where the opportunity for growth is - and I don't mean
the growth that is pain, I mean the willingness to be open to doing things
differently, thinking along different lines, experimenting and learning. It
can actually be exciting at times to challenge my own negative thoughts and
preconceptions, and try to act differently. So do one thing differently
today and let me know how it goes.
- Julie
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "A Drunk, Like You":
"I drank for the whole flight—before dinner, during dinner, and after dinner. As we approached our destination, I searched in my pocket for a pen to fill out the in-flight magazine response card. I found this large coin. I took it out to see what it was. It was my ninety-day pocket piece, and I was reminded of what I was doing. And the thought came to me: Wow, those guys at the meeting were right—I am powerless over alcohol. I put that coin back in my pocket and from that day to this, some 15½ years later, I have had no urge to drink."
© 2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition;
Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 405
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
Attitudes
Personally, I take the attitude that I intend never to drink again.
This is somewhat different from saying, "I will never drink again."
The latter attitude sometimes gets people in trouble
because it is undertaking on a personal basis
to do what we alcoholics could never do.
It is too much an act of will and leaves too little room
for the idea that God will release us from the drink obsession
provided we follow the AA program.
c. 1967 AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 16
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Altered Attitudes.
Today's Meditation:
"In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." Confidence means to
have faith in something. We could not live without confidence in others.
When you have confidence in God's grace, you can face whatever comes. When
you have confidence in God's love, you can be serene and at peace. You can
rest in the faith that God will take care of you. Try to rest in God's
presence until His life-power flows through you. Be still and in that
stillness the still, small Voice will come. It speaks in quietness to the
human mind that is attuned to its influence.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I find strength today in quietness. I pray that I may be content
today that God will take care of me.
Today's Quotable:
1. Don't sweat the small stuff.
2. It's all small stuff.
Today's Tool:
"...infinite power and love." p 56 AA BB
As the story goes, the drunk, locked up in a hospital, asked who he was to say there was no God. Then he tumbled out of bed and became overwhelmed by the power of something greater than himself, he found himself in the presence of "infinite power and love."
I have written in my book, "what did i want when i was drinking? power and love. What does this book tell me i can have from God? Infinite power and love." Now, the power part... that gets sketchy if i let it... the kind of power I wanted when i was drinking is not the same kind i want today. That is all thanks to the steps and the people of AA. Yeah, that 3rd step, and then that 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th step sequence, where I attempted to align my will and life with Gods will and plan for my life... those worked as you all said they would (imagine that). Only then could I truly tap into Gods infinite power- the power to follow his will for me, the power to carry out his plan for me, and not my finite plan for myself.
The love part is doubtless, and without misinterpretation. I felt i lacked love, as i surely did in terms of friendship, true partnership with another human being, and love for myself. i didn't get the love that I WANTED (and felt the world owed me). when i was able to open up to Gods infinite love, however, i was able to get a glance at what true love what about. not that I'm able to carry that into my daily life as well as i would hope (especially not my married life, ahem), but the taste is there and so is God.
Tool for today:
Stand, for a moment at least, in the presence of true partnership and love, whatever your god looks like to you. If your not into the God thing, that's cool. call your sponsor, or someone else with whom you discuss this aspect of the program and discuss true love and the rightful use of your power. Shoot, you can even try this if you are into the God thing.
In any event, I hope you have a wonderful happy and sober Tuesday.
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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STEP FIVE: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
"There was always that mysterious barrier we could neither surmount nor understand. It was as if we were actors on a stage, suddenly realizing that we did not know a single line of our parts. That’s one reason we loved alcohol too well. It did let us act extemporaneously. But even Bacchus boomeranged on us; we were finally struck down and left in terrified loneliness."
© 1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed 2005;
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 57
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
Freedom
Freedom for me is both freedom from and freedom to.
The first freedom I enjoy is freedom from the slavery of alcohol.
What a relief!
The I begin to experience freedom from fear -- fear of people,
of economic insecurity, of commitment, of failure, of rejection.
Then I begin to enjoy freedom to --
freedom to choose sobriety for today, freedom to be myself,
freedom to express my opinion, to experience peace of mind,
to love and be loved, and freedom to grow spiritually. . .
What a joy to be free!
c. 1990 AAWS, Daily Reflections, p. 38
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Happiness and peace of mind are always here, open and free to anyone.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H J F = Happy, Joyous, Free.
Today's Meditation:
You should strive for a union between your purposes in life and the purposes of the Divine Principle directing the universe. There is no bond of union on earth to compare with the union between a human soul and God. Priceless beyond all earth's rewards is that union. In merging your heart and mind with the heart and mind of the Higher Power, a oneness of purpose results, which only those who experience it can even dimly realize. That oneness of purpose puts you in harmony with God and with others who are trying to do His will.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may become attuned to the will of God. I pray that I may be in harmony with the music of the spheres.
Today's Quotable:
When all else fails to bring you back to center, be of service to another…always good for interesting results.
Tool for the day: Expect good things (see reading below)
"Be expectant. Constantly expect better things. Believe that what God has in store for you is better than anything you had before. The way to grow old happily is to expect better things right up to the end of your life and even beyond that. A good life is a growing expanding life, with ever-widening horizons, an ever-greater circle of friends and acquaintances, and an ever-greater opportunity for usefulness.
"I pray that I may await with complete faith for the next good thing in store for me. I pray that I may always keep an expectant attitude toward life."
So when I first read this I felt like it contradicted the whole "high acceptance, low expectations" thing. But my experience has been that if I'm being expectant not of *specific* things that *I* think would be good, but just expectant that what's on its way is all good even if I can't see it at the time, then my perspective shifts and I'm better able to see the positive in whatever is going on.
Love,
Michele
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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Step Seven: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
"We saw we needn’t always be bludgeoned and beaten into humility. It could come quite as much from our voluntary reaching for it as it could from unremitting suffering. A great turning point in our lives came when we sought for humility as something we really wanted, rather than as something we must have."
© 1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed 2005;
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 75
AA Thought for the Day
March 18, 2010
Criticism
"Now and then all of us fall under heavy criticism.
When we are angered and hurt,
it's difficult not to retaliate in kind.
Yet we can restrain ourselves
and then probe ourselves,
asking whether our critics were really right.
If so, we can admit our defects to them.
This usually clears the air for mutual understanding. . .
Maybe a sense of humor can be our saving grace --
thus we can both forgive and forget."
Bill W., Letter, 1966
c. 1967AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 184
^*^*^*^*^
Thought to Ponder . . .
The best way to get even is to forget.
* * *
AA-related Acronym . . .
S O B E R = Son Of a Basket, Everything's Real.
Today's Meditation:
Try to see the life of the spirit as a calm place, shut away from the
turmoil of the world. Think of your spiritual home as a place full of
peace, serenity, and contentment. Go to this quiet meditative place for the
strength to carry you through today's duties and problems. Keep coming back
here for refreshment when you are weary of the hubbub of the outside world.
From this quietness and communion comes our strength.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may keep this resting place where I can commune with God. I
pray that I may find refreshment in meditation on the Eternal.
Today's Quotable:
I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or
misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances. Martha
Washington
Today's Tool:
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said "Kindness is contagious". This reminds me of one of the tools on the Penultimate( I think that's what they called it) tool List:
"My attitude is contagious, is it worth catching"......well that's a no brainer....If I am in a bad spot I certainly don't want it to rub off on people (or do I?). Some days it takes much more energy for me to become positive than it does to be negative. Really and truly it doesn't take much for me to be a Pain in the rear. So there are times in my sobriety where I have to work a little harder for my good feelings/Gratitude. It always pays off when I have the willingness to do something that makes me feel better. I don't always want to, or agree with the action but my experience is that I always feel better when taking a positive action and can get my ego out of the way.
Hope all of you have a great day!
Laure
Basics Group, Durham NC
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "Because I'm an Alcoholic:"
"For weeks I sat in the back of the rooms, silent when others shared their experience, strength, and hope. I listened to their stories and found so many areas where we overlapped -- not all of the deeds, but the feelings of remorse and hopelessness. I learned that alcoholism isn't a sin, it's a disease. That lifted the guilt I felt. I learned that I didn't have to stop drinking forever, but just not pick up that first drink one day, one hour at a time. I could manage that. There was laughter in those rooms and sometimes tears, but always love, and when I was able to let it in, that love helped me heal."
c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 344
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
March 19, 2010
Anonymity
I place myself where I want to be, and so I choose anonymity.
I want my God to use me, humbly, as one of His tools in this program.
Sacrifice is the art of giving of myself freely.
With sobriety, I suppress that urge to cry out to the world,
"I am a member of AA" and I experience inner joy and peace.
I let people see the changes in me
and hope they will ask what happened to me.
I place the principles of spirituality ahead of judging,
fault-finding, and criticism.
c. 1990 AAWS, Daily Reflections, p. 250
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Humility is not thinking less of yourself,
but thinking of yourself less.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A N O N Y M O U S =
Actions, Not Our Names Yield Maintenance Of Unity and Service.
Today's Meditation:
Divine control and unquestioning obedience to God are the only conditions necessary for a spiritual life. Divine control means absolute faith and trust in God, a belief that God is the Divine Principle in the universe and that He is the Intelligence and the Love that controls the universe. Unquestioning obedience to God means living each day the way you believe God wants you to live, constantly seeking the guidance of God in every situation and being willing to do the right thing at all times.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may always be under Divine Control and always practice unquestioning obedience to God. I pray that I may be always ready to serve him.
Today's Quotable:
The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.
Today's Tool:
For today my thoughts are on Keeping It Simple. I quote an Asheville AA member, "Don't let what AA gave you keep you from AA." My life has grown beyond my dreams and with those blessings come many responsibilities. Keep It Simple helps me to remember what I need to prioritize first in my life. Keep It Simple also helps me with the feelings of being overwhelmed, prideful and despairing. Try it or another tool today!
Peace & Sobriety,
Ginger
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "Gutter Bravado:"
"Today I'm much more comfortable with life, as Alcoholics Anonymous has promised, and I know they're right when they say it keeps getting better. My circumstances have steadily improved as my spiritual life grows and matures. Words cannot begin to describe the feelings in my heart as I sometimes ponder how much my life has changed, how far I've come, and how much there is yet to discover. And though I'm not sure where my journey will take me next, I know I'll owe it to the grace of God and to three words of the Twelve Steps: continue, improve, and practice."
c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 511
AA Thought for the Day
March 22, 2010
Escape Act
I was at a dead halt -- spiritually, mentally, and physically.
Depression smothered my muffled thinking even more. . .
Thank God I never gave up on meetings,
so my Higher Power finally got through to me.
I realized I'd been playing the great escape act all this time.
I know now I have a lot of work to do.
© 1998 The AA Grapevine, Inc., The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 3], p 320
Thought to Ponder . . .
Into action, out of self.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Attitude Adjustment.
Today's Meditation:
If you believe that God's grace has saved you, then you must believe that He is meaning to save you yet more and to keep you in the way that you should go. Even a human rescuer would not save you from drowning only to place you in other deep and dangerous waters. Rather, he would place you on dry land, there to restore you. God, who is your rescuer, would certainly do this and even more. God will complete the task He sets out to do. He will not throw you overboard, if you are depending on Him.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may trust God to keep me in the way. I pray that I may rely on Him not to let me go.
Today's Quotable:
"Without memory, there is no healing. Without forgiveness, there is no future." Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Today's Tool:
I know, I know. I remember the first time I heard someone say he/she
was a "grateful alcoholic." You're a what? I thought.
Some years later, I am one. Grateful I'm sober, grateful I've made
lists of character defects and managed to correct some of them,
grateful for the life tools I've been handed -- tools that work on
problems that have nothing to do with drinking, grateful I've learned
to start my day over when it's started poorly, grateful I've learned
to live and let live, grateful -- probably above all -- that -- having
made amends where I had done people wrong -- I can go anywhere in the
world, grateful that wherever I go in the world, there we are.
Have a sober day.
JO
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "Going to A.A. meetings:"
"We need to be as diligent in attending A.A. meetings as we were in drinking. What serious drinker ever let distance, or weather, or illness, or business, or guests, or being broke, or the hour, or anything else keep him or her from that really wanted drink? We cannot let anything keep us from A.A. meetings, either, if we really want to recover."
c. 1998, Living Sober, page 81
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
March 23, 2010
Sharing
Sharing problems at meetings
with other alcoholics to whom I relate,
or privately with my sponsor, can change aspects
of the positions in which I find myself.
Character defects are identified
and I begin to see how they work against me.
When I put my faith in the spiritual power of the program,
when I trust others to teach me what I need to do
to have a better life,
I find that I can trust myself to do what is necessary.
c. 1990 AAWS, Daily Reflections, p. 226
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
The ankle-biters of everyday struggles
will eat away at me unless I go to meetings and share.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H E A R T = Healing, Enjoying, And Recovering, Together.
Today's Meditation:
You cannot help others unless you understand the person you are trying to
help. To understand the problems and temptations of others, you must have
been through them yourself. You must do all you can to understand others.
You must study their backgrounds, their likes and dislikes, their reactions
and their prejudices. When you see their weaknesses, do not confront the
person with them. Share your own weaknesses, sins, and temptations and let
other people find their own convictions.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may serve as a channel for God’s power to come into the lives
of others. I pray that I may try to understand them.
Today's Quotable:
If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but
your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment
now. Marcus Aurelius
Today's Tool:
Here are some questions to ponder from The Traditions Checklist from the AA
Grapevine:
Tradition One: Our common welfare comes first; personal recovery depends
on AA unity.
1. Am I in my group a healing, mending, integrating person, or am I
divisive? What about gossip and taking other members' inventories?
2. Am I a peacemaker? Or do I, with pious preludes such as "just for the
sake or discussion," plunge into argument?
3. Am I gentle with those who rub me the wrong way, or am I abrasive?
4. Do I make competitive AA remarks, such as comparing one group with
another or contrasting AA in one place with AA in another?
5. Do I put down some AA activities as if I were superior for not
participating in this or that aspect of AA?
6. Am I informed about AA as a whole? Do I support, in every way I can, AA
as a whole, or just the parts I understand and approved of?
7. Am I as considerate of AA members as I want them to be of me?
8. Do I spout platitudes about love while indulging in secretly justifying
behavior that bristles with hostility?
9. Do I go to enough AA meetings or read enough AA literature to really
keep in touch?
10. Do I share with AA all of me, the bad and the good, accepting as well
as giving the help of fellowship?
Just things to think about to see if I am being a force for unity! Food for thought.....
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "The Man Who Mastered Fear:"
"Fear has never again ruled my life since that day...when I found that a
Power greater than myself could not only restore me to sanity but could keep me both sober and sane. Never in sixteen years have I dodged anything because I was afraid of it. I have faced life instead of running away from it."
c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 256
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
March 23, 2010
Isolation
Isolation sneaks up on us.
We can mask it with familiar props that are not in themselves bad.
We can isolate ourselves in an attempt
to clean up our apartments (and then not do the cleaning);
we can isolate ourselves in churches or in sleep;
we can use family, sweethearts, compulsive working,
television. The list is long.
The nicest way to end it is the way you and I do: together.
Reach out -- people can't read your mind.
Say ouch! Someone hears. Always.
c. 1985 The AA Grapevine, Inc., The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 1], pp. 84-5
Thought to Ponder . . .
I stood in the sunlight at last.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Y A N A = You Are Not Alone.
A MEMBER SHARES:
Hi everyone, I'm Sharon and I'm an alcoholic. When I was first coming around to meetings I'd always hear slogans like, "Your head is like an unsafe neighborhood; don't go there alone." I had a lot of trouble with Step Two in admitting I was insane in many ways. Now that I am eleven years sober, I see the difference between much-needed solitude and isolating. When I isolate, I stay away from meetings, don't use the phone to talk to my AA friends, stop reading literature, praying, etc. I cut myself off from what the Eleventh Step so beautifully calls "The Sunlight of the Spirit." And after a while, I start to feel really creepy and crazy. My low self-esteem returns, I think about self-destructive behavior, I get really cranky and irritable. Then I make myself go to a meeting and the relief is immediate and I kick myself for having stayed away. Alcoholism really is a disease of the mind, body and spirit. When I'm out of touch with the program, I'm out of my mind! Thanks for listening.
Today's Meditation:
"God will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able, but with the
temptation He will also find a way of escape, that you may be able to bear
it." If you have enough faith and trust in God, He will give you all the
strength you need to face every temptation and to overcome it. Nothing will
prove too hard for you to bear. You can face any situation. "Be of good
cheer, I have overcome the world." You can overcome any temptation with
God's help. So fear nothing.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may face every situation without fear. I pray that nothing
will prove too hard for me to bear.
Today's Quotable:
If you learn from your suffering, and really come to understand the lesson
you were taught, you might be able to help someone else who's now in the
phase you may have just completed. Maybe that's what it's all about after
all...
Today's Tool:
We reviewed our fears thoroughly. We put them on paper, even though we
had no resentment in connection with them. We asked ourselves why we
had them. Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us? Self-reliance was
good as far as it went, but it didn't go far enough. Some of us once
had great self-confidence, but it didn't fully solve the fear problem,
or any other. When it made us cocky, it was worse.
Perhaps there is a better way, we think so. For we are now on a
different basis of trusting and relying upon God. We trust infinite God
rather than our finite selves. We are in the world to play the role He
assigns. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us,
and humbly rely on Him, does He enable us to match calamity with
serenity.
this is one of those concepts that we are all incredibly familiar
with but i so often forget - or don't quite believe. my disposition is
often: ok god you have done everything for me so far, but this time i
am sure to be dumped on my butt if i don't take over and do it right.
then of course i get tired and realize that things work much better
(and infinitely easier) when i relax the reins a bit and leave room for
the spirit to guide. it's amazing how many times i go through this
cycle. so the tool for today is:
remember who is in charge
kevin
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "ME An Alcoholic":
“'There's nothing I can do,' he said, 'and nothing medicine can do. However, I've heard of an organization called Alcoholics Anonymous that has had some success with people like you. They make no guarantees and are not always successful. But if you want to, you're free to try them. It might work.'
"Many times in the intervening years I have thanked God for that man, a man who had the courage to admit failure, a man who had the humility to confess that all the hard-won learning of his profession could not turn up the answer. I looked up an A.A. meeting and went there--alone."
© 2001 AAWS, Inc.;
Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 386
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
March 25, 2010
A New Life
Wouldn't it be more intelligent to seek out and tap a strength
greater than our own than to persist in our futile solo efforts,
after they had time and again proved ineffectual?
We still don't think it is very smart to keep trying to see in the dark
if you can simply switch on a lamp and use its light.
We didn't get sober entirely on our own. . .
And the full enjoyment of living sober isn't a one-person job, either.
When we could look, even temporarily,
at just a few new ideas different from our old ones,
we had already begun to make a sturdy start toward a happy, healthier new life.
It happened to thousands and thousands of us
who deeply believed it never could.
c. 1998 AAWS, Living Sober, p. 73
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
New ideals and new attitudes bring a new life.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Attitude Adjustment.
Today's Meditation:
In God's strength you conquer life. Your conquering power is the grace of
God. There can be no complete failure with God. Do you want to make the
best of life? Then live as near as possible to God, the Master and Giver of
all life. Your reward for depending on God's strength will be sure.
Sometimes the reward will be renewed power to face life, sometimes wrong
thinking overcome, sometimes people brought to a new way of living.
Whatever success comes will not be all your own doing, but largely the
working out of the grace of God.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may try to rely more fully on the grace of God. I pray that I
may live a victorious life.
Today's Quotable:
We don't see things are they are, we see them as we are. Anais Nin
Today's Tool:
I was on a weekend getaway with another aa member a few months ago and we both brought some aa literature with us. I like to get books with the intention of reading them and somehow never get around to it. This time I picked up the book Emotional Sobriety - The Next Frontier published by the Grapevine and began reading. I came across the following written in 1956 - (page 10):
"Honesty - I heard an aa friend say at a meeting that he had heard a dictionary definition of honesty given by a rural postman at a country meeting in the middle-west. This old boy was sick of hearing this sensible word kicked around so he had gone to the County Court House and looked it up in ' that big old dictionary in there.' It was good enough for him, it's good in any man's life. ' Honesty - is the absence of the intent to deceive.' Only what does ' intent' mean?"
I used to think I was relatively honest until I read that.....
Tool for the day: use the dictionary.
Have a good Thursday and thanks for letting me share this week,
Ginger M.
Concord, NC
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous:"
"I [Bill W.] was in this anything-but-spiritual mood on the night [in December 1938] when the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous were written. I was sore and tired clear through. I lay in bed at 182 Clinton Street with pencil in hand and with a tablet of scratch paper on my knee. I could not get my mind on the job, much less put my heart in it. But here was one of those things that had to be done....
"Finally I started to write. I set out to draft more than six steps [used by Oxford Groups]; how many more I did not know. I relaxed and asked for guidance. With a speed that was astonishing, considering my jangling emotions, I completed the first draft. It took perhaps half an hour. The words kept right on coming. When I reached a stopping point, I numbered the new steps. They added up to twelve."
c. 1957, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pages 160-161
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
March 26, 2010
The Gift
By accepting this sobriety gratefully, as a gift, and using it willingly,
I have become aware of other gifts available to me as a human being.
To get the benefits, I need only to ask and then use.
This is the crux of the program and the crux of living:
acceptance and action.
The gift of understanding has allowed the simple messages
from my parents, my teachers, and my church
to take on new meaning and soundness.
With the gift of serenity,
I am ready to accept what God permits to happen to me;
with the gift of courage, to take action to change the things I can
for the good of myself and others. . .
I have come to believe that the gift of sobriety
is what gives value and dignity to my life.
c. 1973 AAWS, Came To Believe . . ., p. 4
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Sobriety is a gift, the price of which is eternal vigilance.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
G I F T S = Getting It From The Steps.
Today's Meditation:
It is in the union of a soul with God that strength, new life, and spiritual
power come. Bread sustains the body but we cannot live by bread alone. To
try to do the will of God is the meat and support of true living. We feed on
that spiritual food. Soul starvation comes from failing to do so. The world
talks about bodies that are undernourished. What of souls that are
undernourished? Strength and peace come from partaking of spiritual food.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may not try to live by bread alone. I pray that my spirit may
live by trying to do the will of God, as I understand it.
Today's Quotable:
Pray daily. God is easier to talk to than most people.
Today's Tool:
This is my favorite tool: Keep my expectations low and my acceptance high.
I wrote a tool last night and this was it. As I read over it, it sounded so
----well, I didn't like it----so I deleted and went to bed.
Why this program still surprises me after years I don't know but: at 3 AM I
bolted awake as one of my Shelties started barfing in my bed. (I
know--totally gross but he likes to sleep up against my side) So I was changing sheets,
taking care of her, and cussing./....not necessarily in that order.
This morning I am dragging and guess what......my tool for the day is: Keep
my expectations low and my acceptance high. I will only do the
necessary.....no ruffles and flourishes. (I do animate chores before inanimate......and
today only the really important animate will be done)
Your tool is the same: Keep your expectations low and your acceptance high.
Take care
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "Daily Resolutions:"
"Expressions commonly heard in A.A. are 'If you don't take that first drink, you can't get drunk' and 'One drink is too many, but twenty are not enough.'
"Doctors who are experts on alcoholism tell us that there is a sound medical foundation for avoiding the first drink. It is the first drink which triggers, immediately or some time later, the compulsion to drink more and more until we are in drinking trouble again."
c. 1990, Daily Reflections, page 374
c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 415
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
March 29, 2010
Anger
If we were to live, we had to be free of anger.
The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us.
They may be the dubious luxury of normal men,
but for alcoholics these things are poison.
c. 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 66
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
F E A R = Forgetting Everything's All Right.
A MEMBER SHARES:
Hi, my name is Joni and I'm an alcoholic. When I fell into an AA room, I was filled with rage and anger ... the only two emotions I could identify at that point. I was so full of fear and self-pity that I could not see out of it. Slowly, I worked with a sponsor and added the Steps and a Higher Power into my life. It took me a lot longer than 53 days for sure. I was unique. I was different. You didn't understand me. You had nothing like my life to deal with. If you had my life you would drink too.
Slowly I was able to receive the messages you all gave me. Look at me, not them. Use the Steps to look at myself, remember that I was never alone, and use the Fellowship to learn not to whine, not to dump my stuff. Just stop, listen, and learn. When I was told at one and a half years sober that I would never work again and most likely not walk for too much longer, I went into a rage. I was so filled with fear. I had to learn a new way. I had to learn what all of you knew ... that I was Forgetting Everything was All Right. I was OK.
I needed medical and legal advice from the pros, not the rooms, and I needed the support and the tools you had to help me find the courage to follow through. After two bouts with cancer and several other things, I know today that nothing is too much for my Fellowship, my Higher Power, and me to handle. I have not had to resort to a drink because I was taught to get out of my own way. Go help someone else. Listen to others ... they have worse problems than you have. Be careful that self doesn't kill you. And most of all shut up and get into action. Just do it. It has been working so well that today I have the best life of anyone I know. Life can be good ... not perfect, just plain good, full of joy and love and laughter. I love AA and I love being involved right smack in the middle the safest place in the world.
Today's Meditation:
Try saying, "God bless her (or him)" of anyone who is in disharmony with you. Also say it of those who are in trouble through their own fault. Say it, willing that showers of blessings may fall upon them. Let God do the blessing. Leave to God the necessary correcting or disciplining. You should only desire blessing for them. Leave God's work to God. Occupy yourself with the task that He gives you to do. God's blessing will also break down all your own difficulties and build up all your services.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may use God's goodness so that it will be a blessing to others. I pray that I may accept God's blessing so that I will have harmony, beauty, joy, and happiness.
Today's Quotable:
Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. Chuang-tzu (B.C. 350)
Today's Tool:
Make a gratitude list.
This tool ALWAYS works for me (not that I don't grumble sometimes at the thought of it). No matter what is going on, it always helps to focus on the amazing gifts I've received since I got sober. A network of people in my life, many of whom I consider friends, who I respect and gain so much from knowing, the availability of many meetings where I can go if I need a jolt of sanity, a sponsor who I feel genuinely connected to who knows EVERYTHING and loves me anyway, a job that is a good fit for me, a husband I love deeply who feels like a true partner, a beautiful healthy little girl who melts my heart every day -- the list goes on and on. And most important is the opportunity to live on a daily basis without feeling the compulsion to take a drink and sabotage everything. Right now I'm feeling very grateful to all of you for helping me to do that this week.
Have a great week,
Michele
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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Step Ten: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. "Although all inventories are alike in principle, the time factor does distinguish one from another. There's the spot-check inventory, taken at any time of the day, whenever we find ourselves getting tangled up. There's the one we take at day's end, when we review the happenings of the hours just past. Here we cast up a balance sheet, crediting ourselves with things well done, and chalking up debits where due. Then there are those occasions when alone, or in the company of our sponsor or spiritual adviser, we make a careful review of our progress since the last time." © 1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed 2005; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 89
AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AAOnline.net) March 30, 2010 Aspects I finally began to separate the religious aspects of my life from AA's spiritual program. Now the big difference to me is that religion is the ritual, and we all differ there, and spirituality is the way we feel about what we do. It's about my personal contact with my personal Higher Power, as I understand Him. c. 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 406 With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Thought to Ponder . . . True religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess. AA-related 'Alconym' . . . K I S S = Keeping It Simple, Spiritually.
Today's Meditation: It is not so much you, as the grace of God that is in you, that helps those around you. If you would help even those you dislike, you have to see that there is nothing in you to block the way, to keep God's grace from using you. Your own pride and selfishness are the greatest blocks. Keep those out of the way and God's grace will flow through you into the lives of others. Then all who come in contact with you can be helped in some way. Keep the channel open, free from those things that make your life futile and ineffective. Today's Prayer: I pray that all who come in contact with me will feel better for it. I pray that I may be careful not to harbor those things in my heart that put people off. Today's Quotable: There but for the grace of God go I.
Today's Tool: “We reviewed our fears thoroughly. We put them on paper, even though we had no resentment in connection with them. We asked ourselves why we had them. Wasn’t it because self-reliance failed us? Self-reliance was good as far as it went, but it didn’t go far enough….. “Perhaps there is a better way—we think so. For we are now on a different basis; the basis of trusting and relying upon God. We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the world to play the role He assigns. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does he enable us to match calamity with serenity. “…We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him demonstrate, through us, what He can do. We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be…” -Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 68 When I am full of fear, if I can remember this passage (or one of you A&As remind me), the above passage can bring me a lot of comfort. Jotting down my list of fears like it talks about and realizing I have those fears because I think everything is all up to me reminds me that I actually DO have a Higher Power in my life. This HP not only solved my drink problem but has also helped me through many other trials and tribulations. And whatever I have going on right now is no exception. Saying this little prayer—asking God to remove my fear and direction my attention to what He would have me be—is a goody. In fact, I had sort of forgotten to do that today until I just typed it! Good thing I have the Tools this week. So the tool  for today are packed into that passage from page 68. Use them or pass them on. Happy Tuesday. Ariana
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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" My Chance to Live:"
"No one who drank as I did wakes up on the edge of the abyss one morning and says: Things look pretty scary; I think I'd better stop drinking before I fall in. I was convinced I could go as far as I wanted, and then climb back out when it wasn't fun anymore. What happened was, I found myself at the bottom of the canyon thinking I'd never see the sun again. A.A. didn't pull me out of that hole. It did give me the tools to construct a ladder, with Twelve Steps."
c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 316
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
March 31, 2010
Isolation
Isolation is bad for new people, old people, and in-between people
if they are alcoholic people.
Isolation sneaks up on us. We can mask it with familiar props
that are not in themselves bad.
We can isolate ourselves in an attempt to clean up our apartments
(and then not do the cleaning);
we can isolate ourselves in churches or in sleep;
we can use family, sweethearts, compulsive working, television.
The list is long.
The nicest way to end it is the way you and I do: together.
Reach out -- people can't read your mind.
Say ouch! Someone hears. Always.
c. 1985 The AA Grapevine, Inc., The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 1], pp. 84-5
Thought to Ponder . . .
An alcoholic is someone who wants to be held while isolating.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H A L T = Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.
Today's Meditation:
God can work through you better when you are not hurrying. Go very slowly, very quietly, from one duty to the next, taking time to rest and pray between. Do not be too busy. Take everything in order. Venture often into the rest of God and you will find peace. All work that results from resting with God is good work. Claim the power to work miracles in things through the Higher Power. Know that you can do good things through God who rest you and gives you strength. Partake regularly of rest and prayer.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may not be in too much of a hurry. I pray that I may take time out often to rest with God.
Today's Quotable:
He did each single thing as if he did nothing else. Charles Dickens
Today's Tool:
Tool for the day: Cultivate an attitude of gratitude
The longer I stay continuously sober in A.A., and the
more I work the 12 steps of A.A., and the more I talk on a daily basis with
my A.A. sponsor, the more I realize how important gratitude is to my
sobriety. More A.A. work equals gratitude, more A.A. work equals spiritual
growth, and more A.A. work equals being happy, joyous, and free.
John B.
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "New Life in Lurigancho:"
"Every meeting, every encounter with another member of Alcoholics Anonymous offers that blessed opportunity to be with someone who understands. And my presence announces that I want to live, rather than die from drinking...Because someone understands, I do not have to die. Because someone will listen, I can live."
c. 2000, AA Around the World: Adventures
in Recovery, page 44
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 1, 2010
Faith
We had seen spiritual release,
but liked to tell ourselves it wasn't true.
Actually we were fooling ourselves,
for deep down in every man, woman, and child,
is the fundamental idea of God.
It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp,
by worship of other things,
but in some form or other it is there.
For faith in a Power greater than ourselves,
and miraculous demonstrations of that power
in human lives,
are facts as old as man himself.
c. 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 55
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
^*^*^*^*^
Thought to Ponder . . .
Faith dares the soul to go beyond what the eyes can see.
* * *
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
F A I T H = Facing An Inner Truth Heals.
Today's Meditation:
I can depend on God to supply me with all the power I need to face any
situation, provided that I will sincerely believe in that power and honestly
ask for it, at the same time making all my life conform to what I believe
God wants me to be. I can come to God as a business manager would come to
the owner of the business, knowing that to lay the matter before Him means
immediate cooperation, providing the matter has merit.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may believe that God is ready and willing to supply me with
all that I need. I pray that I may ask only for faith and strength to meet
any situation.
Today's Quotable:
The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he
would never be found out. T.B. Macaulay
Today's Tool:
Today, I was thinking about freedom. What came to my mind was the freedom that comes to me when I am able to "live and let live". When I am able to accept people, places, and things (including myself), as they are I have a true peace of mind. So I guess today I will ask my higher power to help me to live and let live.
Happy Resurrection Sunday
Mary
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "Destinations":
"That first step is very important, whether it is the first step of a beloved child learning to walk —or the First Step, taken by a man on his way to a new life. Looking into my little ones’ faces, I can see the same qualities that we need for the Twelve Steps of A.A.: daring, to stake everything on the attempt; a sense of direction, to be followed with no swerving, no detour; decision, to move forward without hesitation or reservation; determination, to make it all the way. Destination: a full life, a free life, a serene life. – Albany, Australia"
© 1973 AAWS, Inc.;
Came to Believe, 30th printing 2004, pg. 93
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 2, 2010
Sunlight
When the thought was expressed
that there might be a God personal to me,
I didn't like the idea.
So my friend Ebby made what then seemed a novel suggestion.
He said, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?"
That statement hit me hard.
It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow
I had lived and shivered many years.
I stood in the sunlight at last.
c. 1967 AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 313
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
No God, no peace -- know God, know peace.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
G O D = Good Orderly Direction.
Today's Meditation:
Cling to the belief that all things are possible with God. If this belief is truly accepted, it is the ladder upon which a human soul can climb from the lowest pit of despair to the sublime heights of peace of mind. It is possible for God to change your way of living. When you see the change in another person through the grace of God, you cannot doubt that all things are possible in the lives of people through the strength that comes from faith in Him who rules us all.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may live expectantly. I pray that I may believe deeply that all things are possible with God.
Today's Quotable:
One is taught by experience to put a premium on those few people who can appreciate you for what you are. Gail Godwin
Today's Tool:
When I took the 3rd step for the first time, my sponsor gave me a key blank with the word "willingness" etched into it. "This is the Key of Willingness," he said. We had just read the 3rd step out of the 12x12 and said, together, the 3rd step prayer in the Big Book. "When you wake up in the morning take this key and put it in your pocket and go about your day," he said, "And at any point where you want to take your own will back, take the key out of your pocket and leave it on the table. Then go do whatever it is you think you need to do. When you become willing again go pick up your key, put it in your pocket and start your day over."
"...it will always respond the moment we pick up the key of willingness" 12x12 pg 35.
So I did that, and I have passed that on to each of my sponsees that I have worked the 3rd step with. I don't carry a physical key any more, but I make that inward commitment, over and over and over again. I know it works even when I don't want to try it.
So today's tool:
Pick up the Key to Willingness and open the door leading to a pathway to a faith that works!
See you on the road to Happy Destiny!!
Love,
Katrina
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous":
"The Washingtonian Society, a movement among alcoholics which started in Baltimore a century ago [the 1850s], almost discovered the answer to alcoholism. At first the society was composed entirely of alcoholics trying to help one another. The early members foresaw that they should dedicate themselves to this one aim. In many respects the Washingtonians were akin to A.A. Their membership passed the five hundred thousand mark. Had they stuck to their one goal, they might have found the full answer. Instead, the Washingtonians permitted politicians and reformers, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic, to use the society for their own purposes. Abolition of slavery, for example, was a stormy political issue then. Soon Washingtonian speakers violently and publicly took sides on this question. Maybe the society could have survived the abolition controversy, but it did not have a chance from the moment it decided to reform all America's drinking habits. Some of the Washingtonians became temperance crusaders. Within a very few years they had completely lost their effectiveness in helping alcoholics, and the society collapsed."
© 2001 AAWS, Inc.;
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pgs. 124-25
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 5, 2010
Prudence
We are in a strange contrast to the world about us,
and we devoutly hope we shall stay that way.
In these perilous times this will be the collective prudence
that we shall constantly need.
It will guarantee our effectiveness, safety, and survival as nothing else can.
Our collective prudence respecting money, fame, and controversy
-- derived of course from our Twelve Traditions --
has continued to make AA new hosts of friends,
and, just as importantly, no enemies.
- Bill W., November 1959
c. 1988 The AA Grapevine, Inc., The Language of the Heart, p. 345
Thought to Ponder . . .
Prudence is rational concern without worry.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Always Aware.
Today's Meditation:
God is the great interpreter of one human personality to another. Even personalities who are the nearest together have much in their natures that remains a sealed book to each other. And only as God enters and controls their lives are the mysteries of each revealed to the other. Each personality is so different. God alone understands perfectly the language of each and can interpret between the two. Here we find the miracles of change and the true interpretation of life.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may be in the right relationship to God. I pray God will interpret to me the personalities of other people, so that I can understand them and help them.
Today's Quotable:
I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess. Martin Luther
Today's Tool:
I've been reading "Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers: A biography, with recollections of early A.A. in the Midwest."
At one point, early on, someone says, "All you need for a meeting is a coffee pot and a resentment."
Fortunately, all we do need is another alcoholic. Some of the best meetings I've ever had have been on a long drive, or over coffee, or on the phone, or standing around the parking lot after a meeting.
Talk to another alcoholic.
Have a sober day.
JO
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 1,382 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "Minorities within A.A. gain acceptance:"
"Early A.A. members were predominantly white, middle-class, and male.
"The requirements might be summed up by saying you had to believe before you began. The fact that some members saw it the other way around -- as indicated in the later A.A. saying 'I came; I came to; I came to believe -- was at the heart of the conflict between the A.A.'s and the Oxford Groupers. It then continued in A.A. between the rule-makers and the rule-breakers."
c. 1980, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, page 239
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 6, 2010
Escape
Men and women who use alcohol as an escape
are not the only ones who are afraid of life,
hostile to the world, fleeing from it into loneliness.
Millions who are not alcoholics are living today in illusory worlds,
nurturing the basic anxieties and insecurities of human existence
rather than face themselves with courage and humility.
To these people, AA can offer as a cure no magic potion,
no chemical formula, no powerful drug.
But it can demonstrate to them how to use the tools of humility,
honesty, devotion, and love,
which indeed are the heart of the Twelve Steps of our recovery.
c.1985 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. 279
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light;
take off all your envy, jealousy,
un-forgiveness, selfishness, and fear.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Adventurers Anonymous.
Today's Meditation:
Give something to those who are having trouble, to those whose thoughts are
confused, something of your sympathy, your prayers, your time, your love,
your thought, your self. Then give of your own confidence, as you have had
it given to you by the grace of God. Give of yourself and of your loving
sympathy. Give your best to those who need it and will accept it. Give
according to need, never according to deserts. Remember that the giving of
advice can never take the place of giving of your self.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that as I have received, so may I give. I pray that I may have the
right answer to those who are confused.
Today's Quotable:
Pray daily, God is easier to talk to than most people.
Today's Tool:
"When many hundreds of people are able to say that the consciousness if
the Presence of God is today the most important fact of their lives, they
present a powerful reason why one should have faith." Alcoholics
Anonymous pg.51
My sponsor keeps my recovery real simple with the following 3 little
rules:
If it ain't yours, don't take it, if it ain't the truth, don't say it
and if it ain't right, don't do it! Wow, what an order! On a good day,
when I do this, it sure makes a difference. Hope this might help someone
today.
Joy
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From ABSI,pg .171 Dividends & Mysteries
The A.A. preoccupation with sobriety is sometimes misunderstood.
To some, this single virtue appears to be the sole dividend of
our Fellowship. We are thought to be dried-up drunks who
otherwise have changed little, or not at all, for the better. Such
a surmise widely misses the truth. We know that permanent
sobriety can be attained only by a most revolutionary change in
the life & outlook of the individual - by a spiritual awakening that
can banish the desire to drink.
You are asking yourself, as all of us must: "Who am I?" . . . "Where
am I?" . . . "Whence do I go?" The process of enlightenment is usually
slow. But, in the end, our seeking always brings a finding. These
great mysteries are, after all, enshrined in complete simplicity. The
willingness to grow is the essence of all spiritual development.
Letters
1. 1966
2. 1955
© 1967 by A.A. World Services, Inc.
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