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Rank: Advanced Member  Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 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: 2,854 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: 2,854 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: 2,854 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: 2,854 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: 2,854 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: 2,854 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: 2,854 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: 2,854 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
« »
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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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "A Vision for You:"
"In addition to these casual get-togethers [beginning in 1935], it became customary to set apart one night a week for a meeting to be attended by anyone or everyone interested in a spiritual way of life. Aside from fellowship and sociability, the prime object was to provide a time and place where new people might bring their problems."
c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, pages 159-160
AA Thought for the Day
April 7, 2010
Self-absorption
We can get so stridently concerned about me-me-me
that we lose touch with virtually everyone else.
It's not easy to put up with someone who acts that way, except a sick infant.
So when we get into the poor-me bog, we try to hide it, particularly from ourselves.
But that's no way to get out of it.
Instead, we need to pull out of our self-absorption, stand back,
and take a good, honest look at ourselves.
Once we recognize self-pity for what it is,
we can do something about it other than drink.
© 1998 AAWS, Living Sober, p.57
With permission, Alcoholics World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Into action, out of self.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Altered Attitudes.
Today's Meditation:
I must live in the world and yet live apart with God. I can go forth from
my secret times of communion with God to the work of the world. To get the
spiritual strength I need, my inner life must be lived apart from the world.
I must wear the world as a loose garment. Nothing in the world should
seriously upset me, as long as my inner life is lived with God. All
successful living arises from this inner life.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may live my inner life with God. I pray that nothing shall
invade or destroy that secret place of peace.
Today's Quotable:
I realized that if what we call human nature can be changed, then absolutely
anything is possible. From that moment my life changed. Shirley MacLaine
Today's Tool:
Happy Wednesday,
Tool: We might next ask ourselves what we mean when we say that we have "harmed" other people. What kinds of "harm" do people do one another, anyway? To define the word "harm" in a practical way, we might call it the result of instincts in collision, which cause physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual damage to people. If our tempers are consistently bad, we arouse anger in others. If we lie or cheat, we deprive others not only of their worldly goods but of their emotional security and peace of mind. 12X12 P. 80
How many times have I thought I did no "harm" and really deprive someone of their emotional security and peace of mind. I would have to say many, many times without even thinking about it. Man! I'm glad this program is about change. Help me to be willing to see the truth.
Thank God for AA
Leslie
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "A Glacier Melts":
"I had thought I was happy in that first eighteen months of sobriety, but now everything began to look brighter; people seemed nicer; and I had moments of tremendous insight. It was as if words and sentences I had heard all my life had a deeper meaning and were reaching my feelings, rather than my intellect. It was as if my head and my heart finally had gotten glued together. I no longer seemed like two people in one, engaging in a tug of war. I experienced within this six-week period a feeling of being totally forgiven, and never since have I felt the guilt that I had throughout my life prior to that time. More than once, I had as sense of Presence which I can describe only as being marvelously warm, uplifting, and comfortable."
© 1973 AAWS, Inc., printed 2004;
Came to Believe, pg. 58
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 8, 2010
Keys of the Kingdom
There is no more aloneness, with that awful ache,
so deep in the heart of every alcoholic, that nothing, before,
could ever reach it.
The ache is gone and never need return again.
Now there is a sense of belonging, of being wanted and needed and loved.
In return for a bottle and a hangover,
we have been given the Keys of the Kingdom.
c. 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 276
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
I'm not alone anymore.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
Y A N A = You Are Not Alone.
Today's Meditation:
Constant effort is necessary if I am to grow spiritually and develop my
spiritual life. I must keep the spiritual rules persistently,
perseveringly, lovingly, patiently, and hopefully. By keeping them, every
mountain of difficulty shall be laid low, the rough places of poverty of
spirit shall be made smooth, and all who know me shall know that God is the
director of all my ways. To get close to the spirit of God is to find life and
healing and strength.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that God's spirit may be everything to my soul. I pray that God's
spirit may grow within me.
Today's Quotable:
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. Voltaire
Today's Tool:
Love and Service
Somewhere in the Big Book it says AA can be summed up in those two words. With love and service I can meet the world with a much better attitude than when I was drinking. These two words can help me whether I am in an AA meeting, talking to a drunk, interacting with folks at work, or just out in the community amongst my fellow humans.
For me the service part is pretty clear and concrete. I have been thinking about the love part more lately. That can mean treating others in a loving/kind manner. It can also mean (and this is the part I have been challenging myself to remember) that folks are generally good and they are not thinking or wanting the worst for me. I don't know why I have such self-centered paranoia. But I DO know that maintaining an attitude of love (and service) helps. One of my spiritual advisers said that she tries to think of her fellow humans as her cousins (that helps if you LIKE your cousins, which I do). I like that; it reminds me that we are all in this together.
Tool: See where you can apply love and service today.
Happy Thursday.
Ariana
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 Location: Caldwell Tex
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Step Nine: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
"First we will wish to be reasonably certain that we are on the A.A. beam. Then we are ready to go to these people, to tell them what A.A. is, and what we are trying to do. Against this background we can freely admit the damage we have done and make our apologies. We can pay, or promise to pay, whatever obligations, financial or otherwise, we owe. The generous response of most people to such quiet sincerity will often astonish us. Even our severest and most justified critics will frequently meet us more than halfway on the first trial."
© 1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed 2005;
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 84
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 9, 2010
Drastic Revisions
We find that our old attitudes toward our instincts
need to undergo drastic revisions.
Our desires for emotional security and wealth,
for personal prestige and power, for romance,
and for family satisfactions -- all these have to be tempered and redirected.
We have learned that the satisfaction of instincts
cannot be the sole end and aim of out lives.
If we place instincts first, we have got the cart before the horse;
we shall be pulled backward into disillusionment.
c. 1953 AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 114
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
If I don't change, my sobriety date will.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Attitude Adjustment.
Today's Meditation:
"If I have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal."
Charity means to care enough about other people to really want to do
something for them. A smile, a word of encouragement, a word of love, goes
winged on its way, simple though it may seem, while the mighty words of an
orator fall on deaf ears. Use up the odd moments of your day in trying to do
some little thing to cheer up another person. Boredom comes from thinking
too much about yourself.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that my day may be brightened by some little act of charity. I pray
that I may try today to overcome the self-centeredness that makes me bored.
Today's Quotable:
I was sitting, bored to tears, in a meeting and my sponsor turned to me and
asked what was wrong. I told him I was bored. He said he knew why. I
asked, "Why?" He said, "Cause you're boring!" He was right! Ken O'Brien
Today's Tool:
"Live life like a Calvary charge, not like a nudist crossing a barbed wire fence."
Hi Tool Buddies,
At one year and eight months of sobriety, self-confidence is kicking my butt. I did what I was supposed to when I got sober: just took a job, any job, just like I did the first time I got sober in 1993.
I can still remember DJ and Laura telling me this as I rode in the back seat of their car, and and them saying, "JUST GET A JOB."
I did, I thought it was beneath me, but that getting-sober job eventually lead directly to me working for the US Olympic Committee for 8 years, and traveling all over the world, including to the Olympic Games.
I drank that job away (didn't think I was an alcoholic). I've had a barely-make-ends meet job since I got sober again, and now it's time to look for a real job. I'm scared that I've blown my chance at ever having a cool career again, so I'm a little frozen in fear; I need some of that same chutzpa that I had when I was a naive 26-year old.
I'm applying for some dream jobs today, just like I did in 1996, when I applied blindly for my Olympics job and got it. This time it is for a job with Industrial Light and Magic, an entry level PA job.
Just letting go and leaving the outcome to God, but doing the footwork!!
It is okay to get sober and still have dreams. I don't have to live on a street corner and just help people get sober, and live in poverty forever. That was my only dream for my first year of sobriety.
Now I understand going for my dreams is part of being of service to others; it shows people what is possible with sobriety and hard work!
JUST FOR TODAY, GO BIG. LEAVE THE OUTCOME TO GOD.
xoxox,
KAKI
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "More About Alcoholism":
"Most of us have believed that if we remained sober for a long stretch, we could thereafter drink normally. But here is a man who at fifty-five years found he was just where he had left off at thirty. We have seen the truth demonstrated again and again: 'Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.'"
© 2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition;
Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 33
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 12, 2010
Warning Bells
We have learned now not to panic when the thought of a drink
comes into the mind. . .
But the thought of a drink is not necessarily the same thing
as the desire for one,
and neither need plunge us into gloom or fear.
Both can be viewed simply as warning bells to remind us
of the perils of alcoholism.
c. 1998 AAWS, Living Sober, pp. 43-44
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
WE admitted we were powerless over alcohol
-- that our lives had become unmanageable.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
W E = Walls Evaporate.
A MEMBER SHARES:
My name is Joanna, and I'm an alcoholic. The first word in Step One is "We." That one little word grabs my attention every time. I could never have made it here alone . God knows I tried to quit drinking enough times. I actually 'white-knuckled' it for three years, but of course, didn't make it. They were the loneliest three years of my life. I had no one to talk to. My husband continued drinking and would poke fun at me to our friends, making me feel even more like a defective human.
After the divorce, I was so alone, and decided it would be Ok to drink . after all, I'd proved I wasn't an alcoholic by not drinking through those years, hadn't I? Although I owned my own home, drove a nice car, kids in were college, and had a budding career in theatre, I still knew something was terribly wrong with me. There was an emptiness in my gut, and nothing could touch it. I joined a church ... even sang in the choir, hangovers and all, but again, nothing could touch the hole in my heart.
An Al-anon friend saw my pain and suggested AA. I went to my first meeting that night and was surrounded by the loving arms of the "WE" in that First Step. You hugged me, and told me to keep coming back. I knew then that I had finally found what I had sought for so long; here was peace, serenity, understanding, and unconditional love . and I found out I wasn't even defective, either! I learned I had a disease .. the only fatal, terminal, disease a person can have which can be kept in remission One Day At A Time by not picking up a drink. How simple is that? I haven't needed to take a drink since that December night in 1977... not that it doesn't cross my mind from time to time, but thinking about it isn't acting on it. I love this program, this Fellowship, and couldn't possibly live without all of you and my Higher Power. God bless us all! Thanks for letting me share.
Today's Meditation:
When trouble comes, do not say: "Why should this happen to me?" Leave
yourself out of the picture. Think of other people and their troubles and
you will forget about your own. Gradually get away from yourself and you
will know the consolation of unselfish service to others. After a while, it
will not matter so much what happens to you. It is not so important any
more, except as your experience can be used to help others who are in the
same kind of trouble.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may become more unselfish. I pray that I may not be thrown off
the track by letting the old selfishness creep back into my life.
Today's Quotable:
Never was I to pray for myself…. Big Book of AA
Today's Tool:
Something an old timer used to say back in Alexandria, VA where I got sober has always stuck with me. it's a great tool for heading resentment, frustration and anger off at the pass. It's a great tool and you really don't need to do much, just make the commitment and follow through.
LET OTHER PEOPLE BE WRONG
Seriously, start your day knowing that you are just going to let the first three people that say or do something wrong just get away with it. You aren't going to correct them, you aren't going to think about it in your head, you aren't going to try to fix it or talk to other people about who wrong it is. You are just going to let them be wrong.
I love this tool. i wish i could do it more often.
So that's it. just let three people be wrong this morning.
Thanks as always for letting me serve.
-James
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "Reason or Conscience":
"[When, in all humility, I try to pass our message on to other less fortunate alcoholics, I know that the plan of the Higher Power comes to us through the medium of people. To us alcoholics, this does not mean common or garden people, but special people, such as other alcoholics. And I am guided to include among the people from whom I might receive guidance, and to whom I must demonstrate the life of my conscience or Higher Power, those who married me, loved me, befriended me, and stuck by me, as others stuck by other alcoholics.
– Bulawayo, Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]"
© 1973 AAWS, Inc.;
Came to Believe, 30th printing 2004, pg. 82
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 9, 2007
Humility
Perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble.
It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore;
to wonder at nothing that is done to me,
to feel nothing done against me.
It is to be at rest when nobody praises me,
and when I am blamed or despised,
it is to have a blessed home in myself
where I can go in and shut the door
and kneel to my Father in secret and be at peace,
as in a deep sea of calmness,
when all around and about is seeming trouble.
- from a plaque on Dr. Bob's desk
c. 1980 AAWS, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, p. 222
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
I asked from the heart, and I received.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O W = Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness.
Today's Meditation:
I will take the most crowded day without fear. I believe that God is with
me and controlling all. I will let confidence be the motif running through
all the crowded day. I will not get worried, because I know that God is my
helper. Underneath are the everlasting arms. I will rest in them, even
though the day is full of things crowding in upon me.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may I may be calm and let nothing upset me. I pray that I may
not let material things control me and choke out spiritual things.
Today's Quotable:
Beware of allowing a tactless word, a rebuttal, and a rejection to
obliterate the whole sky. Confucius
Today's Tool:
At a meeting last night, many people shared about hardships -- medical, financial -- being experienced by them and their loved ones. It was a privilege to hear them and others talk about serenity, acceptance, responsibility, open-mindedness. My problems assumed their proper and insignificant proportion. Nobody offered gratuitous advice; nobody tried to fix things. People just listened and shared and identified. This doesn't happen in the world outside AA, at least not in my experience.
Go to a meeting. Talk to a recovering alcoholic.
Have a sober day.
JO
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "The Doctor's Opinion:"
"One feels that something more than human power is needed to produce the essential psychic change. Though the aggregate of recoveries resulting from psychiatric effort is considerable, we physicians must admit we have made little impression upon the problem as a whole. Many types do not respond to the ordinary psychological approach.
"I earnestly advise every alcoholic to read this book through, and though perhaps he came to scoff, he may remain to pray."
-- William D. Silkworth, M.D.
c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, pages xxix & xxxii
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 15, 2010
Easy Does It
Relax a little. Try for inner contentment.
No one individual can carry all the burdens of the world.
Everyone has problems. Getting drunk won't solve them. . .
Today is the day.
Doing our best, living each day to the fullest is the art of living.
Yesterday is gone, and we don't know whether we will be here tomorrow.
If we do a good job of living today, and if tomorrow comes for us,
then the chances are we will do a good job when it arrives
-- so why worry about it?
c. 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 357
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
I am grateful for this minute. My eternity may be in it.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
O D A A T = One Day At A Time.
Today's Meditation:
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen." Faith is not seeing, but believing. Down through the ages, there
have always been those who obeyed the heavenly vision, not seeing but
believing in God. And their faith was rewarded. So shall it be to you.
Good things will happen to you. You cannot see God, but you can see the
results of faith in human lives, changing them from defeat to victory.
God's grace is available to all who have faith, life can be victorious and
happy.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may have faith enough to believe without seeing. I pray that
I may be content with the results of my faith.
Today's Quotable:
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is
invisible to the eye. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Today's Tool:
Today's tool: Expect good things.
A friend shared this tool with me not so long ago (funny how they call these tools clichés but I still need to have them pointed out to me) and I'm amazed at how it can change my whole attitude and perspective when I use it. I tend to think it is crucial that I expect the worst so that I can be prepared when it happens -- experience has shown this to be a highly ineffective tool. When I expect good things, I recognize them when they happen (all around me, every day).
From BB p. 133: "We are sure God wants us to be happy, joyous and free. We cannot subscribe to the belief that this life is a vale of tears, though it once was just that for many of us." etc.
Hugs,
Michele
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 Location: Caldwell Tex
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Just For Today! -- Joy of Living
From "Accepting Success or Failure:"
"After I found A.A. and stopped drinking, it took a while before I understood why the First Step contained two parts: my powerlessness over alcohol, and my life's unmanageability. In the same way, I believed for a long time that, in order to be in tune with the Twelve Steps, it was enough for me 'to carry this message to alcoholics.'
That was rushing things. I was forgetting that there was a total of Twelve Steps and that the Twelfth Step also had more than one part. Eventually I learned that it was necessary for me to 'practice these principles' in all areas of my life. In working all the Steps thoroughly, I not only stay sober and help someone else to achieve sobriety, but also I transform my difficulty with living into a joy of living."
c. 1990, Daily Reflections, page 369
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 16, 2010
Happiness
So happiness to me is fulfillment,
the satisfaction gained from knowing that you did the best
your honestly evaluated limitations would permit
-- in all phases of living.
Happiness is gratitude for the miracle
which granted another go-around at a life once abandoned.
Happiness is growing up.
It is learning to recognize all the things you really have.
Happiness is for experiencing,
as well as remembering.
1973 AAWS, Came To Believe. . ., p. 112
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
Happiness is part of the journey,
not some distant destination.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H J F = Happy, Joyous, Free.
Today's Meditation:
We know God by spiritual vision. We feel that He is beside us. We feel His
presence. Contact with God is not made by the senses. Spirit-consciousness
replaces sight. Since we cannot see God, we have to perceive Him by
spiritual perception. God has to span the physical and the spiritual
vision. Many persons, though they cannot see God, have had a clear
spiritual consciousness of Him. We are inside a box of space and time, but
we know there must be something outside of that box, limitless space,
eternity of time, and God.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that I may have a consciousness of God's presence. I pray that God
will give me spiritual vision.
Today's Quotable:
Man can never be happy if he does not nourish his soul as he does his body.
The Rebbe
Today's Tool:
I have had a hard time getting up this morning and kept pushing the snooze button. I thought I had the day planned, took off from work because the boys have a teacher work day.
Have a meeting myself this morning and had arranged for my daughter to
watch the boys while I go to my appointment. But her boyfriend is
still in town this morning and now she does not want to keep the boys.
She has performed a short one-act play of persecution on her way out
the door this morning to take my youngest to day care and then slammed
the door. I got up to go after her (in all honesty in an effort to
get the last word) when the tool zinged across my forehead.
LET GO AND LET GOD.
She will not be able to hear me this am when I remind her that we had
already arranged our times for child care coverage. Her focus is on
the boyfriend and the fact that he is going back to school today. If I
get angry at her right now, it will not all be because of her but
because I would rather go back to bed than take another child to the
dentist.
Have a good day.
Barbara E.
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "It Might Have Been Worse":
"The explanation that alcoholism was a disease of a two-fold nature, an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind, cleared up a number of puzzling questions for me. The allergy we could do nothing about. Somehow our bodies had reached the point where we could no longer absorb alcohol in our systems. The why is not important; the fact is that one drink will set up a reaction in our system that requires more, that one drink is too much and a hundred drinks are not enough."
© 2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition;
Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 355
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 19, 2010
Pain
In every AA story, pain has been the price of admission into a new life.
But this admission price purchased more than we expected.
It led us to a measure of humility,
which we soon discovered to be a healer of pain.
We began to fear pain less, and desire humility more than ever.
c.1967 AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 291
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
O D A A T = One Day At A Time.
Today's Meditation:
I will be more afraid of spirit-unrest, of soul-disturbance, of any ruffling
of the mind, than of earthquake or fire. When I feel the calm of my spirit
has been broken by emotional upset, then I must steal away alone with God,
until my heart sings and all is strong and calm again. Un-calm times are the
only times when evil can find an entrance. I will beware of unguarded spots
of unrest. I will try to keep calm, no matter what turmoil surrounds me.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that no emotional upsets will hinder God's power in my life. I pray
that I may keep a calm spirit and a steady heart.
Today's Quotable:
Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go
hand in hand. Emily Kimbrough
Today's Tool:
I am going to have to hurry through this....I am running a little behind.
Here are some of my favorite tools. Maybe some of you will remember that when I came in we were given a tool list and told (not asked....it's changed a bit today) to pick a tool, write it down and put it in your/my pocket, and pull it out when you are having a hard time with something. It was helpful in getting me into action! Here are some of my favs:
Fake it till it feels right.
Worry gives a small thing a BIG shadow.
In order to keep it you have to give it away.
I am not different!
Courage is fear that's said it's prayers.
WE can do what I can't.
Have a quiet time in the morning and at night.
Call your sponsor.
Sanity is paying attention to what I am doing right now!
Don't drink and go to a meeting! My favorite one of all!
Peace Out!
Laure
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "More About Alcoholism":
"We do not like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic, but you can quickly diagnose yourself. Step over to the nearest barroom and try some controlled drinking. Try to drink and stop abruptly. Try it more than once. It will not take long for you to decide, if you are honest with yourself about it. It may be worth a bad case of jitters if you get a full knowledge of your condition."
© 2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition;
Alcoholics Anonymous, pgs. 31-32
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 20, 2010
Love
Love will teach us values in life.
It shows us that the things that count are never held in the hand
but always in the heart.
And people who are loving always live in the now.
They cannot afford to live in the past or project into tomorrow.
People who love laugh more
and believe that a day without laughter is a lost day.
Love is the cement for the unity we need in AA.
It joins the power of the mind and the heart for emotional growth.
It promotes lasting attachments, never divisive controversy.
c. 1998 The AA Grapevine, Inc., The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 3], p. 297
Thought to Ponder . . .
Love that is unseen is eternal.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H O P E = Heart Open; Please Enter.
Today's Meditation:
I will start a new life each day. I will put the old mistakes away and start
anew each day. God always offers me a fresh start. I will not be burdened or
anxious. If God's forgiveness were only for the righteous and those who had
not sinned, where would be its need? I believe that God forgives us all of
our sins; if we are honestly trying to live today the way He wants us to
live. God forgives us much and we should be very grateful.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that my life may not be spoiled by worry and fear and selfishness. I
pray that I may have a glad, thankful, and humble heart.
Today's Quotable:
A morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of
books. Walt Whitman
Today's Tool:
I have been a negative place lately. I went to a new meeting yesterday and
for the first time in a long time felt my thoughts and feelings move into
that more positive place that comes from being at a meeting. I've been
upset - yes, upset - about graduating from school in May. I have no idea
why. People ask me if I'm excited, and I'm not. I think lately everything
has felt like a trauma, whether it's a positive or negative event. But I got
perspective from that meeting yesterday.
So the tool today is to get to a meeting - and if you're stuck, try a new one.
- Julie
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "A Late Start:"
"Small miracles keep offering new opportunities just when I need change and growth. New friends have shown me hidden truths in those sayings that I once found so shallow. The lessons of tolerance and acceptance have taught me to look beyond exterior appearances to find the help and wisdom so often lurking beneath the surface. All my sobriety and growth, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, are dependent upon my willingness to listen, understand, and change."
c. 2001, Alcoholics Anonymous, page 542
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
April 21, 2010
Acceptance
And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.
When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person,
place, thing, or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me,
and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing,
or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.
Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God's world by mistake.
Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober;
unless I accept life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy.
I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world
as on what needs to be changed in me and my attitudes.
c. 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p.417
With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Thought to Ponder . . .
My serenity is directly proportional to my level of acceptance.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A B C = Acceptance, Belief, Change.
Today's Meditation:
I cannot ascertain the spiritual with my intellect. I can only do it by my own faith and spiritual faculties. I must think of God more with my heart than with my head. I can breathe in God's very spirit in the life around me. I can keep my eyes turned towards the good things in the world. I am shut up in a box of space and time, but I can open a window in that box by faith. I can empty my mind of all the limitations of material things. I can sense the Eternal.
Today's Prayer:
I pray that whatever is good I may have. I pray that I may leave to God the choice of what good will come to me.
Today's Quotable:
None of us is as smart as all of us.
Today's Tool:
“Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the Light, even though for the moment you do not see.” (As Bill Sees It, pg. 3)
Tool for the day: Perseverance
When I first got sober I was told there would be days that I just didn’t feel like doing “it”, (whatever “it” was). They called them “dog days”. My experience tells me that if I am willing to hold my face up to the Light, even though I cannot see, the Higher Power will do the rest.
Mary
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 10/7/2008 Posts: 2,854 Location: Caldwell Tex
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From "A Prayer for All Seasons:" "The power of [The Serenity Prayer] is overwhelming in that its simple beauty parallels the A.A. Fellowship. There are times when I get stuck while reciting it, but if I examine the section which is troubling me, I find the answer to my problem....By accepting life as it is, I gain serenity. By taking action, I gain courage and I thank God for the ability to distinguish between those situations I can work on, and those I must turn over. All that I have now is a gift from God: my life, my usefulness, my contentment, and this program. "Alcoholics Anonymous IS the easier, softer way." © 1990, Daily Reflections, page 221
AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AAOnline.net) April 23, 2010 Practice I don't think we can do anything very well in this world unless we practice it. And I don't believe we do AA too well unless we practice it. . . We should practice ... acquiring the spirit of service. We should attempt to acquire some faith, which isn't easily done, especially for the person who has been very materialistic, following the standards of society today. But I think faith can be acquired; it can be acquired slowly; it has to be cultivated. That was not easy for me, and I assume that it is difficult for everyone else. c. 1980 AAWS, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, pp. 307  With permission, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Thought to Ponder . . . Minds are like parachutes -- they won't work unless they're open. AA-related 'Alconym' . . . G R A C E = Gently Releasing All Conscious Expectations.
Today's Meditation: You should hold your life in trust for God. Think deeply on what that means. Is anything too much to expect from such a life? Do you begin to see how dedicated a life in trust for God can be? In such a life miracles can happen. If you are faithful, you can believe that God has many good things in store for you. God can be Lord of your life, controller of your days, of your present and your future. Try to act as God guides and leave all results to Him. Do not hold back, but go all out for God and the better life. Make good your trust. Today's Prayer: I pray that I may hold my life in trust for God. I pray that I may no longer consider my life as all my own. Today's Quotable: Appreciation is a wonderful thing; it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. Voltaire
Today's Tool: The tool for the day for me is: FIRST THINGS FIRST. I am having one of those days. I’m sure you guys are familiar with them, the ones that start off with the worldly clamors. When I feel that my life is taking me over and that I’m basically a failure in all areas then I know I’m not putting first things first. In the first years of sobriety my sponsor constantly reminded me that AA and a Higher Power came first in my life. She said that as long as those two things were the first two listed on my priority list then it didn’t matter what came next. When I wake up full of selfishness and self centeredness I need to remember that it is a miracle that I’m here sober twenty plus years! That I haven’t found it necessary to take a drink or kill myself for twenty years, that is no small thing. I know the Higher Power is on my side. Thanks for letting me write the tool today :> Mary F.
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