TODAY, IT'S MY CHOICE

. . . we invariably find that at some time in the past
we have made decisions based on self which later placed
us in a position to be hurt.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p.62

With the realization and acceptance that I had played a
part in the way my life had turned out came a dramatic
change in my outlook. It was at this point that the A.A.
program began to work for me. In the past I had always
blamed others, either God or other people, for my
circumstances. I never felt that I had a choice in
altering my life. My decisions had been based on fear,
pride, or ego. As a result, those decisions led me down
a path of self-destruction. Today I try to allow my God
to guide me on the road to sanity. I am responsible for
my action--or inaction--whatever the consequences
may be. ***********************************************************

As Bill Sees It

Giving Without Demand, p. 69

Watch any A.A. of six months working with a Twelfth Step prospect. If
the newcomer says, "To the devil with you," the twelfth-stepper only
smiles and finds another alcoholic to help. He doesn't feel frustrated or
rejected. If his next drunk responds, and in turn starts to give love and
attention to other sufferers, yet gives none back to him, the sponsor is
happy about it anyway. He still doesn't feel rejected; instead he
rejoices that his former prospect is sober and happy.

And he well knows that his own life has been made richer, as an extra
dividend of giving to another without any demand for a return.

Grapevine, January 1958

***********************************************************

Walk in Dry Places
 
Ousting the Green Demon___Victory over Jealousy.
We hear of successful people who drop their old friends after moving up the ladder.  Maybe, however, it wasn't their choice. Maybe they were driven to do so because their friend's jealousy made the friendship unworkable.  We have little trouble accepting a stranger's good fortune; it's a different feeling, however, when friends and co-workers move ahead of us.
If the green demon of jealousy strikes during the day, we can come to terms with it in several ways.  First, accept no guilt that it happens, because jealousy is part of the human condition. Next, depersonalize it by remembering that good fortune comes to all people in various ways. Then check your own gratitude level to make sure that it hasn't been sinking. This serves as a reminder that there's no shortage of the things that really make for happiness and personal well-being in life.
We can easily tell when we've been able to oust the green demon. We'll be able to be relaxed and gracious while extending congratulations for another person's good fortune. And months down the road, we'll be genuinely sympathetic…. Not vindictive… if the other person's luck turns sour.
While I don't expect to feel jealousy today, I accept the fact that it can happen. Should it appear, I'll work calmly to deal with it.

***********************************************************

Keep It Simple

Little things affect little minds.---Benjamin Disraeli
Before recovery, we liked things our way. We thought every new thing we tired should go right the first time. Little problems could really upset us. We let little things spoil our day. We let little things affect big things---our entire lives. And our bad moods affected people around us. Funny how we have fewer of those problems now. The program is teaching us to let go. What a relief when we know we don't have to control every little thing. How nice when things get done without our "expert advice"! We are starting to see what's really important, and what's not. One promise of the program is coming true: we know how to handle situations better.
Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, help me see what is really important for me today. Help me to stop worrying about what's not.
Action for the Day:  When I'm upset, I'll ask myself, Is this problem really so bad? If I can't change it. I'll let go.

***********************************************************

Each Day a New Beginning

It is healthier to see the good points of others than to analyze our own bad ones.  --Francoise Sagan
Looking for the good in others is good for one's soul. Self-respect, self-love grows each time we openly acknowledge another's admirable qualities. Comparisons we make of ourselves with others, focusing on how we fail to measure up (another woman is prettier, thinner, more intelligent, has a better sense of humor, attracts people, and on and on) is a common experience. And we come away from the comparison feeling generally inadequate and unloving toward the other woman.
It is a spiritual truth that our love for and praise of others will improve our own self-image. It will rub off on us, so-to-speak. An improved self-image diminishes whatever bad qualities one has imagined.
Praise softens. Criticism hardens. We can become all that we want to become. We can draw the love of others to us as we more willingly offer love and praise. We have an opportunity to help one another as we help ourselves grow in the self-love that is so necessary to the successful living of each day.
I will see the good points in others today. And I will give praise.

***********************************************************

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 7 - WORKING WITH OTHERS

When working with a man and his family, you should take care not to participate in their quarrels. You may spoil your chance of being helpful if you do. But urge upon a man’s family that he has been a very sick person and should be treated accordingly. You should warn against arousing resentment or jealousy. You should point out that his defects of character are not going to disappear over night. Show them that he has entered upon a period of growth. Ask them to remember, when they are impatient, the blessed fact of his sobriety.

p. 100

***********************************************************

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

Jim's Story

This physician, one of the earliest members of A.A.'s first black group, tells of how freedom came as he worked among his people.

A peculiar thing happened in 1940.  That year, on a Friday night, a man whom I had known for years come to my office.  My father had treated him many years prior to this.  This man's wife had been suffering for a couple of months, and when he came in he owed me a little bill.  I filled a prescription for him.  The following day, Saturday, he came back and said, "Jim, I owe you for the prescription last night.  I didn't pay you."  I thought, "I know you didn't pay me, because you didn't get a prescription. "  He said, "Yes.  You know the prescription that you gave me for my wife last night."  Fear gripped me then, because I could remember nothing about it.  It was the first blackout I had to recognize as a blackout.  The next morning I carried another prescription to this man's house and exchanged it for the bottle his wife had.  Then I said to my wife, "Something has to be done."  I took that bottle of medicine and gave it to a very good friend of mine who was a pharmacist and had it analyzed, and the bottle was perfectly all right.  But I knew at that point that I couldn't stop, and I knew that I was a danger to myself and to others.

pp. 237-238

***********************************************************

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Nine - "Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."

Many a razor-edged question can arise in other departments of life where this same principle is involved. Suppose, for instance, that we have drunk up a good chunk of our firm's money, whether by "borrowing" or on a heavily padded expense account. Suppose that this may continue to go undetected, if we say nothing. Do we instantly confess our irregularities to the firm, in the practical certainty that we will be fired and become unemployable? Are we going to be so rigidly righteous about making amends that we don't care what happens to the family and home? Or do we first consult those who are to be gravely affected? Do we lay the matter before our sponsor or spiritual adviser, earnestly asking God's help and guidance--meanwhile resolving to do the right thing when it becomes clear, cost what it may? Of course, there is no pat answer which can fit all such dilemmas. But all of them do require a complete willingness to make amends as fast and as far as may be possible in a given set of conditions.

pp. 86-87

***********************************************************

We are prisoners of our own resentments.
Forgiveness unlocks the door and sets us free.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.
--Will Rogers

H E A R T = Healing, Enjoying, And Recovering, Together.

"The time to relax is when you don't have time for it."
--Sydney J. Harris

"The time is always right to do what is right."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

A smile is your most magnetic and attractive characteristic.
Wear one today and see how many people it draws to you.

My doubts and fears, will drive me back into the wilderness.
I must trust God.

When God calls, God makes a way.
--Lynn Sloan Barnes

***********************************************************

Father Leo's Daily Meditation

SCIENCE

"We have to live today by what
truth we can get today and be
ready tomorrow to call it
falsehood."
-- William James

To change is to be imperfect and to be imperfect is to be wrong --- at
times! As an alcoholic I have a problem with ego; always wanting to
be right, hating to say, "I am sorry", not wishing to appear out of
control. In sobriety I must wrestle with my ego on a daily basis.

However, although I find it difficult to accept that I am imperfect, I
know that I am! I know that I need to make amends. I know that I
produce most of the pain in my life. Today's facts are stepping stones
to tomorrow's falsehoods --- and I grow with this knowledge.

Spirituality is growing in the knowledge that I do not have all the
answers.

Let me experience joy and growth in the dilemmas of life.

***********************************************************

"Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit
your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act."
Psalm 37:4-5

Accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.
Romans 15:7

For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
Proverbs 2 : 10

"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and
some pastors and teachers."
Ephesians 4:11

Commit your way to the Lord; trusting Him, and He will act.
Psalm 37:5

***********************************************************

Daily Inspiration

Home is a place where we can have a bit of heaven on earth. Lord, bless our home and help make it a place of love and kindness.

It is you, not where you are or what you have, that makes the difference. Lord, may I always blossom where I am planted.

***********************************************************

NA Just For Today

Our Own Recovery

"The steps are our solution. They are our survival kit They are our defense against addiction, a deadly disease. Our steps are the principles that make our recovery possible."
Basic Text, p. 19

There's lots to like in Narcotics Anonymous. The meetings, for one, are great. We get to see our friends, hear some inspiring stories, share some practical experience, maybe even hook up with our sponsor. The campouts, the conventions, the dances are all wonderful, clean fun in the company of other recovering addicts. But the heart of our recovery program is the Twelve Steps—in fact, they are the program!

We've heard it said that we can't stay clean by osmosis—in other words, we can't just attend meetings, no matter how many, and expect to breathe recovery in through the pores of our skin. Recovery, as another saying goes, is an inside job. And the tools we use in working that "inside job" are the Twelve Steps. Hearing endlessly about acceptance is one thing; working the First Step for ourselves is something very different. Stories about making amends may be inspiring, yet nothing will give us the freedom from remorse that taking the Ninth Step ourselves will give. The same applies to all twelve steps.

There's much to appreciate about NA, but to get the most from our recovery we must work the Twelve Steps for ourselves.

Just for today: I want everything my personal program has to offer. I will work the steps for myself.

***********************************************************

You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
The older you get the more you realize that kindness is synonymous with happiness. --Lionel Barrymore
Once in a while, we forget about the kind things people have done for us. Do we remember the next-door neighbor who helped us get our kite out of a tree, or the brother who helped us finish a project for school? If we think about these kindnesses, we will remember how happy we were to receive them.
These people and others may need a kindness we can give. Our next-door neighbor may get sick and need us to go to the store, a brother or sister may need to borrow a radio, or the elderly person down the street may need the lawn mowed. Whenever we take the time to give a kindness, we will find that like the boomerang, it returns to us in the form of happiness.
Will I be alert to my chances to give kindness today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his. --Helen Keller
The human race is a huge mixture of dignity and degradation and every man inherits the blend. We can respect the slave in us for his endurance and suffering. And the king in us earns our respect for his leadership and justice. Are we ashamed of who we are or where we have come from? Then we may have to look deeper and ask if we are really different from any other man.
Do we believe we must conform to some mold of acceptability, some proper appearance? Are we so focused on the surface that we miss the deeper values of our humanness? Sometimes we take on a reverse smugness and become judgmental of the person who looks successful or speaks well. We think, "I can't like him, he's in a different class." We all need acceptance and respect, and in this program we are equals from the first day.
God, grant me the self esteem to accept the whole mixture that comes together in me and in the people around me.


You are reading from the book The Language Of Letting Go.
Living with Families
I was forty-six years old before I finally admitted to myself and someone else that my grandfather always managed to make me feel guilty, angry, and controlled. --Anonymous
We may love and care about our family very much. Family members may love and care about us. But interacting with some members may be a real trigger to our codependency - sometimes to a deep abyss of shame, rage, anger, guilt, and helplessness.
It can be difficult to achieve detachment, or an emotional level, with certain family members. It can be difficult to separate their issues from ours. It can be difficult to own our power.
Difficult, but not impossible.
The first step is awareness and acceptance - simple acknowledgment, without guilt, of our feelings and thoughts. We do not have to blame our family members. We do not have to blame or shame ourselves. Acceptance is the goal - acceptance and freedom to choose what we want and need to do to take care of ourselves with that person. We can become free of the patterns of the past. We are recovering. Progress is the goal.
Today, Higher Power, help me be patient with myself as I learn how to apply recovery behaviors with family members. Help me strive today for awareness and acceptance.


I am open and willing to take a step forward in a new direction. I am no longer allowing myself to stay stuck by old thoughts and feelings. This new place is exciting and energizing. --Ruth Fishel

******************************************

Journey to the Heart

Beware of Gossip

Gossip is a seductive pastime that can be harmful to others, harmful to ourselves. Some gossip is innocent.We chatter about the experiences of others lightly, joyfully, in a way that doesn’t hurt. Other gossip isn’t so innocent. It’s rooted in anger, jealousy, betrayal, and sometimes hatred. We feel deprived and cheated– hurt-so we want to hurt another.

Would you stand and throw darts at someone? Would you pick up a knife and stab that person in the back? I think not. Yet, when we gossip, we do the same thing. Words, especially those coated with emotion, carry energy, sometimes potentially damaging energy. When we hurt another, we hurt ourselves. Both are injured. We need to deal with our feelings of anger, hurt, betrayal, or jealousy before they wound through gossip.

While walking this journey, you must learn of the dangers. Gossip is one of them. Heal the feelings underneath so you can speak lightly with words of love.

******************************************

More Language Of Letting Go

Let it be

Life is a series of letting go’s– an “infinite” series of letting go’s. All things in life are given us on loan. Stand face-to-face with life, learn to let go, and whatever comes our way– success or failure, joy or sorrow, support or betrayal, light or darkness– it all blesses us. Once we have learned to let go, we are prepared for whatever life gives us. And death itself is nothing to be feared.
–Matthew Fox

For many years, I resisted the concept of letting go. I resisted mostly because I didn’t understand what people were talking about. I’d be loudly obsessing about something. “Just let go,” they’d say. “Okay,” I’d say. Then I’d walk away and wonder what they meant, and mostly how to do it. Soon, I caught on. If I didn’t want people harping on me about letting go, I needed to obsess silently. Privately. Or at least in the presence of someone who wouldn’t lecture me about letting go.

As the years wore on, I was forced into letting go. Eventually I even wrote a book called The Language of Letting go. I thought it was the end of my need to practice letting go.

When my son died, I learned that writing the book was only a prelude, an introductory course in letting go. Over the years that followed, I gradually began to learn a new respect for this behavior called letting go.

Letting go is a behavior we can practice each day, whatever the circumstances in our lives. It’s a behavior that benefits relationships we want to work. It’s a helpful behavior in insane relationships, too. It’s a useful tool to use when we really want to bring something or someone into our lives, and in accomplishing our goals. It’s a helpful tool to use on outdated behaviors such as low self-esteem and manipulation.

Letting go takes the emotional charge, the drama, out of things and restores us to a sense of balance, peace, and spiritual power.

Letting go works well on the past and the future. It brings us into today.

Paraphrasing the mystic writer Matthew Fox, everything that comes, comes to pass. Denystify letting go. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. Learning the art of letting go really means learning to calmly let things be.

God, help me learn to let go.

******************************************

You Deserve To Have Your Dreams Come True
Personal Power

Many of us have do not understand what personal power means. We have been given the false notion that power is bad—that it is something we use to exert our will upon others. In fact, when our personal power is intact, we are neither overbearing nor meek. We have a clear sense of our strength and the impact we can have on others. This actually enables us to be more sensitive. Personal power is what permits us to work on behalf of our dreams and desires. It allows us to realize that we are worthy and deserve to be heard. In addition, our personal power lets us extend the respect we know that we deserve to the people around us. There is no reason to be afraid or ashamed of fully owning your power.

In the chakra system, the solar plexus is the seat of personal power. One way to evaluate your sense of power is to breathe into this part of the body. If it feels tight or nervous, it is an indication that you may not be fully expressing your power. You can heal this imbalance by expanding the area of the solar plexus with your breath. You can also visualize a bright yellow sun in this part of your body. Allow its heat to melt any tension, and let its light dissolve any darkness or heaviness. Repeating this exercise on a regular basis can restore and rejuvenate your sense of power.

Another way to nurture your personal power is to honor your dreams and desires by making concrete plans to manifest them in the world. Start by making a list of things you want, and let yourself think big. Choose one goal from the list and commit to bringing it to fruition. In addition, break the goal into tasks that you can work on each day. Know that you deserve to have your dreams come true and that you have the power to bring them into being. Published with permission from Daily OM

******************************************

A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

In a letter to a friend, AA’s co-founder Bill W. once wrote, “Nothing can be more demoralizing than a clinging an d abject dependence upon another human being. This often amounts to the demand for a degree of protection and love that no one could possibly satisfy. So our hoped-for protectors finally flee, and once more we are left alone — either to grow up or to disintegrate.” We discover, in The Program, that the best possible source of emotional stability is our Higher Power. We find that dependence upon His Perfect justice, forgiveness and love is healthy, and that it works where nothing else will. Do I depend on my Higher Power?

Today I Pray

May I realize that I am a dependent person. I have depended upon chemicals to alter my moods and attitudes. I have also developed parasitic attachments for others. May I stop making unrealistic emotional demands on others, which only serve to choke off mature human relationships and to leave me bewildered and let down. Only God can provide the kind of whole-heated love which I, as a dependent person, seem to need. May I depend first upon God.

Today I Will Remember

God offers perfect love.

******************************************

One More Day

You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him find it within Himself.
– Galileo

We can’t avoid the crises, large or small, that are a normal part of living. Automobile accidents, spending more money that we can afford, stubbed toes, rain on vacations — these things happen to everyone. No one is exempt. But we can learn from our negative experiences. We learn to be more careful, to hold our tongues, to be more responsible.

No one can teach us how to live. We have to learn by ourselves. And eventually we’re better able to handle our own problems, sometimes even with grace and finesse. We can share what we have learned with others, we can help pave the way for them, but invariably they too will have to do it for themselves.

Life hands me situations. I have the ability to make them into positive experiences.

************************************

Food For Thought

Fellowship

Compulsive overeating is a lonely activity. The more we eat, the more we isolate ourselves from other people and the more alienated and different we feel. We need people, but we do not like ourselves, and we fear that others will reject us.

What a relief to find a group of other people with the same problems and feelings! We are accepted, understood, and loved. We find that we are not so different after all.

The OA fellowship exudes a sense of warmth and support. It is a safe place to put aside masks and express honest feelings. There is healing and strength. Meetings and retreats have given many of us a deeper experience of belonging than we have found anywhere else. We are all accepted as we are and where we are in our personal development.

No one tells us what to do in OA. Through the fellowship, we learn what has worked for others and we find relief from our loneliness.

Bless our fellowship, Lord.

*****************************************

One Day At A Time

THE WHOLE PICTURE

“It should be pointed out that physical treatment
is but a small part of the picture.”
Big Book Alcoholics of Anonymous; Page 143

Looking around a gallery recently my friend and I were looking at a mosaic picture. We pondered on what we thought of it, and each of us had our own ideas. Then as we chatted a thought popped into my head. Now this doesn’t happen often, so make the most of it.

The mosaic, of course, is made up of lots of tiny tiles, each one seemingly insignificant on it’s own. In fact if you found one in the street, you probably wouldn’t look at it twice, never mind pick it up. Yet together with all the other tiny tiles, pieced together it forms an unusual and beautiful work of art. I don’t expect that all of the tiles are perfect, but together they are whole. Together they appear to be as one in unison with each other.

Then came the second thought (yes, two in one day). Some days for me are pretty awful. I feel sick, or saddened. I turn on the TV and the news is all depressing stuff, and I think, where is HP while all this is happening? A few years ago, I lost my baby and nearly my own life. Where was my HP then? Losing my nephew at age 8 a few years later, I really doubted that any God of anyone’s understanding could help me with a weight problem.

But today I see the wonderful days, the glowing wonderful comforting days that make life worthwhile. Who am I to say that this life I’m living is good or bad? Only HP has the ‘whole mosaic’ picture of Life. Not just my life, but my life touching another life. The events happening in the world – again, only HP sees the whole picture. He has the lid of the jigsaw puzzle with the main picture on it; we only have one piece, just like the tile.

After I lost the baby, HP helped the surgeons to heal me. I certainly didn’t feel worthy; in fact I felt at the time that I wasn’t even good enough to die. Yet HP has stuck by me and has given me so much. I doubt I’ll ever know whose life or lives I may have touched as a result of me being saved, but it doesn’t matter. HP knows. HP cares.

One Day at a Time . . .
I must remember that you and I are one in the eyes of our Creator. Not one of us is less than, or more than each other. Together we are one. Together we watch HP work miracles in our lives. Together, we are perfect as long as we are under HP’s direction. Mind boggling isn’t it?
~ Marlene

*****************************************

AA 'Big Book' - Quote

How dark it is before the dawn! In reality that was the beginning of my last debauch. I was soon to be catapulted into what I like to call the fourth dimension of existence. I was to know happiness, peace, and usefulness, in a way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes. - Pg. 8 - Bill's Story

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Where you're at and where you're going are up to you. But if you want some peace in your spirit and freedom from the obsession to use, you are in the right place to begin.

I know that there are no guarantees, but thank You for bringing me this far.

Giving

Today I give with both hands. Giving for its own sake is the spiritual way and actually releases the gift. When I give with one hand and take with the other, I give only half of what I have and receive only half of what might be given to me. I limit myself intwo ways. Somehow the universe responds to clear intention. When I fully release a gift, it goes to where it is supposed to go and what returns to me comes when and how it is right.

I am able to give with both hands

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

One way to tell how well you are practicing the principles in all your affairs is to notice how you treat people who can be of no service to you.

I go out of my way to be kind to the very next person I encounter, regardless of what they can or cannot do for me.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

If you treat people badly today, you get to reap the benefits tomorrow.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

I am open and willing to take a step forward in a new direction. I am no longer allowing myself to stay stuck by old thoughts and feelings. This new place is exciting and energizing.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

I'd drink to get relaxed but by the time I got relaxed enough I was unconscious - Dave.

*****************************************

AA Thought for the Day

March 10

A New Beginning
I knew I had to have a new beginning, and this beginning had to be here.
I could not start anywhere else. I had to let go of the past and forget the future.
As long as I held on to the past with one hand and grabbed at the future with the other hand,
I had nothing to hold on today with. So I had to begin here, now.
- Came To Believe . . ., p. 46

Thought to Ponder . . .
There are no endings ... only new beginnings.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A B C = Accept Begin, Continue.

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~

Life on Life's Terms
"For years, I was sure the worst thing that could happen to a nice guy like me would be that I would turn out to be an
alcoholic. Today, I find it's the best thing that has ever happened to me. This proves I don't know what's good for me.
And if I don't know what's good for me, then I don't know what's good or bad for you or for anyone. So I'm better off if I
don't give advice, don't figure I know what's best, and just accept life on life's terms, as it is today--especially my own
life, as it actually is. Before AA, I judged myself by my intentions, while the world was judging me by my actions.
"Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 449-50

Thought to Consider . . .
I am liberated from dreaming the impossible dream
and free, finally, to start living the possible dream.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
TRUST Try Relying Upon the Steps and Traditions

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*

Agnostics
>From "We Agnostics":
"Some of us have been violently anti-religious. To others, the word 'God' brought up a particular idea of Him with which
someone had tried to impress them during childhood. With that rejection we imagined we had abandoned the God idea
entirely. We were bothered with the thought that faith and dependence upon a Power beyond ourselves was somewhat
weak, even cowardly. We look upon this world of warring individuals, warring theological systems, and inexplicable
calamity, with deep skepticism. How could a Supreme Being have anything to do with it all? And who could
comprehend a Supreme Being anyhow? Yet, in other moments, we found ourselves thinking, when enchanted by a
starlit night, 'Who, then, made all this?' There was a feeling of awe and wonder, but it was fleeting and soon lost.
"Yes, we of agnostic temperament have had these thoughts and experiences. We found that as soon as we were able
to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to
get results, even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God."
2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pgs. 45-46.

*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"Trial and error produces group experience, and out of corrected experience comes custom. When a customary way of
doing things is definitely proved to be best, then that custom forms into AA Tradition."
AA Co-Founder, Bill W., January 1948
"Tradition Two"
The Language of the Heart

~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*

"Try to remember that though God has wrought miracles among us, we
should never belittle a good doctor or psychiatrist. Their services
are often indispensable in treating a newcomer and in following his
case afterward."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 133~

"Next, we decided that hereafter in this drama of life, God was going
to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is
the Father, and we are His children. Most good ideas are simple, and
this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through
which we passed to freedom."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 62~

"And they have increasingly found a peace of mind which can stand firm in the face of difficult circumstances."
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 104 (Step Eleven)

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

Giving Without Demand
Watch any A.A. of six months working with a Twelfth Step prospect. If the newcomer says, 'To the devil with you,' the
twelfth-stepper only smiles and finds another alcoholic to help. He doesn't feel frustrated or rejected. If his next drunk
responds, and in turn starts to give love and attention to other sufferers, yet gives none back to him, the sponsor is
happy about it anyway. He still doesn't feel rejected; instead he rejoices that his former prospect is sober and happy.
And he well knows that his own life has been made richer, as an extra dividend of giving to another without any demand
for a return. GRAPEVINE, JANUARY 1958

Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me through the difficulties, so that my victory over them may bear witness to those I will help.