A RESTING PLACE
All of A.A.'s Twelve Steps ask us to go contrary to our natural
desires . . . they all deflate our egos. When it comes to ego
deflation, few Steps are harder to take than Five. But scarcely
any Step is more necessary to longtime sobriety and peace of
mind than this one.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 55
After writing down my character defects, I was unwilling to
talk about them, and decided it was time to stop carrying this
burden alone. I needed to confess those defects to someone else.
I had read - and been told - I could not stay sober unless I
did. Step Five provided me with a feeling of belonging, with
humility and serenity when I practiced it in my daily living.
It was important to admit my defects of character in the order
presented in Step Five: "to God, to ourselves and to another
human being." Admitting to God first paved the way for admission
to myself and to another person . As the taking of the Step is
described, a feeling of being at one with God and my fellow man
brought me to a resting place where I could prepare myself for
the remaining Steps toward a full and meaningful sobriety.
***********************************************************
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
I'm grateful that I found a program in A.A. that could keep me
sober. I'm grateful that A.A. has shown me the way to faith in
a Higher Power, because the renewing of that faith has changed
my way of life. And I've found a happiness and contentment that
I had forgotten existed, by simply believing in God and trying
to live the kind of a life that I know He wants me to live. As
long as I stay grateful, I'll stay sober. Am I in a grateful
frame of mind?
Meditation For The Day
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. At work that results from resting with
God is good work. Claim the power to work miracles in human
lives. Know that you can do many things through the Higher
Power. Know that you can do good things through God who rests
you and gives you strength. Partake regularly of rest and
prayer.
Prayer For The Day
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.
***********************************************************
As Bill Sees It
Back To Work,
p. 128
It is possible for us to use the alleged dishonesty of other people as a
plausible excuse for not meeting our own obligations.
Once, some prejudiced friends exhorted me never to go back to Wall
Street. They were sure that the rampant materialism and
double-dealing down there would stunt my spiritual growth. Because
this sounded so high-minded, I continued to stay away from the only
business that I knew.
When, finally, my household went broke, I realized I hadn't been able
to face the prospect of going back to work. So I returned to Wall
Street, and I have ever since been glad that I did. I needed to
rediscover that there are many fine people in New York's financial
district. Then, too, I needed the experience of staying sober in the
very surroundings where alcohol had cut me down.
A Wall Street business trip to Akron, Ohio, first brought me face to
face with Dr. Bob. So the birth of A.A. hinged on my effort to meet
my bread-and-butter responsibilities.
Grapevine, August 1961
***********************************************************
Walk in Dry Places
Regrets over roads not taken
Releasing the past.
Looking back, every one of us can point to moment when we made choices
that helped set the course of our lives. It’s easy to waste time
and energy wondering what our lives would have been like if other
choices had been made at these critical points.
Such thinking is mostly a waste of time and may reflect dissatisfaction
with our lives today. Whatever our past mistakes, the decisions
we made that brought us sobriety were the correct ones. Realizing this,
many of us even come to feel gratitude for the problem that brought us
into the program.
We are never able to say with certainty that different choices made
earlier in life would have been better in the long run. Bill W., an AA
co-founder, said that a business setback moved him to make the calls
that led him to Dr. Bob, the other co-founder. Had his business
venture succeeded, it’s doubtful that Bill would have been thinking
about helping another alcoholic.
The best choice any of us can make is to turn such maters and questions
over to our Higher Power. We have a duty to do the best we can with
today’s opportunities and conditions.
I'll live today in the present. The good experiences from the
past are always with me, and I can benefit from any lessons learned by
my mistakes.
***********************************************************
Keep It Simple
The only way to speak truth is to speak lovingly.---Thoreau
Recovery teaches us to tell the truth. We must be honest if we want to
save our lives. We must learn to speak with care---care for ourselves
and
for others. To be honest means to speak in a fair and truthful way. To
be
honest and loving means learning when to speak, and how to speak, in a
caring way. We can help others by honestly telling them what we think
and
feel and see---but only when we do this with love. We must be careful
when we speak. Speaking the truth is like using a sharp knife---it can
be
used for good, or it can be used to hurt others. We should never handle
it carelessly of use it to hurt someone.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me know the truth. Help me
speak the truth to others
with love.
Action for the Day: I'll make a list of three times I've hurt
someone be being honest, but
not with love. I'll also list three times I've helped someone by being
truthful, with love.
***********************************************************
Each Day a New Beginning
The battle to keep up appearances unnecessarily, the mask--whatever
name you give creeping perfectionism--robs us of our energies.
--Robin Worthington
How familiar we are with trying to be women other than ourselves; ones
more exciting, we think, or sexier, or smarter. We have probably
devoted a great deal of energy to this over the years. It's likely that
we are growing more content with ourselves now. However, aren't there
still situations in which we squirm, both because we want to project a
different image, and because we resent our desire to do so?
We each have been blessed with unique qualities. There is no other
woman just like ourselves. We each have special features that are
projected in only one way, the way we alone project them.
Knowing that we are perfect as we are is knowledge that accompanies
recovery. How much easier life is, how much more can be gained from
each moment, when we meet each experience in the comfort of our real
selves. The added gift of simply being ourselves is that we'll really
hear, see, and understand others for the first time in our lives.
I can only fully focus on one thing, one person at a time. I will free
my focus from myself today and be filled up by my experiences with
others.
***********************************************************
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth
Edition
Chapter 5 - HOW IT WORKS
We went back through our lives. Nothing counted but thoroughness and
honesty. When we were finished we considered it carefully. The first
thing apparent was that this world and its people were often quite
wrong. To conclude that others were wrong was as far as most of us ever
got. The usual outcome was that people continued to wrong us and we
stayed sore. Sometimes it was remorse and then we were sore at
ourselves. But the more we fought and tried to have our own way, the
worse matters got. As in war, the victor only Seemed to win. Our
moments of triumph were short-lived.
pp. 65-66
***********************************************************
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth
Edition Stories
ME AN ALCOHOLIC? -
Alcohol's wringer squeezed this author--but he escaped quite whole.
Meanwhile I was getting worse, both
as regards my inward misery and my drinking. My daily alcoholic
consumption remained about the same through all this, with perhaps a
slight increase, and my binges remained one-nighters. But they
were occurring with alarming frequency. In seven years the
intervals between them decreased from eight months to ten days!
And they were growing uglier. One night I barely made my downtown
club; if I'd had to go another fifty feet, I'd have collapsed in the
gutter. On another occasion I arrived home covered with
blood. I'd deliberately smashed a window. With all this it
was becoming increasingly hard to maintain my front of distinction and
respectability to the world. My personality was stretched almost
to splitting in the effort; schizophrenia stared me in the face, and
one night I was in a suicidal despair.
pp. 384-385
***********************************************************
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step
Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious
contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of
His will for us and the power to carry that out."
We discover that we do receive guidance for our lives to just about the
extent that we stop making demands upon God to give it to us on order
and on our terms. Almost any experienced A.A. will tell how his affairs
have taken remarkable and unexpected turns for the better as he tried
to improve his conscious contact with God. He will also report that out
of every season of grief or suffering, when the hand of God seemed
heavy or even unjust, new lessons for living were learned, new
resources of courage were uncovered, and that finally, inescapably, the
conviction came that God does "move in a mysterious way His wonders to
perform."
pp. 104-105
***********************************************************
Remember
To
Live
Your
Life
Today
Today is a beautiful day to be alive, to be the person you are. A
beautiful
day, simply, to be. Don't waste energy trying to possess or control.
Don't
let yourself be burdened by things that have happened in the past. Don't
worry about being "right," or about impressing anyone.
Focus instead on creating things that have never before existed. On
adding value to the lives of others. On finding ways to express the
unique
person that you are. Feel good by simply deciding to, rather than by
abusing yourself or others. Look at everything that happens as an
opportunity for growth.
Accept and be thankful for the abundance that is yours. Dust off your
dreams and find a way to follow them. Life is precious and beautiful.
Every breath you take is an opportunity to live life to the fullest.
--Ralph S. Marston, Jr.
"Today, I will relax. I am being prepared. I can let go of timing. I
can stop manipulating outcomes. Good things will happen when the time
is right, and they will happen naturally."
--Melody Beattie
"We find comfort among those who agree with us; growth among those who
don't."
--Frank A. Clark
***********************************************************
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
HONESTY
"Where is there dignity unless
there is honesty?"
--Marcus Cicero
The cornerstone of my life today is honesty. It is the quality I most
desire
in my life because I believe that with honesty comes a knowledge of God,
self and relationships. It is the key to my recovery from addiction. It
is
the key to the meaning of spirituality. Honesty affords me hope for
tomorrow.
As an alcoholic I was a dishonest man. I was not just dishonest because
I told lies and manipulated the truth, I was dishonest because I refused
to risk the journey into self. My dishonesty was not about what I said
but
what I did not say! Not so much about what I did but what I did not do.
My dishonesty stopped me from discovering my God-given dignity.
Today I risk the journey into self and I am discovering more about God
"as I understand Him". My level of honesty helps me to be happy and
relaxed with who I am today.
"Be still and know that I am God." In the silence of self-honesty may I
know myself.
***********************************************************
O LORD
my God, I cried out to You, And You healed me.
Psalm 30:2
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to
God.
Philippians 4:6
. . .the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace."
Romans 8:6
***********************************************************
Daily Inspiration
When we want things around us to change, the best place to start in
within ourselves. Lord, grant that my frustrations can be a motivation
to better myself and my environment.
Tragedy and suffering often opens the soul to the heights of spiritual
growth. Lord, let the hardships of my life be my prayer and work to
draw You closer and closer.
***********************************************************
NA Just For Today
Teachable
"We have learned that it is okay to
not know all the answers, for then we are teachable and can learn to
live our new life successfully."
Basic Text, p. 93
In a way, addiction is a great
teacher. And if addiction teaches us nothing else, it will teach us
humility. We hear it said that it took our very best thinking to get to
NA. Now that we're here, we're here to learn.
The NA Fellowship is a wonderful
learning environment for the recovering addict. We aren't made to feel
stupid at meetings. Instead, we find others who've been exactly where
we've been and who've found a way out. All we have to do is admit that
we don't have all the answers, then listen as others share what's
worked for them.
As recovering addicts and as human
beings, we have much to learn. Other addicts—and other humans—have much
to teach us about what works and what doesn't. As long as we remain
teachable, we can take advantage of the experience of others.
Just for today: I will admit that I
don't have all the answers. I will look and listen to the experience of
others for the answers I need.
***********************************************************
You are reading from the book Today's
Gift.
Talking little, and with the low,
tender part of our voices, as in nodding to one who already knows what
you mean. --Tess Gallagher
Once there was a small child whose
only word was no. When she wanted to indicate yes, she nodded her head
emphatically. What she liked to do instead of talk was play. She liked
to play outside in the meadow with the bugs and rocks and plants.
The mullein was her favorite plant.
She rubbed the soft, furry leaves across her cheek. Her mother told her
that in the old days, American Indians used these leaves as bandages.
Several years later, Lucy picked a mullein leaf and took it in the
house to her mother. "Look, Mama. Indian owee."
We, too, can remember some surprising
things from the dim past, before we could talk or understand all that
went on around us. Communication does not always depend on words alone
but on the tenderness with which they are spoken. Walking through the
world in a tender, loving way is a form of communication that goes
beyond words to our deepest feelings.
What are some of the ways we show our
love without words?
You are reading from the book
Touchstones.
Children begin by loving their
parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive
them. --Oscar Wilde
The mature man eventually forgives his
parents. Any adult can look back and see childhood wrongs and
unfairness. Many of us were disappointed by our parents, even neglected
or hurt by them. We certainly didn't get all we wanted or needed. Yet,
upon joining the ranks of grown men and women, we become responsible
for ourselves. Every situation has limited choices, and we work with
what we've got. As adults, we realize this is exactly where our parents
were when we were children. They, too, were born into an imperfect
world and had to do the best they could.
When we can forgive our parents, we
are free to accept them as they are, as we might a friend. We can
accept them, enjoy the relationship, and forget about collecting old
debts. Making peace with them imparts to us the strengths of previous
generations and helps us be more at peace with ourselves.
I pray for the maturity and the wisdom
to be more forgiving of my parents.
You are reading from the book Each Day
a New Beginning.
The battle to keep up appearances
unnecessarily, the mask--whatever name you give creeping
perfectionism--robs us of our energies. --Robin Worthington
How familiar we are with trying to be
women other than ourselves; ones more exciting, we think, or sexier, or
smarter. We have probably devoted a great deal of energy to this over
the years. It's likely that we are growing more content with ourselves
now. However, aren't there still situations in which we squirm, both
because we want to project a different image, and because we resent our
desire to do so?
We each have been blessed with unique
qualities. There is no other woman just like ourselves. We each have
special features that are projected in only one way, the way we alone
project them.
Knowing that we are perfect as we are
is knowledge that accompanies recovery. How much easier life is, how
much more can be gained from each moment, when we meet each experience
in the comfort of our real selves. The added gift of simply being
ourselves is that we'll really hear, see, and understand others for the
first time in our lives.
I can only fully focus on one thing,
one person at a time. I will free my focus from myself today and be
filled up by my experiences with others.
You are reading from the book The
Language of Letting Go.
Giving Ourselves What We Deserve
I worked at a good job, making a
decent salary. I had been recovering for years. Each morning, I got
into my car and I thanked God for the car. The heater didn't work. And
the chance of the car not starting was almost as great as the chance
that it would. I just kept suffering through, and thanking God. One
day, it occurred to me that there was absolutely no good reason I
couldn't buy myself a new car - that moment - if I wanted one. I had
been gratitude-ing myself into unnecessary deprivation and martyrdom. I
bought the new car - that day. --Anonymous
Often, our instinctive reaction to
something we want or need, No! I can't afford it!
The question we can learn to ask
ourselves is, But, can I?
Many of us have learned to habitually
deprive ourselves of anything we might want, and often things we need.
Sometimes, we can misuse the concept
of gratitude to keep ourselves unnecessarily deprived.
Gratitude for what we have is an
important recovery concept. So is believing we deserve the best and
making an effort to stop depriving ourselves and start treating
ourselves well.
There is nothing wrong with buying
ourselves what we want when we can afford to do that. Learn to trust
and listen to yourself about what you want. There's nothing wrong with
buying yourself a treat, buying yourself something new.
There are times when it is good to
wait. There are times when we legitimately cannot afford a luxury. But
there are many times when we can.
Today, I will combine the principles
of gratitude for what I have with the belief that I deserve the best.
If there is no good reason to deprive myself, I wont.
I am letting go of all self-criticism
today and changing all my judging thoughts to thoughts of love. I am
becoming softer and more gentle and accepting of myself, making more
space to feel joy and love. --Ruth Fishel
**************************************************
*********
Journey to the Heart
Love Yourself
No matter what, love yourself.
Love yourself, even if it feels like
the world around you is irked with you, even if it feels like those
you’ve counted on most have gone away, even if you wonder if God has
abandoned you.
When it feels like the journey has
stopped, the magic is gone, and you’ve been left sitting on the curb,
love yourself. When you’re confused and angry about how things are
going or how they’ve gone, love yourself. No matter what happens or
where you are, love yourself. No matter if you aren’t certain where
you’re going or if there’s anyplace left to go, love yourself.
This situation will change, this time
will pass, and the magic will return. So will joy and faith. You will
feel connected again– to yourself, God, the universe, and life. But the
first thing to do is love yourself. And all the good you want will
follow.
**************************************************
*********
More Language Of Letting Go
Say when something triggers you
How do you defend yourself when you
feel angry and hurt?
When Sally was a child, she lived with
disturbed parents. They said mean, hurtful things to her much of the
time. She wasn’t allowed to say anything back, and she especially
wasn’t allowed to say how angry and hurt she felt.
“The only way I could deal with anger
was by going numb and telling myself I didn’t care– that the
relationship wasn’t important,” Sally said. “Then I carried this
behavior into my adult life. I learned to just go cold when I felt
angry or hurt. I automatically shut down and pushed people away. One
hint of feeling hurt or angry, and boom– I was gone.”
It’s important to know our boundaries.
It’s even more important not to allow people to be reckless with our
hearts. It’s also important to know how hurt and anger trigger our
defenses.
Do you have an instant reaction, not
to other people, but to your own feelings of being betrayed, hurt, or
angered? Do you shut down? Lose your self-esteem? Do you “go away” from
yourself or others? Do you counterattack?
Feelings of hurt and anger will arise
in the course of most relationships. Sometimes when we feel that way,
it’s a warning that we need to beware. Other times it’s a minor
incident, something that can be worked out. You may have needed to
protect yourself once, a long time ago. But now it’s okay to be
vulnerable and let yourself feel what you feel.
Say when something triggers you and
learn how you defend yourself.
God, help me become aware of how I
protect myself when I feel hurt, angry, and attacked. Give me the
courage to be vulnerable and learn new ways of taking care of myself.
**************************************************
*********
The Power Within
Energy 101 by Madisyn Taylor
Energy cannot be destroyed, but it be
changed and transformed.
There is an undercurrent of energy
thrumming through the Universe. Like the wind or a whisper, we can
sometimes hear it and often feel it. Most of the time, we sense this
energy unconsciously without any tangible proof it is really there.
Thoughts, emotions, and the life force in all living things are forms
of this kind of energy. So are creativity, growth, and change. The
impressions, images, and vague premonitions we get about people and
situations are other examples of formless energy. When you enter a
space and feel an “intangible tension” in the air that gives you a
sense of foreboding in your gut, what you are likely experiencing is
energy.
Energy cannot be destroyed, but it can
be transformed or transferred from one person, thing, or source to
another. Though energy is formless, it does take form and shape in the
way it flows and resides within all things: a grain of sand, a bird, a
stone, and an ocean wave. Living things radiate complex vibrations
while nonliving things’ vibrations are simpler. Energy is a magnifier
that can attract like energies while repelling disparate ones. Many of
our reactions to people and circumstances are based on unconscious
reactions to their energies. We may even intuitively tune into the
energy of a situation we are facing when making a decision about how to
proceed. With careful practice and meditation, we can learn to sense
the energy within other living things and ourselves. We can also become
more attuned to how we are impacted by different kinds of energy. For
instance, being around too many energies can leave one person feeling
edgy or excited, while another person will fe! el tired and drained.
While some people feel that energy can
be controlled, others see it is as the unknowable force that moves
through all things. The combined energy in all things plays a hand in
birth, death, growth, movement, and stillness. Practitioners of Aikido
believe that all living beings share a common energy source that is our
life force. Whatever your beliefs, it is worthwhile to explore the
roles energy plays in your life so you can understand it more fully.
Published with permission from Daily OM
**************************************************
*********
A Day At A Time
Reflection For The Day
I’ve learned in The Program that I
need not apologize to anyone for depending upon God as I understand
Him. In fact, I now have good reason to disbelieve those who think
spirituality is the way of weakness. For me, it is the way of strength.
The verdict of the ages is that men and women of faith seldom lack
courage. they trust their God. So I never apologize for my belief in
Him, but, instead, I try to let Him demonstrate, through me and those
around me, what He can do. Do I walk as I talk?
Today I Pray
May my faith be confirmed as I see how
God has worked through others since the beginning of time. May I see
that the brave ones, the miracle-workers, the happy people are those
who have professed their spirituality. May I see, even now as I look
around, how God works through those who believe in Him.
Today I Will Remember
To Watch God at Work.
**************************************************
*********
One More Day
Leisure is the most challenging
responsibility a man can be offered.
– William Russell
We are a work-oriented society. As
children, we were taught to do our homework and the chores. We may have
“played house” or pretended we were “going to work.”
Play, therefor, can be a real
challenge, especially for adults. Keyed up from a day in the work force
or a day coping with the rigors of illness or pain, we can hardly
settle down when busy thoughts crowd our consciousness. Leisure time
can be a burden to us if we don’t’ know how to creatively fill it.
Regardless of what our job is, at home
or away, we can learn to set it aside when work is over. Playtime
should become sacred, for it’s a special time when we feed our need to
be carefree and spontaneous.
Using my leisure time for play will
keep me healthier, mentally and physically.
************************************
Food For Thought
Fake Pride
Our pride often gets in the way of our recovery. Not the good kind of
pride, the self-respect which belongs to all of us as God's children,
but the false pride is what trips us up.
We are falsely proud when we think we can "go it alone," when we
recognize no authority higher than our own ego. We are falsely proud
when we refuse to ask for help or follow directions. False pride is
involved whenever we consider ourselves better than someone else.
As soon as we start off on an ego trip, we are headed for trouble.
Sometimes it takes many hard falls before we can give up false pride.
Compulsive overeating guarantees that we will learn humility once we
recognize that we are powerless over food and cannot manage our own
lives.
When we conscientiously examine our motives for overeating and when we
look honestly at the damage our wrong thinking has done to ourselves
and those around us, we are on the way to getting rid of our false
pride. It is something we have to fight continually, since this kind of
pride has a way of springing up again and again.
Please forgive my false pride.
*****************************************
One Day At A Time
POSITIVE THOUGHTS
“I’ve always believed that you can
think positive
just as well as you can think
negative.”
James Arthur Baldwin
What did I think about before I was in
recovery? I worried about what others thought of me. I thought of what
and when I could eat next. I picked apart the way others' bodies
looked, while being jealous of them. I didn't know that thinking of
negative things brought my energy level down. I thought self-discipline
meant disciplining myself -- which meant mentally beating myself up.
My Higher Power has shown me a way of
thinking that was new to me, but is age old -- positive thoughts.
Thinking positive brings me to a level of serenity. When my mind
wanders, I can bring it back. When I find myself obsessing over
something negative, I can work the first three steps with it. I am
powerless over negativity. I have a HP who can remove it from me. I
choose to let my HP direct my thoughts. And then let myself to think of
something else.
One day at a time...
I choose to think positively. The
result is serenity.
Nancy F.
*****************************************
AA 'Big Book' - Quote
BUT THE EX-PROBLEM DRINKER WHO HAS
FOUND THIS SOLUTION, WHO IS PROPERLY ARMED WITH FACTS ABOUT HIMSELF,
CAN GENERALLY WIN THE ENTIRE CONFIDENCE OF ANOTHER ALCOHOLIC IN A FEW
HOURS. UNTIL SUCH AN UNDERSTANDING IS REACHED, LITTLE OR NOTHING CAN BE
ACCOMPLISHED. - Pg. 18 - There Is A Solution
Hour To Hour - Book - Quote
We often feel tremendous remorse for
transgressions of the past. Today, at this hour, we can stay clean,
stay sober, stay drug free. This is the beginning. Later in our
program, we will work steps to neutralize our transgressions. But at
this hour, we must heal our bodies first.
God, as I understand You, keep me
clean and sober, now.
New Life
I can feel my body and my spirit
trying to come back to health. I am breathing in and out with relaxed,
complete breaths and with each breath I take, I feel more serene. I
sense the life within each pore of my body and it feels good, it feels
right, it feels alive. My body needed to fall apart a little, it needed
to get my attention and tell me it needed tender, loving care. Today, I
will pay attention to what my body is trying to tell me it wants and
needs and I will give it what it is calling out for.
I listen to what my body is asking for
and I do something about it
- Tian Dayton PhD
Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote
We are now learning to keep our
thoughts in recovery and not in the insanity of the past. The program
fixes it so we don't have to suffer from insanity anymore. Now we can
enjoy it!
Crazy-making is what I make of it.
"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book
You cannot think your way into right
actions. You have to act your way into right thinking.
Time for Joy - Book - Quote
I am letting go of all self-criticism
today and changing all my judging thoughts to thoughts of love. I am
becoming softer and more gentle and accepting of myself, making more
space to feel joy and love.
Alkiespeak - Book - Quote
I had an unusual childhood....and a
long one. - Anon.
*****************************************
AA Thought for the Day
May 8
Time
And what is time to me now? It is a
most precious asset.
I have the luxury of being able to
cherish the memory of yesterday,
to live today with serenity, to wait
for tomorrow.
I find great contentment in just
knowing where I was and where I am.
And I am grateful; grateful the
existence of Alcoholics Anonymous;
grateful to my God for leading me to
the doors of AA and to Himself, grateful for hope.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 2],
p. 21
Thought to Ponder . . .
I am grateful for this minute. My
eternity may be in it.
AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
T I M E = This Is My Eternity.
~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
Friendship
"We commenced to make many fast friends
and a fellowship has grown up among us
of which it is a wonderful thing to
feel a part of.
The joy of living we really have,
even under pressure and difficulty.
I have seen hundreds of families set
their feet
in the path that really goes somewhere;
have seen the most impossible
domestic situations righted;
feuds and bitterness of all sorts
wiped out.
I have seen men come out of asylums
and resume a vital place in the lives
of their families and communities.
Business and professional men
have regained their standing.
There is scarcely any form of trouble
and misery
which has not been overcome among us."
Bill W., Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 15
Thought to Consider . . .
"Most of us feel we need look no
further for Utopia.
We have it with us right here and now."
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 16
*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
EGO
Easing God Out
*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*
Psychology
From "Medicine Looks at Alcoholics
Anonymous":":
"As excuse-makers and rationalizers,
we drunks are champions. It is the business of the psychiatrist to get
behind our
excuses and to find the deeper causes
for our conduct. Though uninstructed in psychiatry, we can, after a
little time in
A.A., see that our motives have not
been what we thought they were and that we have been motivated by
forces
unknown to us. Therefore we ought to
look with the deepest respect, interest, and profit upon the findings
of psychiatry,
remembering that up to now the
psychiatrists have been far more tolerant of us than we have been of
them. "Bill W."
2001 AAWS, Inc.; Alcoholics Anonymous
Comes of Age, pg. 236
*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*
"Should our present success continue,
people will commence to assert that AA is a brand new way of life,
maybe a
new religion, capable of saving the
world. We shall be told it is our bounden duty to show modern society
how it ought to live ...
"Fortunately most of us are convinced
that these are perilous speculations, alluring ingredients of that new
heady wine
we are now being offered, each bottle
marked 'Success'!
"Of this subtle vintage may we never
drink too deeply."
AA Co-Founder, Bill W., April 1948
"Tradition Five"
The Language of the Heart
~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve
Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*
"Burn the idea into the consciousness
of every man that he can get
well regardless of anyone. The only
condition is that he trust in
God and clean house."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition,
Working With Others, pg. 98~
"No words can tell of the loneliness
and despair I found in that
bitter morass of self pity. Quicksand
stretched around me in all
directions. I had met my match. I had
been overwhelmed. Alcohol
was my master."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition,
Bill's Story, pg. 8
During this process of learning more
about humility, the most profound result of all was the change in our
attitude toward God.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p.
75
Misc. AA Literature - Quote
Back To Work
It is possible for us to use the alleged dishonesty of other people as
a plausible excuse for not meeting our own obligations.
Once, some prejudiced friends exhorted me never to go back to Wall
Street. They were sure that the rampant
materialism and double-dealing down there would stunt my spiritual
growth. Because this sounded so high-minded, I
continued to stay away from the only business that I knew.
When, finally, my household went broke, I realized I hadn't been able
to face the prospect of going back to work. So I
returned to Wall Street, and I have ever since been glad that I did. I
needed to rediscover that there are many fine people
in New York's financial district. Then, too, I needed the experience of
staying sober in the very surroundings where
alcohol had cut me down.
A Wall Street business trip to Akron, Ohio, first brought me face to
face with Dr. Bob. So the birth of A.A. hinged on my
effort to meet my bread-and-butter responsibilities. GRAPEVINE,
AUGUST 1961
Prayer For The Day: Dear Lord, thank you giving me the strength
to face this day. I ask that you keep me from being caught up in the
hidden dangers of the world and guide me so I make it home.