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

As Bill Sees It

Individual Responsibilities, p.262

Let us emphasize that our reluctance to fight one another, or
anybody else, is not counted as some special virtue which entitles us
A.A.'s to feel superior to other people. Nor does this reluctance
mean that the members of A.A. are going to back away from their
individual responsibilities as citizens. Here they should feel free to
act as they see the right upon the public issues of our times.

But when it comes to A.A. as a whole, that's quite a different matter.
As a group we do not enter into public controversy, because we are
sure that our Society will perish if we do.

12 & 12, p.177

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

Walk In Dry Places
 
All we need to know.
Maintaining
Seen from today's perspective, the early AA members had rather
narrow attitudes toward the study of alcoholism.  They became restless
and fidgety if member started discussing psychological aspects of the
problem or gave other indications that they were trying to learn more
about the disease.
While we don't need to hold such narrow attitudes today, we should at
least concede that we don't need complex information to stay sober. 
All we have to know is that we have a very compulsive problem that
can be arrested by eliminating the first drink.
Even today, nobody fully knows why the first drink is so deadly for
people like us. Our experience and the experience of others tells us
that it is. That knowledge alone can be an important building block in
finding and maintaining sobriety.
While being open-minded to new information, I'll remember today
that a fairly simple idea.... that I'm an alcoholic and can't live with alcohol.... 
Is the main thing I need to know.

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

Keep It Simple
 
The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
---Mark Twain
Sometimes it does no good to try to “deal” with your feelings. For the
moment, we’re stuck. We can only see things one way. No matter
what anyone says, we’re closed up. For the moment. But this puts our
sobriety at risk.
How do we stop self-pity? Focus on someone else. When we really want
to help someone else be happy, we'll ask our Higher Power’s help.
Then things start to change, because our good deeds come back to us.
Remember, service will always keep us sober.
Prayer for the Day:  Higher Power, sometimes I get stuck in my old ways.
Help me change my focus at those times. Help me stay sober.
Action for the Day:  I will think of a time when I was stuck in bad feelings.
How did I get out of that spot.

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

Each Day a New Beginning

What difference does it make how I am treated by life? My real life is
within.  --Angela L. Wozniak
It is said that we teach people how to treat us. How we treat others invites
similar treatment. Our response to the external conditions of our lives can
be greatly altered by our perceptions of those conditions. And we have
control of that perception. No experience has to demoralize us. Each
situation can be appreciated for its long-term contribution to our growth
as happy, secure women.
No outside circumstances will offer us full time and forever the security
we all long for. And in like manner, none will adversely interfere with our
well being, except briefly and on occasion.
The program offers us the awareness that our security, happiness, and
well being reside within. The uplifting moments of our lives may enhance
our security, but they can't guarantee that it will last. Only the relationship
we have with ourselves and God within can promise the gift of security.
The ripples in my day are reminders to me to go within.

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

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

PREFACE

This is the fourth edition of the book "Alcoholics Anonymous."  The first edition appeared in April 1939, and n the following sixteen years, more than 300,000 copies went into circulation.  The second edition, published in 1955, reached a total of more than 1,150,500 copies.  The third edition, which came off press in 1976, achieved a circulation of 11,698,000.

p. xi

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

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories

My Chance To Live

A.A. gave this teenager the tools to climb out of her dark abyss of despair.

Diving headfirst into what remained of the subculture left over from the sixties, I took "party till you throw up" to new levels.  I liked drinking.  I liked the effect alcohol had on me.  I didn't like throwing up at all.  I soon discovered there were other substances I could take that would help me "control" my drinking.  A little bit of this or that, and I could nurse a drink all night.  Then I had a good time and didn't throw up.

pp. 310-311

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

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Eleven - "Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films."

Therefore, a great responsibility fell upon us to develop the best possible public relations policy for Alcoholics Anonymous. Through many painful experiences, we think we have arrived at what that policy ought to be. It is the opposite in many ways of usual promotional practice. We found that we had to rely upon the principle of attraction rather than of promotion.

pp. 180-181

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

Those who created yesterday's pain do not control tomorrow's
potential.
--unknown

The devil brings devastation; God offers restoration.
--unknown

"I do service in Alcoholics Anonymous because it reminds me of where
I came from . . . it keeps me green. And green things grow!"
--unknown

Most people's confusion comes in the area of their desires, not their
needs. Giving can be one of the greatest ways to receiving. If you
want more love, give love. If you want more joy, be joyful. Look for
the good in all things and situations, and you may be surprised at what
you see.
--John-Roger

All we need to do is allow more joy and love into our experience. We
need to really choose it, to allow ourselves to feel it, paying attention,
choosing to be alive and to be kind; allowing ourselves to feel and to
be nurtured by the natural order of the Spirit of God. When we choose
and allow it, the dramas fall away and dissolve.
--Patricia Sun

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it
takes to sit down and listen.
--Winston Churchill

"Fear less, hope more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more;
Hate less, love more; And all good things are yours."
--Swedish Proverb

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

Father Leo's Daily Meditation

SHARING

"The mass of men lead lives of
quiet desperation."
-- Henry David Thoreau

I thought that I was the only one who felt like I did. Nobody could
possibly understand. I was different from everybody and needed
to keep my life -- my true life -- a secret. I was living a life of
quiet desperation! Then I went to a meeting for recovering
alcoholics and heard somebody share my pain, my loneliness, my
confusion, my addiction -- my life.

I was lonely because I kept myself separate from people. I saw
them as being different from myself, and so I remained the lonely
and isolated victim. Strange how similar we are when we begin to
share. When we get beneath culture, class and creed, we discover
sensitive human beings trying to make sense of their lives. We need
each other.

May I risk rejection in my spiritual need to share and be known.

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

The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor
and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright. But their swords will
pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken. Better the little
that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; for the power
of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
The days of the blameless are known to the LORD, and their
inheritance will endure forever. In times of disaster they will not
wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty. But the wicked will
perish: The LORD's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they
will vanish--vanish like smoke.
Psalm 37:14-20

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as
the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be
afraid."
John 14:27

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

Daily Inspiration

You make a difference every time you smile, speak kindly or give of yourself.
Lord, You ask for nothing but goodness of me. What peace it brings to my soul.

Listen carefully to the things you say. The advice we give to others is often the
best advice for us to follow. Lord, help me to follow that which I know is right
even when it is difficult.

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

NA Just For Today

Courage To Change

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
Serenity Prayer

Recovery involves change, and change means doing things differently. The problem is, many of us resist doing things differently; what we're doing may not be working, but at least we're familiar with it. It takes courage to step out into the unknown. How do we find that courage?

We can look around ourselves at NA meetings. There, we see others who've found they needed to change what they were doing and who've done so successfully. Not only does that help quiet our fear that change - any change - spells disaster, it also gives us the benefit of their experience with what does work, experience we can use in changing what doesn't.

We can also look at our own recovery experience. Even if that experience, so far, has been limited to stopping the use of drugs, still we have made many changes in our lives - changes for the good. Whatever aspects of our lives we have applied the steps to, we have always found surrender better than denial, recovery superior to addiction. Our own experience and the experience of others in NA tells us that "changing the things I can" is a big part of what recovery is all about. The steps and the power to practice them give us the direction and courage we need to change. We have nothing to fear.

Just for today: I welcome change. With the help of my Higher Power, I will find the courage to change the things I can.
pg. 274

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

You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
Education should be the process of helping everyone to discover his uniqueness. --Leo Buscaglia
We are each special, which means there is not another person just like ourselves. Nobody looks just like us. Nobody's voice sounds quite like our own. And nobody thinks through a story just like we do.
Each of us has been created for a special purpose. Maybe it's for what we'll teach a friend, or the way we'll help a sister or a brother. Every day will give us chances to offer our special talents to others. Our being alive is God's way of proving that we're important to the family, the neighborhood, and the world.
What important task lies before me today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Sexuality expresses God's intention that people find authentic humanness not in isolation but in relationship. --James B. Nelson
We men have regarded our sex lives and our spiritual lives as two different worlds. This attitude has caused many crises -- anger and frustration with our partners, power struggles, accusations and hurt feelings, shame and guilt about our own behavior.
We can join our spirituality with our sexual selves by taking responsibility for being sexual. Being responsible means we take the risk of being vulnerable, of giving and receiving affection and sexual expression in our relationships. We cannot expect satisfaction of our desires simply because we feel them. In sexuality, as in all parts of our lives, our Higher Power is our guide. We can also say no to sexual expression if we wish.
God guide my sexual awareness today. Open me to experience sexuality as a creative gift for relationships.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
What difference does it make how I am treated by life? My real life is within. --Angela L. Wozniak
It is said that we teach people how to treat us. How we treat others invites similar treatment. Our response to the external conditions of our lives can be greatly altered by our perceptions of those conditions. And we have control of that perception. No experience has to demoralize us. Each situation can be appreciated for its long-term contribution to our growth as happy, secure women.
No outside circumstances will offer us full time and forever the security we all long for. And in like manner, none will adversely interfere with our well being, except briefly and on occasion.
The program offers us the awareness that our security, happiness, and well being reside within. The uplifting moments of our lives may enhance our security, but they can't guarantee that it will last. Only the relationship we have with ourselves and God within can promise the gift of security.
The ripples in my day are reminders to me to go within.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Spontaneity
In recovery, we're learning to let ourselves go! We're learning to be spontaneous.
Spontaneity may frighten some of us. We may be afraid of the loss of control involved with spontaneity. We may still be operating under the codependent rules that prohibit spontaneity: be good; be right; be perfect; be strong; don't have fun; and always be in control.
We may associate spontaneity with acting out in an addictive, compulsive, self destructive, or irresponsible manner.
That's not what we're talking about in recovery. Positive spontaneity involves freely expressing who we are - in a way that is fun, healthy, doesn't hurt us, and doesn't infringe on the right of others.
We learn to be spontaneous and free as we grow in self-awareness and self esteem. Spontaneity emerges as our confidence and trust in ourselves increase, and we become more secure in our ability to maintain healthy boundaries.
Being spontaneous is connected to our ability to play and achieve intimacy. For all those desirable acts, we need to be able to let go of our need to control others and ourselves and fully and freely enter into the present moment.
Let go of your tight rein on yourself. So what if you make a mistake? So what if you're wrong? Relish your imperfections. Let yourself be a little needy, a little vulnerable. Take a risk!
We can be spontaneous without hurting ourselves, or others. In fact, everyone will benefit by our spontaneity.
Today, I will throw out the rulebook and enjoy being who I am. I will have some fun with the gift of life, others, and myself.


I am very grateful for this day. I am grateful for all the love and inspiration that I receive from my Higher Power wherever I ask. I just stop and tune in to this universal energy and am transformed to the level of my willingness. --Ruth Fishel

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

Journey To The Heart

Discover What Interests You

There are many magical things to learn in our world and many people happy to teach us how to do them.

Are there things or activities you’ve been interested in, but you’ve talked yourself out of? Is there something new you’d like to learn how to do or at least explore? What sounds like fun to you?

What interests you? You have a right to be creative. You deserve to learn and grow. Find activities that stimulate you, teach you, help you learn more about yourself and life. Do the things your heart leads you to do.

How easy it is to talk ourselves out of trying something new. Let yourself enjoy life. Let yourself do the things you want to do.

Begin a journey of discovery. Find out what interests you. Listen to yourself for a few days, for a few weeks. Discover what stimulates your creative juices. Then follow that idea through.

*****

more language of letting go
Experience your life

As soon as you say, "I want to change"-- make a program-- a counter force is created that prevents you from change. Changes are taking place by themselves. If you go deeper into what you are, if you accept what is there, then a change automatically occurs by itself. This is the paradox of change.
--Frederick S. Perls

Dr. Frederick S. Perls, founder of Gestalt therapy, profoundly influenced my life. When I worked in therapeutic communities, to "Gestalt" a feeling meant to go fully into that feeling, to become one with the feeling, to totally and completely accept the feeling and the experience as a means of transcending, healing, or dealing with it.

How do we change? Don't force yourself. Let yourself change. Let yourself be. Go as fully into the experience of your life, your feelings, and being you that you can.

When you come out, you'll be different.

Accept who you are then,too.

Don't intellectualize your life. Experience it.

God, help me accept who and where I am, and how I feel today. Then tomorrow, help me do the same.

*****

An Exercise in Self
Seeking Advice from Yourself by Madisyn Taylor

A helpful exercise is to set up an advisory panel of your past, present, and future selves.

Since we probably know ourselves better than anyone else does, then we may very well be the best person to ask for advice when we are in a quandary. One interesting exercise is to try asking for advice from your past and future selves. There is the younger self that you used to be and the older, more mature self that you will become. You can gain a different perspective when you view present situations through your younger self’s eyes or your mature self’s more experienced point of view. Perhaps, your younger self would view a current dilemma in a more innocent, less cynical way. Likewise, your older, hopefully wiser, self may offer advice from a more compassionate, experienced perspective.

Think back to how you viewed the world when you were younger. What were your thoughts on happiness, love, and injustice? Think about how you would have reacted to a dilemma you are currently facing. The perspective may shed a different light on relationships, money matters, or life decisions. Likewise, think about the person you will become. A more mature version of you might mull a problem or conflict over carefully before taking action right away… or perhaps not. Maybe your older self would be more willing to take risks, care less about what other people think, and want to enjoy life more.

You can even set up an advisory panel of your past, present, and future selves. You might even want to try to have a written dialogue with your selves to record the thoughts, feelings, and advice that your younger and older selves might have for your present self regarding a current situation. Your different selves can give you some invaluable answers. After all, no one can know you better than your selves. You are your wisest guide. Published with permission from Daily OM

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

A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

“When a man has reached a condition in which he believed that a thing must happen when he does not wish it, and that which he wishes to happen can never be, this is really the state called desperation.” Schopenhauer.

The very real pain of emotional difficulties is sometimes very hard to take while we’re trying to maintain sobriety. Yet we learn, in time, that overcoming such problems is the real test of The Program’s way of living. Do I believe that adversity gives me more opportunity to grow than does comfort or success?

Today I Pray

May I believe firmly that God, in His infinite wisdom, does not send me those occasional moments of emotional stress in order to tease my sobriety, but to challenge me to grow in my control and my conviction. May I learn not to be afraid of emotional summits and canyons for The Program has outfitted me for all kinds of terrain.

Today I Will Remember

Strength through adversity.

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

One More Day

The natural wish of every human being, the weakest as well as the wisest, seems to be, to leave some memorial of themselves to posterity.
– Susan Edmonstone Ferrier

Each of us wants to leave evidence of our having lived. To perpetuate our names, we may work and play hard all our lives, or we may attempt to fine-tune sports skills or handcrafts.

We become gradually aware that material records of our lives will merely note our names and dates; they will not record who we are and what we value. The essence of each of us is found in each day, each moment. It is in living each day fully that we proclaim our worth and reflect it to our loved ones. What really matters, we realize, is how we spend our present, not how we try to manipulate the future. Living richly today is our memorial.

I will use today as a complete gift unto itself, not as a small brick for a future monument.

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

Food For Thought

A New Self-Image

As we lose weight, our self-image needs to change along with our body. We may have had a mental image of our self as a thin person, but this image probably did not go beyond the physical. If we continue to think of our self as the same confused, compulsive, childish person we once were, we are not facilitating our emotional and spiritual growth.

The OA program gives us the power to become a new person. If we see ourselves as daily growing saner, more serene, more confident, reality will reflect our inner vision.

Perhaps the most important change in our self-image involves our relationship to our Higher Power. Before, we probably saw ourselves as the center of our world and devoted our energies to protecting and building up our fragile ego. We were all alone in an unfriendly world. Now, we see ourselves as God’s creation, subject to His purpose and plan. As we yield to His authority and accept His love, we find strength, security, and peace. By losing ourselves, we find ourselves.

Create in me a new self-image.

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

One Day At A Time

FILLING THE VOID
“You can't have everything.
Where would you put it?”
Steven Wright.

I’d thought marriage alone would heal all the hurts I’d gathered up in my life. My husband, also the product of a dysfunctional family, felt the same way. We quickly learned that our love for each other was not enough to our emptiness.

I was used to using food to temporarily fill my inner-holes; he was used to abusing another substance to fill his. Neither worked well, and we soon discovered that buying things we didn’t need would help to temporarily fill some of our hurts. Pretty soon we had a house that was full of things we’d bought that had given only a few moments of pleasure at best.

One of the benefits of program life is that I’ve learned to fill the holes within me in ways that really work. I want to make my life more simple and less cluttered. Three years later, I’m still getting rid of things we bought and never used again. But the best part is we can go to the mall when we really do need something and not feel the compulsion to buy something we don’t need.
One day at a time...
I will use the lessons I've learned working the program to finally heal the hurts within me instead of looking for material things to repair these inner-holes.
~ Rhonda H.

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

AA 'Big Book' - Quote

We suggest you draw the book to the attention of the doctor who is to attend your patient during treatment. If the book is read the moment the patient is able, while acutely depressed, realization of his condition may come to him.
We hope the doctor will tell the patient the truth about his condition, whatever that happens to be. When the man is presented with this volume it is best that no one tell him he must abide by its suggestions. The man must decide for himself. - Pg. 144 - To Employers

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

The professionals in our new life may appraise our situation better than us. They are not romantically linked to our love affair with drugs. Therefore, their evaluation may be more nearly correct.

May I have the ability to listen to those trying to help me; they honestly may be more objective than myself.

Loving Myself through Action

I want to do something special for myself today. Giving to others and withholding from myself doesn't work. I tend to treat other people the way that I treat myself. If I am stingy with me, I will, somewhere along the line, act that out with other people. If I am hard on myself, I will tend to be hard on others. I am the only person who is with me all hours of the day and I know what feels good and warm to me. I know what makes me feel sustained from within. Today, I will encourage, support and congratulate myself. Each time I do something that pleases me I'll say 'thank you' to myself. Each time I do something well, I'll tell myself 'good job.'

I will be my own best cheerleader.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

When you are having a bad day, lower your expectations and start over!

The more I work on me - the better most people behave.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Today do something for someone you love: Leave them alone.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

I am very grateful for this day.

I am grateful for all the love and inspiration that I receive from my Higher Power wherever I ask.

I just stop and tune in to this universal energy and am transformed to the level of my willingness.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

We have an approach called the Dumb Guy Approach to sobriety. We follow the directions that are in the AA Big Book. We don't make up any directions, there are already directions in here. If the book says we should read, we read. If it says to pray, we pray. If it says write, we write. Simple as that; 'Duh dum, ah what the hell, I can do that.' - Milt L.

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

AA Thought for the Day

September 20

Confusion
I began to question my new beliefs too much -- I began to panic. I began to read beyond AA's literature for answers. . .
before I had read too much about the subject of spiritual beliefs, I realized I was asking too much too soon.
Wisely, I left the philosophy books to minds more capable than mine.
I could not risk further mental confusion. I returned to the teachings of AA,
which had already saved me from a life of torment.
- Came To Believe . . ., p. 120

Thought to Ponder . . .
Stop looking to find.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Answer Available.

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

Balance
"Most of us must admit that we have loved but a few;
that we have been indifferent to the many
so long as none of them gave us trouble;
and as for the remainder -- well, we have really
disliked or hated them.
Although these attitudes are common enough,
we AA's find we need something much better
in order to keep our balance.
We can't stand it if we hate deeply.
The idea that we can be possessively loving of a few,
and can continue to fear or hate anybody,
has to be abandoned, if only a little at a time."
c. 1952AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pp. 92-3

Thought to Consider . . .
Bigotry disfigures the heart.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
F A I T H = Facing All In Trusting Him

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

Publicity
From "The Three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous":
"In September, 1939, the Liberty [magazine] piece hit the newsstands. It was a bit lurid, and we thought the title, 'Alcoholics and God,' would scare off plenty of prospects. Maybe it did, but several hundred alcoholics and their families were not scared. Liberty magazine received 800 urgent pleas for help, which were promptly turned over to [office manager] Ruth and me [Bill W.]. She wrote fine personal letters to every one of them, enclosing a leaflet which described the A.A. book. The response was wonderful [sic] Several hundred books sold at once at full retail price of $3.50. Even more importantly, we struck up a correspondence with alcoholics, their friends, and their families all over the country. Ruth could at last draw a few dollars a week for herself. And all those moving appeals for assistance had made us forget our own troubles. Looking after all those new people by mail and relating [sic] them in some cases to each other and in others to the groups in Akron, New York, and Cleveland became our chief occupation until early 1940. Shortly after the Liberty article came out, Cleveland's Plain Dealer ran its great series of pieces, as already described. This brought in new book orders and new problems by scores. Alcoholics Anonymous was on the march, out of its infancy into adolescence."
2001 AAWS, Inc.; Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pg. 178

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

"There has to be something to be grateful for if I am only willing to change my attitude and look for it."
Mesa, Ariz., March 2010
"Not On Fire"
Emotional Sobriety II

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

"Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is a
fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. There you will find release from
care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will
mean something at last. The most satisfactory years of your
existence lie ahead."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, A Vision For You, pg. 152~~

In some circumstances we have gone out deliberately to get drunk,
feeling ourselves justified by nervousness, anger, worry,
depression, jealousy or the like. But even in this type of
beginning we are obliged to admit that our justification for a spree was
insanely insufficient in the light of what always happened. We
now see that when we began to drink deliberately, instead or
casually, there was little serious or effective thought during the period
of premeditation of what the terrific consequences might be.
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, More About Alcoholism, pg. 37~

But he had found God -- and in finding God had found himself.
-Alcoholics Anonymous p. 158

They have found wisdom beyond their usual capability.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 104

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

The achievement of freedom from fear is a lifetime undertaking, one that can never be wholly completed.
When under heavy attack, acute illness, or in other conditions of serious insecurity, we shall all react to this emotion - well or badly, as the case may be. Only the self-deceived will claim perfect freedom from fear.
We finally saw that faith in some kind of God was a part of our make-up. Sometimes we had to search persistently, but He was there. He was as much a fact as we were. We found the Great Reality deep down within us.

Prayer for the Day: God's Answer - I asked God for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for help that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things. No, dear Lord, I've gotten nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for. Despite myself, my prayers were answered. And I am the most richly blessed.