Daily Recovery Readings - June 6

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God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
and Wisdom to know the difference.
Thy will, not mine, be done.

June 6

Daily Reflections

ALL WE DO IS TRY

Can He now take them all -- every one?
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 76

In doing Step Six it helped me a lot to remember that I am striving for
"spiritual progress." Some of my character defects may be with me for
the rest of my life, but most have been toned down or eliminated. All
that Step Six asks of me is to become willing to name my defects, claim
them as my own, and be willing to discard the ones I can, just for today.
As I grow in the program, many of my defects become more
objectionable to me than previously and, therefore, I need to repeat Step
Six so that I can become happier with myself and maintain my serenity.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Drinking is the way we alcoholics express our maladjustment's to life. I
believe that I was a potential alcoholic from the start. I had an inferiority
complex. I didn't make friends easily. There was a wall between me and
other people. And I was lonely. I was not well adjusted to life. Did I
drink to escape from myself?

Meditation For The Day

According to the varying needs of each person, so does each person
think of God. It is not necessary that you think of God as others think of
Him, but it is necessary that you think of Him as supplying what you
personally need. The weak need God's strength. The strong need God's
tenderness. The tempted and fallen need God's saving grace. The
righteous needs God's pity for sinners. The lonely need God as a friend.
The fighters for righteousness need a leader in God. You may think of
God in any way you wish. We usually do not turn to God until we need
Him.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may think of God as supplying my needs. I pray that I will
bring all my problems to Him for help in meeting them.

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As Bill Sees It

Imagination Can Be Constructive, p. 157

We recall, a little ruefully, how much store we used to set by
imagination as it tried to create reality out of bottles. Yes, we
reveled in that sort of thinking, didn't we? And, though sober
nowadays, don't we often try to do much the same thing?

Perhaps our trouble was not that we used our imagination. Perhaps
the real trouble was our almost total inability to point imagination
toward the right objectives. There's nothing the matter with truly
constructive imagination; all sound achievement rests upon it. After
all, no man can build a house until he first visions a plan for it.

12 & 12, p. 100

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Walk in Dry Places

My opportunities are in change
Personal Growth.
It’s common to hear a recovering person voice apprehensions about an impending change. This apprehension only results from our fear that change will mean loss.
There can never be any permanent loss if we are solidly anchored in our spiritual program. Our Higher Power is the guiding force in all change and will make all things right as events unfold.
We should also remember that change brought us to our present situation. Any good we now enjoy came to us by a certain process. Even painful experiences have been valuable lessons.
There is no way we can avoid change; it is a built-in condition of life. We can accept it more gracefully if we view it as God’s way of bringing us opportunity.
Any change that I sense today is just a signal for the arrival of new opportunities. Even if changes seem uncomfortable, I'll welcome all such change.

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Keep It Simple

Fortunate are the people whose roots are deep.---Agnes Meyer
A tree's roots seek water and minerals. Though the roots can't be seen easily seen, they are there.
The life of the tree depends on them. The stronger a tree's roots, the higher a tree can grow.
We need to set deep roots into the soil of recovery. The soil of recovery is made up of the Twelve Steps, fellowship, and service to others. We'll have to get through storms and high winds in our return to health. In so doing, we'll become beautiful, strong, and spiritual. We'll be able to live with both the gentle breezes and the heavy winds of life.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me believe in what I can't see. Just as I believe that the roots of a tree are there because I can see the leaves. I believe in a Higher Power because I can see the results.
Action for the Day: I will ask myself, "Which Step do I need to work on the most right now?" I will volunteer to give a meeting on that Step.

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Each Day a New Beginning

From early infancy onward we all incorporate into our lives the message we receive concerning our self-worth, or lack of self-worth, and this sense of value is to be found beneath our actions and feelings as a tangled network of self-perception. --Christina Baldwin
Lifting our self-esteem is not a particularly easy task for most of us. It's probable that again and again our confidence wavered before we sought help from the program. It's also probable that our confidence still wanes on occasion. The old fears don't disappear without effort.
But each day we can do some one thing that will help us to feel better about ourselves. All it takes is one small act or decision, each day. The program can give us the strength we need each day to move forward one step.
Today, I will do one thing I've been putting off. A whole collection of "one days" will lay the groundwork for the person I'm building within.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 11 - A Vision For You

Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.
May God bless you and keep you—until then.

p. 164

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

A LATE START - "It's been ten years since I retired, seven years since I joined A.A. Now I can truly say that I am a grateful alcoholic."

Small miracles keep offering new opportunities just when I need change and growth. New friends have shown me hidden truths in those sayings that I once found so shallow. The lessons of tolerance and acceptance have taught me to look beyond exterior appearances to find the help and wisdom so often lurking beneath the surface. All my sobriety and growth, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, are dependent upon my willingness to listen, understand, and change.

p. 542

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Eight - "Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers."

Take the case of the club janitor and cook. If a club is going to function, it has to be habitable and hospitable. We tried volunteers, who were quickly disenchanted with sweeping floors and brewing coffee seven days a week. They just didn't show up. Even more important, an empty club couldn't answer its telephone, but it was an open invitation to a drunk on a binge who possessed a spare key. So somebody had to look after the place full time. If we hired an alcoholic, he'd receive only what we'd have to pay a nonalcoholic for the same job. The job was not to do Twelfth Step work; it was to make Twelfth Step work possible. It was a service proposition, pure and simple.

pp. 167-168

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Live to learn and you will learn to live.
--Portuguese Proverb

It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the
consequences of dodging our responsibilities.
--Sir Josiah Stamp

You cannot raise a man up by calling him down.
--William Boetcker

"Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person
is like expecting a bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian."
--Dennis Wholey

Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.
--Will Rogers

Realize the acts of others are not for or against you. They are
experiences in his or her life.
--unknown

We do not have to be perfect, self assured, and untarnished, to be
accepted and loved.
--SweetyZee

Anxiety separates us from experiencing a great life. So caught up are we
in our worry, we may even cut ourselves off from giving and receiving
love. God invites us into a fuller life in which we recognize that there is
no anxiety that our Creator cannot handle, if we only remember to ask.
--Mary Manin Morrissey

Nothing can separate us from God's love.
--Luis Aramayo

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

SCIENCE

"As long as men are free to ask
what they must - free to say what
they think - free to think what they
will - freedom can never be lost
and science can never regress."
--J. Robert Oppenheimer

We need to press on in this wonderful journey of life because new
discoveries await us in our tomorrows. Spirituality always brings joy in
the journey. In the traveling is the fun for we will never reach our
destination in this life.

The freedom to question is the discipline of science, and science is
involved in the treatment and recovery of addiction. We must always be
looking for better ways of treatment, more vivid ways of teaching and
creative aids to recovery.

Science, and every other creative discipline, should be used in the
treatment of addictions: God is to be found in the many.

Lord, let us remember that You gave mankind a scalpel and a prayer
book.

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"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man;
but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what
you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape,
that you may be able to bear it."
1 Corinthians 10:13

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and
in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how
we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn
us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.
1 John 3:18-20

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher
than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:9

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Daily Inspiration

Even the most difficult of trials is God's way of preparing us for something else. Lord, may I view my challenges as an opportunity to grow rather than as an opportunity to fail.

Jesus said, "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.". Lord, I pray, I believe, and I thank you even before it is fulfilled.

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NA Just For Today

Recovery Doesn't Happen Overnight

"The Twelve Steps of Narcotics Anonymous are a progressive recovery process established in our daily living."
Basic Text, p. 96

After some time in recovery, we may find we are faced with what seem like overwhelming personal problems, angry feelings, and despair. When we realize what's going on, we may wail, "But I've been working so hard. I thought I was..." Recovered, maybe? Not hardly. Over and over, we hear that recovery is an ongoing process and that we are never cured. Yet we sometimes believe that if we just work our steps enough, pray enough, or go to enough meetings, we'll eventually... Well, maybe not be cured, but be something!

And we are "something." We're recovering-recovering from active addiction. No matter what we've dealt with through the process of the steps, there will always be more. What we didn't remember or didn't think was important in our first inventory will surely present itself later on. Again and again, we'll turn to the process of the steps to deal with what's bothering us. The more we use this process the more we'll trust it, for we can see the results. We go from anger and resentment to forgiveness, from denial to honesty and acceptance, and from pain to serenity.

Recovery doesn't happen overnight, and ours will never be complete. But each day brings new healing and the hope for more tomorrow.

Just for today: I will do what I can for my recovery today and maintain hope in the ongoing process of recovery.

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You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
A good anger acted upon is beautiful as lightning and swift with power. A good anger swallowed clots the blood like slime.
--Marge Piercy
How does it feel when someone tells us we should play basketball when we don't want to? Often, it angers us that someone else is telling us what to do. After we have been told we should do something many times, we begin to believe it and forget how we really feel. Even though we have forgotten what we wanted to do, we feel angry, often without realizing it. Such hidden anger can leave us feeling bad without knowing why.
It is important to know when we are angry, and to say so. There are healthy ways of expressing anger without blaming others. Saying we are angry, and thereby claiming it as our own feeling and not something others force on us, is a way to express it which also affirms our right to be angry.
If there is anger in me today, can I express it correctly?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
Words and magic were in the beginning one and the same thing, and even today words retain much of their magical power. --Sigmund Freud
We shape our experiences with the words we use to describe them. Word images create expectations and we naturally move toward them. When a man says, "I can't!" he is commanding his unconscious self to be helpless. When he has a picture in his mind of moving toward his goal, he may say, "It's hard, but I'm going to give it my best effort." If, every time he makes a mistake, he mutters berating statements to himself like, "You idiot! You can't do anything right," he is teaching himself to be inadequate.
It's our responsibility in recovery to use respectful, honest, health- giving words. We can no longer use defeating, shaming, or derogatory words. Our language has a hypnotic effect on us and the people around us. So let's look at our resources today and name them. Let's meet our difficulties with our strength, our patience, and the backing of our Higher Power.
Today, I will call forth images and use words to show I respect myself and others.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
>From early infancy onward we all incorporate into our lives the message we receive concerning our self-worth, or lack of self-worth, and this sense of value is to be found beneath our actions and feelings as a tangled network of self-perception. --Christina Baldwin
Lifting our self-esteem is not a particularly easy task for most of us. It's probable that again and again our confidence wavered before we sought help from the program. It's also probable that our confidence still wanes on occasion. The old fears don't disappear without effort.
But each day we can do some one thing that will help us to feel better about ourselves. All it takes is one small act or decision, each day. The program can give us the strength we need each day to move forward one step.
Today, I will do one thing I've been putting off. A whole collection of "one days" will lay the groundwork for the person I'm building within.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
The Gift of Readiness
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. --Step Six of Al-Anon
We progress to the Sixth Step by working diligently, to the best of our ability, on the first Five Steps. This work readies us for a change of heart, openness to becoming changed by a Power greater than ourselves - God.
The path to this willingness can be long and hard. Many of us have to struggle with a behavior or feeling before we become ready to let it go. We need to see, over and over again, that the coping device that once protected us is no longer useful.
The defects of character referred to in Step Six are old survival behaviors that once helped us cope with people, life, and ourselves. But now they are getting in our way, and it is time to be willing to have them removed.
Trust in this time. Trust that you are being readied to let go of that which is no longer useful. Trust that a change of heart is being worked out in you.
God, help me become ready to let go of my defects of character. Help me know, in my mind and soul, that I am ready to let go of my self defeating behaviors, the blocks and barriers to my life.


I know that I cannot be hurt by anyone if I consistently look for their best. Today I continue to search out the best in all my relationships, looking for something I can love in everyone. --Ruth Fishel

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Journey To The Heart

Learn to Change Your Energy

The simple act of moving around can change your energy. When your mind starts to flag, move your body around. Go for a walk, take a bath, get a drink of water, work out at the gym. You’re doing more than moving your body, you’re changing and rearranging your energy field.

Listen to your body. It will say what it needs, what it would like, what would be helpful. If you let it, it will even move quite naturally to what would do it good. Stretch your legs. Stretch your arms. Go outside. Do some deep breathing. Call a friend. Meditate. Tell a joke to a co-worker. You don’t have to stay stuck in the energy you’re in. You don’t have to be a victim to the way you feel right now.

One of the powers we learn we have is the ability to shift, refocus, and rearrange our energy. When we get stuck in a particular emotion or reaction or mind-set, when we get bogged down or too fired up, we can save ourselves a lot of time by changing our energy, instead of hammering away at a change in the situation. Learn to tell when it is time to do that. Then discover what works for you– the little acts as well as the big ones.

Be gentle with yourself when you get stuck, when you need a fresh viewpoint. Learn to change and rearrange your energy as needed.

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More Language Of Letting Go

Let go of tension

In Find and Use Your Inner Power, author Emmet Fox used the metaphor of trying to force a key into the lock to unlock the door. When we’re tense and afraid, Fox explained, we fumble. Sometimes the very key that is the right key doesn’t work because we’re trying to force it, because we’re so tense and uptight.

Relax. See! The less control and force you use, the better.

Maybe the key you’ve been trying to use all along is the right one. Maybe it was your fear and panic that was keeping you from unlocking the door. Maybe you were trying to force it, after all.

See how easily and naturally things work out when you just simply relax and let go. You will tap into your true power and the power of the universe when you move, love, work, and play from a place of relaxed and calm inner peace.

Move from your center. Let things work out.

God, help me stay serene, confident, and joyful as I go through my day.

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Staying Grounded
Foot Cleansing Rituals by Madisyn Taylor

Our feet are our primary means of connecting with the earth but remain so neglected confined to shoes.

In most contemporary cultures, where there aren’t many opportunities to go barefoot, few acts are as intimate as touching the feet of another person. Our feet are our primary means of connecting with the earth, yet they usually remain confined in shoes or sandals. Cleansing the feet of a friend or loved one is a sign of trust, closeness, and openness. Cleansing your own feet can be a relaxing interlude that can help you feel refreshed. Foot cleansing also has become a popular stress reliever and beautification ritual.

Ritual foot cleansing has a long and intricate history involving many methods and motivations. It has been used as an initiation, a welcoming gesture, a purification ceremony, and as a means to demonstrate humbleness. Cleansing ceremonies involving the feet are performed in many different parts of the world. In many cases, the meaning of the ritual was twofold. It was a way of cleaning a guest’s feet before entering a home and a sign of hospitality. In Buddhism, clean water mixed with sandalwood to clean the feet is one of the eight typical offerings. By cleansing the feet of an enlightened being, it is possible to cleanse one’s own karma.

You can perform a foot washing ritual on yourself or a companion as a ceremonial activity or as a way to unwind. You may want to start by trying a traditional ritual, or you might feel comfortable inventing your own. Try mixing elements like traditional flower infused water with something more modern like a sugar scrub. Take the time to set your intention for the foot washing ritual. Perhaps you would like to cleanse away old energies in your life so you may step freely toward your future. Or, maybe soaking your feet in warm water will help you relax after a long day at work. Remember to thank your feet for their support. Whether done with pleasure or as an offering, a foot cleansing ritual is a sacred act that honors the divine in you and others. Published with permission from Daily OM

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A Day At A Time

Reflection For The Day

Adjusting myself to things as they are, and being able to love without trying to interfere with or control anyone else, however close to me — that’s one of the important things I search for and can find in The Program. The learning is sometimes painful; however, the reward is life itself — full and serene. Is The Program helping restore me to a sane and reasonable way of thinking, so I can handle my interpersonal relationships with love and understanding?

Today I Pray

May I respect those that I love enough to set them free — to stop controlling, manipulating, scheming, balling them out of trouble. May I love them enough to let them make their own mistakes and take responsibility for them. May I learn to let go.

Today I Will Remember

Love is letting Go.

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One More Day

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul.
– Mohandas Gandhi

Some people have suggested that we shouldn’t ask for something in prayer. Yes our need to pray is often fueled by emotional or physical pain or by confusion or doubt. Certainly we can’t — certainly we shouldn’t — wait for distressing situations to pass before we pray or meditate.

Our soul long for balance and serenity, and we find this when we turn our pain, doubts, and fears over to the comforting presence of our Higher Power. Often what we seek is not an answer to a question as much as a sense of being loved and understood. When we can’t find these in our physical world, we reach out with our spiritual selves to a balancing presence that understands our deepest pains and fears and our greatest joys.

No matter what I express in prayer, I am comforted in knowing I’m understood.

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Food For Thought

A New Boss

When we turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him, we have a new employer. From now on, we are working first of all for our Higher Power.

Before, we were probably motivated by egotism, the desire for personal power, prestige, and superiority. Since we were number one, we used our appetites to serve ourselves with the inevitable result that no amount of food, sex, or material wealth was enough. God did not create us to satisfy ourselves; He created us to serve Him.

Recovering a sense of stewardship may take time for those of us who have spent many years trying to gratify our own desires. We need to pause often each day to ask for God's guidance, so that the work we do, the activities we enjoy, and the thoughts we think may all serve Him. Under His direction, our talents and abilities develop and our appetites serve His purpose.

May my thoughts, appetites, and activities serve You.

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One Day At A Time

HUMAN EMOTION
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.
Only through experiences of trial and suffering
can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared,
ambition inspired and success achieved."
Helen Keller

While traveling through life, I have made choices that have injured myself and others. Others have made choices that have hurt me. Remembering and writing about my past has proved to bring up a plethora of negative emotions. At this moment I feel pain, remorse, anger, frustration, and am overwhelmed.

Every human on earth experiences these same feelings at one time or another. This is part of what I am here for. How could I ever comprehend bliss without experiencing misery? How could I enjoy inspiration without suffering depression? How could I appreciate peace without encountering turmoil? I am grateful for the problems life gives me -- partnered with the emotions they bring -- because without the bad I could not understand the good. Everything has its opposite. Things will always change. Things will always get better, just like the sun shines after each storm. The good news is that even though I may be experiencing negative feelings, I am learning empathy and I am gaining wisdom. And how much more will I value the rays of sunshine that break through the gray clouds?

One day at a time...
I will allow myself the honor of feeling human emotion. I will ask my Higher Power to give me comfort in my hardships and to help me remember why I am here. I will ask my Higher Power to open my heart to the lessons I am learning. For today, with hope and faith, I will look for the sunbeams shining through the haze.
~ Susanne

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AA 'Big Book' - Quote

For the type of alcoholic who is able and willing to get well, little charity, in the ordinary sense of the word, is needed or wanted. The men who cry for money and shelter before conquering alcohol, are on the wrong track. - Pg. 97 - Working With Others

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Compulsion is a word you will hear a lot now that you have made the decision to begin recovery. You may often feel compelled to drink or use drugs again even when you don't want to. Compulsion is a symptom of our disease and we use all the new tools of our program to counteract compulsions.

Please help me understand that compulsion is a symptom of my disease and as such need not be acted upon. I offer my compulsive behavior to God, as I understand God.

Entering the Darkness

Today, I will allow myself to enter into the dark and searing painful experiences of my past, and cry it all out. If I can bring emotional literacy and forgiveness into the 'occupied territory' of my inner world, I can give myself the freedom I desire. I have a world within me that is deep and peaceful. The grief that I carry hidden in silence has great feelings in the present, and I release them. There is no longer any safety for me in hiding. My security comes from full awareness and acceptance of who I am. Until I understand my grief and allow myself to know it, I will not be free of its grip.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

You must be prepared to make some unpopular decisions when you live by principle. You will not be able to please everyone. Be firm with others as you chose the principle and not the personality; be firm with your personality as it butts heads with your principles.

By practicing principles in all my affairs, I learn not to 'people please' but to 'Higher Power Please.'

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

If a solution isn't practical, it isn't spiritual.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

I know that I cannot to hurt by anyone if I consistently look for their best. Today I continue to search out the best in all my relationships, looking for something I can love in everyone.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

It's amazing how much we can learn after we think we know it all. - Anon.

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AA Thought for the Day

June 6

Awakening
I think I have had a spiritual awakening, as undramatic as it may have been,
and that it will go on and on as long as I continue to practice this program in my daily affairs.
To me, there is no "spiritual side" to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous;
the entire program is spiritual.
- Came To Believe . . ., p. 48

Thought to Ponder . . .
A spiritual awakening is our greatest gift.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
G I F T S = Getting It From The Steps.

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

Growing Up
"How many of us would presume to declare,
'Well, I'm sober and I'm happy.
What more can I want, or do?
I'm fine the way I am.'
We know that the price of such
self-satisfaction is an inevitable backslide,
punctuated at some point
by a very rude awakening.
We have to grow or else deteriorate.
For us, the status quo can only be for today,
never for tomorrow.
Change we must;
we cannot stand still."
Bill W., Box 1980: The AA Grapevine, June 1961
As Bill Sees It, p. 25

Thought to Consider....
The program has helped me grow up enough
to be a kid again.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
WISDOM
When Into Self, Discover Our Motives

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

Commitment
From "Destinations":
"That first step is very important, whether it is the first step of a beloved child learning to walk or the First Step, taken by
a man on his way to a new life. Looking into my little ones' faces, I can see the same qualities that we need for the
Twelve Steps of A.A.: daring, to stake everything on the attempt; a sense of direction, to be followed with no swerving,
no detour; decision, to move forward with out hesitation or reservation; determination, to make it all the way.
Destination: a full life, a free life, a serene life. Albany, Australia"
1973 AAWS, Inc.; Came to Believe, 30th printing 2004, pg. 93

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

"There will always be people in the Fellowship with whom I don't see eye-to-eye, but that doesn't mean we can't work
together. The Fellowship wouldn't be what it is today if we always saw eye-to-eye on everything."
Goffstown, New Hampshire, September 1994
"Principles Before Personalities,"
AA Grapevine

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

"Remember that we deal with alcohol, cunning, baffling, powerful!
Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all
power that One is God. May you find Him now!"
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, Page 58~

"We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that
we were alcoholics."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, More About Alcoholism, pg. 30~

At the very least, we shall have to come to grips with some of our worst character defects and take action toward their removal as quickly as we can.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 69

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

We recall, a little ruefully, how much store we used to set by imagination as it tried to create reality out of bottles. Yes, we revealed in that sort of thinking, didn't we? And, through sober nowadays, don't we often try to do much the same thing?
Perhaps our trouble was not that we used our imagination. Perhaps the real trouble was our almost total inability to point imagination toward the right objectives. there's nothing the matter with truly constructive imagination; all sound achievement rests upon it. After all, no man can build a house until he first visions a plan for it.

Prayer For The Day: Lord our God, inspire us to make our choices well and understand our responsibilities and the consequences of what we do. Help us to make good use of the opportunities that come to us. Lead us to be positive in our attitude, that we may work well with others and live this day to the full. Amen.