Daily Recovery Readings - August 19

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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.

August 19

Daily Reflections

A FRAME OF REFERENCE

Referring to our list [inventory] again. Putting out of our minds the
wrongs others had done, we resolutely looked for our own mistakes.
Where had we been selfish, dishonest, self-seeking and frightened?
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 67

There is a wonderful freedom in not needing constant approval from
colleagues at work or from the people I love. I wish I had known about
this Step before, because once I developed a frame of reference, I felt
able to do the next right thing, knowing that the action fit the situation
and that it was the correct thing to do.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

"People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about. There is a
wide variation in the way each one of us approaches and conceives of
the Power greater than ourselves. Whether we agree with a
particular approach or conception seems to make little difference.
There are questions for each of us to settle for ourselves. But in each
case the belief in a Higher Power has accomplished the miraculous, the
humanly impossible. There has come a revolutionary change in their
way of living and thinking." Has there been a revolutionary change in
me?

Meditation For The Day

Worship is consciousness of God's divine majesty. As you pause to
worship, God will help you raise your humanity to His divinity. The
earth is a material temple to enclose God's divinity. God brings to
those who worship Him a divine power, a divine love, and a divine
healing. You only have to open your mind to Him and try to absorb
some of His divine spirit. Pausing quietly in the spirit of worship, turn
your inward thoughts upward and realize that His divine power may be
yours, that you can experience His love and healing.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may worship God by sensing the eternal Spirit. I pray
that I may experience a new power in my life.

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As Bill Sees It

Privileged to Communicate, p. 231

Everyone must agree that we A.A.'s are unbelievably fortunate
people; fortunate that we have suffered so much; fortunate that
we can know, understand, and love each other so supremely well.

These attributes and virtues are scarcely of the earned variety.
Indeed, most of us are well aware that these are rare gifts which
have their true origin in our kinship born of a common suffering and
a common deliverance by the grace of God.

Thereby we are privileged to communicate with each other to a
degree and in a manner not very often surpassed among our
nonalcoholic friends in the world around us.

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

"I used to be ashamed of my condition and so didn't talk about it. But
nowadays I freely confess I am a depressive, and this has attracted
other depressives to me. Working with them has helped a great
deal."*

1. Grapevine, October 1959
2. Letter, 1954
*Bill added that he had no depression after 1955.

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Walk In Dry Places

Inventory is now
Personal Inventory.
In the early days of AA, the dramatic accounts of drinking escapades seemed to show honesty. Taking personal inventory often included telling others about bizarre behavior connected with drinking.
We know today that inventory ought to continue on a daily basis, even
though years have passed since our last drink. We've learned
through painful experiences that in sobriety we can still display many of
the shortcomings that plagued us as practicing alcoholics.
It can also be a trap to focus on our past wrongs rather than today's
faults. We may be using this focus on the past to avoid being
honest about where we stand today. Let's remember that inventory is always now. Taking inventory of the past won't help us with today's shortcomings.
I won't use a discussion of my past wrongs as a subterfuge to keep
from being honest about today's wrongs. I'll continue to take
personal inventory and admit wrongs as they come up.

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Keep It Simple

The future is made of the same stuff as the present. --- Simone Weil
We found we didn’t need magic to recover---we needed a miracle! Now we are walking miracles.
Part of our miracle is that we see how important today is. We can’t change our future unless we change today. So we live One Day at a Time. By living today well, we make our future better. There is comfort in knowing that the program will be there. Hope we’ll be there.
Old-timers say sobriety is easy if we go by one simple rule: don’t drink and go to meeting.
Life can get simpler; they don’t change much. Staying sober will be easier for us over time.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me keep my sobriety simple. Help me accept the rules of life.
Action for the Day: I will list three things that will be there for me tomorrow and the next day, because I’m working on them today.

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Each Day a New Beginning

...to have a crisis and act upon it is one thing. To dwell in perpetual crisis is another. --Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Exaggerating the negative element in our lives is familiar behavior for all too many of us. But this obsession is our choice. We can stop at any moment. We can decide to let go of a situation that we can't control, turn it over to God, and be free to look ahead at the possibilities for happiness.
Perhaps we can learn to accept a serious situation in our lives as a special opportunity for growth first of all, but even more as an opportunity to let God work in our lives. We learn to trust by giving over our dilemmas to God for solutions. With patience, we will see the right outcomes, and we will more easily turn to God the next time.
Crises will lessen in number and in gravity in direct proportion to the partnership we develop with our higher power. The stronger our dependence on that power, for all answers and all directions, the greater will our comfort be in all situations.
Serenity is the gift promised when we let God handle our lives. No crisis need worry us. The solution is only a prayer away.
I will take action against every crisis confronting me--I will turn to God. Each crisis is an invitation to serenity.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 11 - A Vision For You

In the chapter “Working With Others” you gathered an idea of how we approach and aid others to health. Suppose now that through you several families have adopted this way of life. You will want to know more of how to proceed from that point. Perhaps the best way of treating you to a glimpse of your future will be to describe the growth or the fellowship among us. Here is a brief account:
Years ago, in 1935, one of our number made a journey to a certain western city. From a business standpoint, his trip came off badly. Had he been successful in his enterprise, he would have been set on his feet financially which, at the time, seemed vitally important. But his venture would up in a law suit and bogged down completely. The proceeding was shot through with much hard feeling and controversy.

pp. 153-154

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

The Housewife Who Drank At Home

She hid her bottles in clothes hampers and dresser drawers. In A.A., she discovered she had lost nothing and had found everything.

I figured I'd be all right if I could find something I liked to do. So when the children were in school from nine to three, I started up a nice little business and was fairly successful in it. But not happy. Because I found that everything I turned to became a substitute for drink. And when all of life is a substitute for drink, there's no happiness, no peace. I still had to drink; I still needed that drink. Mere cessation from drinking is not enough for an alcoholic while the need for that drink goes on. I switched to beer. I had always hated beer but now I grew to love it. So that wasn't my answer either.

p. 299

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Seven - "Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. "

What a debate we had on that one! The Foundation was really hard up just then; the groups weren't sending in enough for the support of the office; we had been tossing in all the book income and even that hadn't been enough. The reserve was melting like snow in springtime. We needed that ten thousand dollars. "Maybe," some said, "the groups will never fully support the office. We can't let it shut down; it's far too vital. Yes, let's take the money. Let's take all such donations in the future. We're going to need them."

p. 164

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"Lost time is never found again."
--Benjamin Franklin

Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except
what you're going to do now and do it.
--William Durant

When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God,
because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own
happiness, and your own duty.
--Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924)

"It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes.
What matters most is getting off. You can not make progress without
making decisions."
--Jim Rohn

All that is necessary to make this world a better place to live is to
love....to love as He loved.
--Isadora Duncan

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of
throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned."
--Buddha

Whatever my problem today, I will let God have it. A solution is in the
making. I'll see it just as quickly as I can let go of the problem.
--unknown

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
--Shakespeare

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

DECISION

"When you see a snake, never
mind where he came from."
-- W. G. Benham

So many alcoholics have died looking for "the problem" that made
them drink. The wife, family, neighborhood or unemployment was
why they thought they got drunk. They died seeking a reason.
Alcoholics Anonymous clearly states that alcohol is the problem
for alcoholics.

Alcohol is the problem! A statement that is so simple yet so profound
in its healing. Today thousands upon thousands are choosing not to
die by not taking the first drink. To see the problem clearly and
honestly is the beginning of wisdom. O.A., ACoA, N.A., G.A.,
Al-Anon and others have used these simple principles with
profound results. Do I see the snake?

Teach me to avoid those things that cause me pain and destruction.

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"For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and
understanding."
Proverbs 2:6

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and
let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the
livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move
along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image
of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed
them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the
earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the
air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then
God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the
whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be
yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of
the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that
has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it
was so.
Genesis 1:26-30

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Daily Inspiration

Begin each day with the certainty that today is the best day of your life and watch what happens. Lord, I celebrate my life and give thanks for everything because for everything there is a reason.

Make today the best day of your life. Lord, I have been greatly blessed not only by what I have, but by those burdens that I have been spared.

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NA Just For Today

First Things First

"We apply effort to our most obvious problems and let go of the rest. We do the job at hand and, as we progress, new opportunities for improvement present themselves."
Basic Text, p. 54

It's been said that recovery is simple? All we've got to change is everything! That can seem a pretty tall order, especially when we first arrive in Narcotics Anonymous. After all, not many of us showed up at our first meeting because our lives were in great shape. On the contrary, a great many of us came to NA in the midst of the worst crises of our lives. We needed recovery, and quick!

The enormity of the change required in our lives can be paralyzing. We know we can't take care of all that needs to be done, not all at once. How do we start? Chances are, we've already started. We've done the first, most obvious things that needed to be done: We've stopped using drugs, and we've started going to meetings.

What do we do next? Pretty much the same thing, just more of it: >From where we are, we do what we can. We walk the path of recovery by picking up our feet and taking the step that's right in front of us. Only when that's been accomplished must we concern ourselves with what comes next. Slowly but surely, we'll find ourselves making progress down the path, visibly drawing closer each day to becoming the kind of person we'd like to be.

Just for today: I will walk the path of my recovery by taking the step right in front of me.
pg. 241

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You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
A tree grown in a cave does not bear fruit. --Kahlil Gibran
A tree planted in a cave would soon be stopped short in its growth. There would be no room for it to grow tall or blossom. It would only grow so far and then would grow no bigger.
Fear can be like a cave. We sometimes become fearful for the same reason we might enter a cave, looking for protection. But fear protects us from the new ideas and behavior we need in order to grow. Fear can keep us huddling inside it, watching life's opportunities pass by. When fear threatens to enclose us, we can take a deep breath and begin to do what we are afraid of doing. The cave will fade away as we step out into the sun, fresh air, and storms that are a part of growing.
What fear can I overcome today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Many of us grew up in situations that required us to be constantly on our guard. We became so keenly attuned to the people around us and how to please them or avoid their anger that we lost contact with our inner messages. Rather than developing skills for drawing upon our inner resources, we developed skills for looking outward and reacting to whatever confronted us. This method of survival may have been necessary in the past while we were under stress, but it doesn't allow us any rest or the possibility of simply following what we know and feel is right.
We are learning to know what we think and feel and to express it, even if it isn't always what others want to hear. We can be spontaneous now because we have room for mistakes in our lives. Our relationships are more reliable, and we have more energy from sincerity than from always striving to make a good appearance.
Today, it is more important for me to be sincere than to be on my guard.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
...to have a crisis and act upon it is one thing. To dwell in perpetual crisis is another. --Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Exaggerating the negative element in our lives is familiar behavior for all too many of us. But this obsession is our choice. We can stop at any moment. We can decide to let go of a situation that we can't control, turn it over to God, and be free to look ahead at the possibilities for happiness.
Perhaps we can learn to accept a serious situation in our lives as a special opportunity for growth first of all, but even more as an opportunity to let God work in our lives. We learn to trust by giving over our dilemmas to God for solutions. With patience, we will see the right outcomes, and we will more easily turn to God the next time.
Crises will lessen in number and in gravity in direct proportion to the partnership we develop with our higher power. The stronger our dependence on that power, for all answers and all directions, the greater will our comfort be in all situations.
Serenity is the gift promised when we let God handle our lives. No crisis need worry us. The solution is only a prayer away.
I will take action against every crisis confronting me--I will turn to God. Each crisis is an invitation to serenity.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Letting Go of Shame
Shame is that dark, powerful feeling that holds us back. Yes, shame can stop us from acting inappropriately. But many of us have learned to attach shame to healthy behaviors that are in our best interest.
In dysfunctional families, shame can be tagged to healthy behaviors such as talking about feelings, making choices, taking care of ourselves, having fun, being successful, or even feeling good about ourselves.
Shame may have been attached to asking for what we want and need, to communicating directly and honestly, and to giving and receiving love.
Sometimes shame disguises itself as fear, rage, indifference, or a need to run and hide, wrote Stephanie E. But if it feels dark and makes us feel bad about being who we are, it's probably shame.
In recovery, we are learning to identify shame. When we can recognize it, we can begin to let go of it. We can love and accept ourselves - starting now.
We have a right to be, to be here, and to be who we are. And we don't ever have to let shame tell us any differently.
Today, I will attack and conquer the shame in my life.


I value myself today. I value everything about me. I am finding people who value me as much as I value myself. I am attracting people who treat with me with love and respect. --Ruth Fishel

*****

Journey to the Heart
Your Destiny Is Now

The train seemed to move endlessly toward the horizon as I drove along beside it. To me, trains symbolize destiny. For a long time, the concept of destiny confused me. I wondered how to find my destiny. I hoped I had one. I wondered what it would feel like when I got there. But destiny doesn't bewilder me anymore. I enjoy seeing trains.

Destiny isn't some distant place, or a peak of fame and fortune. Destiny isn't one moment in our lives, one time when we shine for all the world to see. Those moments are nice, if they come. But there's more destiny than that.

Destiny is now. Destiny is each moment of our lives, shining through, linking together, like the endless cars on the train. Destiny means embracing each moment, being present for it, cherishing it because it is our now. Whether it holds exhilaration, discovery, sadness, tough decisions, or tender love, each moment is our destiny. Those moments of destiny link together in an endless chain to become our lives.


Let yourself live and be in each moment, with each person, learning each lesson along the way. Destiny isn't someplace we go. Destiny is where we are.

*****

more language of letting go
Enjoy and share the gifts

My friend was talking on the phone to his sister one day. They had a little sibling rivalry going on, but it was the good, motivating kind.

"I'm going to Asia," he said.

"Well, I've been to Africa and helped build a hospital there," she said.

They bantered back and forth about the places they'd been and where they hoped to go next. Then they decided that you got points only for how cool the trip had been-- and what you learned and what you did with the experience after you were there.

"You helped build that hospital for kids. You get a lot of points for that," he said. "But you don't get any points for Denmark. All you did was change planes. You didn't even look around and enjoy the sights. We'll have to talk again, in a few years, and see how many points we each have."

It's been said before, but it's important enough to say again: It's not just where you go; it's what you do with it that counts. Are you having great experiences, but keeping them to yourself? Are you bothering to get out of your chair and see the sights in your world, or are you staring at your TV? Are you trudging your path, but not gleaning any insights along the way? Are you doing anything of value with what you've learned, even if it's sharing your experience, strength, and hope with a close friend?

How many points do you have for really cool trips?

Part of saying thanks is sharing our lives with the world. The other part is learning to enjoy our lives, ourselves. Live and love and learn and see things; then pass those things on.

Don't just say thanks. Demonstrate your gratitude for life by living as fully as you can.


God, help me commit to doing something of value and service with the gift of my life, even if that means simply enjoying what I'm experiencing right now.

*****

Remember the Light Side
In Praise of Fun by Madisyn Taylor

During our journey we can become very serious, it is important to remember to have fun along the way.

Often when we talk about fun, or doing things just for fun, we talk about it in a dismissive way as if fun isn’t important. We tend to value hard work and seriousness, and we forget to pay our respects to the equally important, light side of silliness and laughter. This is ironic because we all know the feeling of euphoria that follows a good burst of laughter, and how it leaves us less stressed, more openhearted, and more ready to reach out to people. We are far more likely to walk down the street smiling and open after we’ve had a good laugh, and this tends to catch on, inspiring smiles from the people we pass who then positively influence everyone they encounter. Witnessing this kind of chain reaction makes you think that having fun might be one of our most powerful tools for changing the world.

Laughter is good medicine, and we all have this medicine available to us whenever we recall a funny story or act in a silly way. We magnify the effects of this medicine when we share it with the people in our lives. If we are lucky, they will have something funny to share with us as well, and the life-loving sound of laughter will continue to roll out of our mouths and into the world.

Of course, it is also important to allow ourselves to be serious and to honor that side of ourselves so that we stay balanced. After a great deal of merriment, it can actually be a pleasure to settle down and focus on work, or take some time for introspection until our next round of fun begins. Published with permission from Daily OM

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One More Day

The past should be culled like a box of fresh strawberries, rinsed of debris, sweetened judiciously and served in small portions, not very often.
– Laura Palmer

Many of us may dwell in the past, telling ourselves our yesterdays were better than our tomorrows will ever be. Living in “what was” can be dangerous, for we may be less adaptable to life’s changes.

Fond memories are healthy when they remind us how our lives are formed and shaped by our experiences. Memories reveal our development into the productive people we are today. Life does get better every day because we have both the joys of the present and some sweet memories of the past. We not only survive, we regain happiness and our peace of mind by living for today and by appreciating all the today’s and yesterdays.

I will not live in the past, but instead will look to each day as new and promising.

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A Day at a Time

Reflection for the Day
"How does The Program work?" newcomers sometimes ask. The two answers I most often hear are "very well" and "slowly." I'm appreciative of both answers, facetious as they may first sound, because my self-analyzing tends to be faulty. Sometimes I've failed to share my defects with the right people; other times, I've confessed their defects, rather than my own; at still other times, my sharing of defects has been more in the nature of shrill complaints about my problems. The fact is that none of us likes the self-searching, the leveling of our comings which The Steps require. But we eventually see that The Program really works.

Have I picked up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at my feet?

Today I Pray
May God keep me from laying out my defects by comparing them to someone else's. We are, by nature, relativists and comparers, who think in terms of "worse than ..." "not quite as bad as ..." or "better than ..." May I know that my faults are faults, whether or not they are "better than ..." others'.

Today I Will Remember
Bad is bad, even when it is "better than."

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Food For Thought

Highs and Lows

Abstaining from compulsive overeating does not guarantee that we will always be on an even keel emotionally. We continue to have ups and downs, and often we feel emotional distress even more keenly when we are no longer using food as a narcotic.

Part of our program involves the striving for balance and perspective. Experience teaches us not to get carried away by either elation or depression. These are moods, which will not last, and we prefer to base our actions on the rational decisions, which we make in times of quiet reflection.

Contact with OA friends during periods when we are either high or low helps to put our emotions in perspective. By expressing what we feel, we are better able to deal with it. Some of us tend to make calls when we are up and others of us reach for help when we are down. Ideally, we will make contact both times so that we may strengthen each other and learn not to be overwhelmed by mood swings.

May I remember that You can control my highs and my lows.

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One Day At A Time

ANGER
“Anger is only one letter short of danger.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

Before I began to work the program anger was a dangerous emotion for me. Anger was my excuse to react negatively without thinking. I let anger cause me to judge others, say or do hurtful things, turn away from my Higher Power, and to overeat.

I came to realize that I felt angry even when there were other emotions brewing on a deeper level. I felt angry when I was actually feeling afraid, embarrassed, hurt, tired, forgetful, or stressed out. As I work the Twelve Steps, I welcome my Higher Power's guidance in feeling my true feelings; in accepting myself and the situations in my life; in acting on life -- rather than reacting; and in having the compassion to understand myself and others. By doing this I no longer fear anger and I no longer find it a danger in my life.

Turning to my Higher Power, I use the Serenity Prayer and the Twelve Steps to process anger in healthy ways. When I feel angry at myself, I give myself a break! I treat myself with kindness, acceptance and forgiveness.

One Day at a Time . . .
When I feel angry, I wait before I act.
~ Lynne

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AA 'Big Book' - Quote

We realize some men are thoroughly bad-intentioned, that no amount of patience will make any difference. An alcoholic of this temperament may be quick to use this chapter as a club over your head. Don't let him get away with it. If you are positive he is one of this type you may feel you had better leave. Is it right to let him ruin your life and the lives of your children? Especially when he has before him a way to stop his drinking and abuse if he really wants to pay the price. - Pg. 108 - To Wives

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Some addicts have returned to using mind-affecting chemicals because they tried to 'cope forever' and couldn't face never, ever using anything again. But you can maintain abstinence by just not picking up that first dose of anything NOW. Forget forever.

Give me the understanding that what I cannot do for a lifetime, I may easily do right now.

Denial

Denying this disease does not make it go away. I have watched this disease wrap its tentacles around three generations now. I have watched each generation pretend that it wasn't all that bad, that it didn't do all that much damage, that they didn't really need help. But they did. I have seen my family not drink or drug and imagine that that meant they we were not sick. They couldn't see that the relationship issues that we all suffer from are related to this disease. This disease takes many form because addiction is traumatizing to all concerned, and trauma creates emotional and psychological problems that do not necessarily get better by themselves.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

If you stop doing the things that keep you in the program, you will go back to doing the things that brought you to the program.

The price of my recovery is eternal vigilance.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

Resistance is only a waste of strength.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

I value myself today.
I value everything about me.

I am finding people who value me as much as I value myself. I am attracting people who treat with me with love and respect.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

If you catch the disease of alcoholism you stay alive. If you don't you die. - Scott R.

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AA Thought for the Day

August 19

Spiritual Fitness
I know when I am spiritually fit
because at such times I have no desire to escape life,
but feel strengthened to deal with everything I am called upon to face.
- The AA Grapevine, June 1960

Thought to Ponder . . .
Smile! It's a free facelift.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
A A = Altered Attitudes.

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

Progress
"Many of us exclaimed,
'What an order! I can't go through with it.'
Do not be discouraged.
No one among us has been able to maintain
anything like perfect adherence to these principles.
We are not saints.
The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines.
The principles we have set down are guides to progress.
We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection."
1976AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 60

Thought to Consider . . .
Progress always involves risk.
You can't steal second base with your foot on first.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
S T E P S = Solutions To Every Problem in Sobriety

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

Things We Dreamed
Tradition Six: An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside
enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Here are some of the things we dreamed. Hospitals didn't like alcoholics, so we thought we'd build a hospital chain of
our own. People needed to be told what alcoholism was, so we'd educate the public, even rewrite school and medical
textbooks. We'd gather up derelicts from skid rows, sort out those who could get well, and make it possible for the rest
to earn their livelihood in a kind of quarantined confinement. Maybe these places would make large sums of money to
carry on our other good works. We seriously thought of rewriting the laws of the land, and having it declared that
alcoholics are sick people. No more would they be jailed; judges would parole them in our custody. We'd spill AA into
the dark regions of dope addiction and criminality. We'd form groups of depressive and paranoid folks; the deeper the
neurosis, the better we'd like it. It stood to reason that if alcoholism could be licked, so could any problem.
1981, AAWS, Inc., Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pages 155-156

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

"What I have learned in the past twelve years is that my relationship with God and my spiritual practice is the only
answer, even when I'm not sure of the question."
North Hollywood, California, September 2005
"Where's My Reward?"
Spiritual Awakenings II

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

"The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, More About Alcoholism, Page 30~

"Perhaps there is a better way--we think so. For we are now on a
different basis; the basis of trusting and relying upon God. We
trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the
world to play the role He assigns. Just to the extent that we do as
we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does He enable us to match calamity with serenity."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 68~

"Our liquor was but a symptom."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 64~

"Actually we were fooling ourselves, for deep down in every man,
woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured
by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form
or other it is there. For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and
miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as
old as man himself."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, pg. 55~

“We relax and take it easy.”
-Alcoholics Anonymous p. 86

“It will help if we can drop all resistance to what our friend says.”
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 100

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

Everyone must agree that we A.A.'s are unbelievably fortunate people; fortunate that we have suffered so much;
fortunate that we can know, understand, and love each other so supremely well.
These attributes and virtues are scarcely of the earned variety. Indeed, most of us are well aware that these are rare
gifts which have their true origin in our kinship born of a common suffering and a common deliverance by the grace of God.
Thereby we are privileged to communicate with each other to a degree and in a manner not very often surpassed
among our nonalcoholic friends in the world around us.
'I used to be ashamed of my condition and so didn't talk about it. But nowadays I freely confess I am a depressive, and
this has attracted other depressives to me. Working with them has helped a great deal.

Prayer for the Day: God, I'm tired of what I was, and how I was. I've thought real hard on this, and I've prayed too. I'm ready to live a new kind of life, a life for You. I know now more than ever that I need your help in this and all things and I'm asking for it with an open heart. Take away all of my defects, and replace them with your love and strength. Fill my heart with the desire to serve only You. Thy will be done. Amen.

Ask and you shall receive,
Seek and ye shall find,
Knock and it shall be opened unto you.
Matthew 7:7