AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 17, 2026  Was I Crazy? Shortly afterward I came home drunk. There had been no fight. Where had been my high resolve? I simply didn’t know. It hadn't even come to mind. Someone had pushed a drink my way, and I had taken it. Was I crazy? I began to wonder, for such an appalling lack of perspective seemed near being just that. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Bill's Story) p. 5  Thought to Ponder . . . Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over, expecting ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 16, 2026  Unity Thus has it been with A.A. By faith and by works we have been able to build upon the lessons of an incredible experience. They live today in the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous, which—God willing— shall sustain us in unity for so long as He may need us. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Tradition One) p. 131  Thought to Ponder . . . There is no strength without unity.   AA-related 'Alconym' A A's - R - U S &n ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 15, 2026  Joyful Gratitude One exercise that I practice is to try for a full inventory of my blessings and then for a right acceptance of the many gifts that are mine -- both temporal and spiritual. Here I try to achieve a state of joyful gratitude. When such a brand of gratitude is repeatedly affirmed and pondered, it can finally displace the natural tendency to congratulate myself on whatever progress I may have been enabled to make in some areas of livin ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 14, 2026  Vitally Needed Support Those of us who have come to make regular use of prayer would no more do without it than we would refuse air, food, or sunshine. And for the same reason. When we refuse air, light, or food, the body suffers. And when we turn away from meditation and prayer, we likewise deprive our minds, our emotions, and our intuitions of vitally needed support. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eleven) p. 97  Thought to ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 13, 2026  Today or Any Other Day I need to remind myself that I was always equivocating and procrastinating when I drank, about what I was going to do tomorrow, next week, or next year. I was a world-beater at a bar or over a bottle, but I know now I actually did very little about today, or any other day for that matter. - - The Best Of The Grapevine, ((Volumes 1-3) p. 214  Thought to Ponder . . . The 24-hour plan is a discipline whose yield is f ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 12, 2026  Practice These Principles One of the most fundamental things I have learned is to pass on our message to other alcoholics. That means I must think more about others than about myself. The most important thing is to practice these principles in all my affairs. In my opinion, that is what Alcoholics Anonymous is all about. - - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Gratitude In Action) p. 199  Thought to Ponder . . . If I stay in the basics I don’t need ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 11, 2026My apologies for the late arrival of your Daily Thought this week. I'll be back on the regular schedule from tomorrow. Spiritual Experience We pocket our pride and go to it, illuminating every twist of character, every dark cranny of the past. Once we have taken this step, withholding nothing, we are delighted. We can look the world in the eye. We can be alone at perfect peace and ease. Our fears fall from us. We begin to feel the nearness of our Crea ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 10, 2026  Growing Pains Here again we are presented with the temptation to overmanage things, and sometimes this results in rebuffs and other consequences which are hard to take. But in the longer run we clearly realize that these are only the pains of growing up, and nothing but good can come from them if we turn more and more to the entire Twelve Steps for the answers. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Twelve) p. 111  Thought to Ponder ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 9, 2026  Step One This didn’t say we had to be in jail, ten, fifty, or one hundred times. It didn’t say I had to lose one, five, or ten jobs. It didn’t say I had to lose my family. It didn’t say I had to finally live on skid row and drink bay rum, canned heat, or lemon extract. It did say I admitted I was powerless over alcohol—that my life had become unmanageable. . . It wasn't how far I had gone, but where I was headed. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (It Might ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 8, 2026  Every Imaginable Remedy We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) pp. 30 - 31  Thought to Ponder . . . Once an alcoholic, always ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 7, 2026  Whistling in the Dark Now and then a serious drinker, being dry at the moment says, “I don’t miss it at all. Feel better. Work better. Having a better time.” As ex-problem drinkers, we smile at such a sally. We know our friend is like a boy whistling in the dark to keep up his spirits. He fools himself. Inwardly he would give anything to take half a dozen drinks and get away with them. He will presently try the old game again, for he isn’t happy ab ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 6, 2026  Loneliness The less people tolerated us, the more we withdrew from society, from life itself. As we became subjects of King Alcohol, shivering denizens of his mad realm, the chilling vapor that is loneliness settled down. It thickened, ever becoming blacker. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (A Vision For You) p. 151  Thought to Ponder . . . I must walk through the darkness to find the light.   AA-related 'Alconym' A A  =   Alcoho ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 5, 2026  True or False Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (The Doctor's Opinion) p. xxviii  Thought to Ponder . . . Don't believe everything you think.   AA-related 'Alconym' D E N I ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 4, 2026  Carry These Lessons When prideful, angry, jealous, anxious, or fearful, we acted accordingly, and that was that. Here we need only recognize that we did act or think badly, try to visualize how we might have done better, and resolve with God's help to carry these lessons over into tomorrow, making, of course, any amends still neglected. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Ten) p. 94  Thought to Ponder . . . Inventory-taking is no ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy aa-alive.net) July 3, 2026  New Freedom Upon therapy for the alcoholic himself, we surely have no monopoly. Yet it is our great hope that all those who have as yet found no answer may begin to find one in the pages of this book and will presently join us on the highroad to a new freedom. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Foreward to the Second Edition) p. xxi  Thought to Ponder . . . Joy is in knowing there is an answer.   AA-related 'Alconym' A A  =   Answ ...Continue Reading