AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 16, 2020 Pain Someone who knew what he was talking about once remarked that pain was the touchstone of all spiritual progress. How heartily we A.A.'s can agree with him, for we know that the pains of drinking had to come before sobriety, and emotional turmoil before serenity. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Ten) pp. 93 - 94 Thought to Ponder The gritty pain of alcoholism is the traction of recovery. AA-related 'Alconym' H O P E  =   Hold ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 15, 2020 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Step One "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable." Many less desperate alcoholics tried A.A., but did not succeed because they could not make the admission of hopelessness. It is a tremendous satisfaction to record that in the following years this changed. Alcoholics who still had their health, their families, their jobs, and even two cars in the garage, began to recognize ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 14, 2020 Sunlight My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, "Why don’t you choose your own conception of God?" That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Bill's Story) p. 12 Thought to Ponder Hope leads to faith if you let it. AA-related 'Alconym' A A  =   Altered Attitudes. Thanks to all ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 13, 2020 Step Eight "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all." What real harm, therefore, had we done? No more, surely, than we could easily mend with a few casual apologies. This attitude, of course, is the end result of purposeful forgetting. It is an attitude which can only be changed by a deep and honest search of our motives and actions. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Eight) p. 79 ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 12, 2020 Twelfth Step Call When he sees you know all about the drinking game, commence to describe yourself as an alcoholic. Tell him how baffled you were, how you finally learned that you were sick. Give him an account of the struggles you made to stop. Show him the mental twist which leads to the first drink of a spree. We suggest you do this as we have done it in the chapter on alcoholism. If he is alcoholic, he will understand you at once. He will match your ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 1, 2020 My Language He gave me information about the subject of alcoholism which was undoubtedly helpful. Of far more importance was the fact that he was the first living human with whom I had ever talked, who knew what he was talking about in regard to alcoholism from actual experience. In other words, he talked my language. He knew all the answers, and certainly not because he had picked them up in his reading. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Doctor Bob's Nightmare) ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 10, 2020 Unity - Tradition One Realization dawns that he is but a small part of a great whole; that no personal sacrifice is too great for preservation of the Fellowship. He learns that the clamor of desires and ambitions within him must be silenced whenever these could damage the group. It becomes plain that the group must survive or the individual will not. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Tradition One) p. 130 Thought to Ponder There is no strength wit ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 9, 2020 The Actor More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor. To the outer world he presents his stage character. This is the one he likes his fellows to see. He wants to enjoy a certain reputation, but knows in his heart he doesn't deserve it. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 73 Thought to Ponder Character is what I am; reputation is what people think I am. AA-related 'Alconym' F E A R  =   Frantic Ef ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 8, 2020 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Step Five In actual practice, we usually find a solitary self-appraisal insufficient. Many of us thought it necessary to go much further. We will be more reconciled to discussing ourselves with another person when we see good reasons why we should do so. The best reason first: If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking.  - Alcoholics Anonymous, (Into Action) p. 72  Thought to Ponder I cannot mend if I b ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 7, 2020 Our Instincts We have learned that the satisfaction of instincts cannot be the sole end and aim of our lives. If we place instincts first, we have got the cart before the horse; we shall be pulled backward into disillusionment. But when we are willing to place spiritual growth first—then and only then do we have a real chance. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Twelve) p. 114 Thought to Ponder Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional, ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 6, 2020 Gravely Affected To be gravely affected, one does not necessarily have to drink a long time nor take the quantities some of us have. This is particularly true of women. Potential female alcoholics often turn into the real thing and are gone beyond recall in a few years. Certain drinkers, who would be greatly insulted if called alcoholics, are astonished at their inability to stop. - Alcoholics Anonymous, (More About Alcoholism) p. 33 Thought to Ponder W ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 5, 2020 Permanent Recovery But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth’s description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster. He sobered, never to drink again up to the moment of his death in 1950. This seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no nonalcoholic could. It also indicated that strenuous work, one alcoholic with ano ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 4, 2020 Newfound Peace To those of us who have hitherto known only excitement, depression, or anxiety—in other words, to all of us—this newfound peace is a priceless gift. Something new indeed has been added. Where humility had formerly stood for a forced feeding on humble pie, it now begins to mean the nourishing ingredient which can give us serenity. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Seven) p. 74 Thought to Ponder Humility is not thinking less of my ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 3, 2020 Complete Defeat Who cares to admit complete defeat? Practically no one, of course. Every natural instinct cries out against the idea of personal powerlessness. It is truly awful to admit that, glass in hand, we have warped our minds into such an obsession for destructive drinking that only an act of Providence can remove it from us. - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step One) p. 21 Thought to Ponder Avoidance is not the key; surrender opens the doo ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day (courtesy AA-Alive.net) November 2, 2020 Meeting Conditions An alcoholic who cannot meet them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with his spiritual status. His only chance for sobriety would be some place like the Greenland Ice Cap, and even there an Eskimo might turn up with a bottle of scotch and ruin everything! Ask any woman who has sent her husband to distant places on the theory he would escape the alcohol problem. In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism ...Continue Reading