*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 17, 2016* *Healing Ourselves* Trying to heal ourselves by helping others works, even when it is an insincere gesture. Try it some time.  If you really listen to (not just hear) what is being said, you may find the person talking has quietly slipped inside your head and seems to be describing the landscape there—the shifting shapes of nameless fears, the color and chill of impending doom—if not the actual events and words stored in your brain. /- Living S ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 16, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Resentments* It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worthwhile. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave.  We found that it is fatal. /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 66 *Thought t ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 15, 2016* *Insight* In one flash of insight I saw that if I were to wait for all the other people to shape up, I was going to get drunk and stay drunk a long, long time. In that instant I saw that all the things I had considered facts, were not facts at all, but my own thoughts.  And this was very fortunate, because I could do something about changing my thoughts but nothing about changing the people around me.  So the fault was mine after all. /- T ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 14, 2016* *Unreasonable Demands* We can try to stop making unreasonable demands upon those we love. We can show kindness where we had shown none. With those we dislike we can begin to practice justice and courtesy, perhaps going out of our way to understand and help them. Whenever we fail any of these people, we can promptly admit it—to ourselves always, and to them also, when the admission would be helpful. /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ p. 93 *Tho ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 13, 2016* *Our Common Solution* The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action. This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism. /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 17 *Thought to Ponder . . .* Life will take on new meaning. *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *H E L P* = **H**ope, **E**ncour ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 12, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ No Reservations* If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol. /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 33 *Thought to Ponder . . .* If we want to quit drinking, we are going to have to quit drinking. AA-related 'Alconym' . . . *A A* = **A**bsolute **A**bstinence. ** *A Member Shares:* I am Mike, a very grateful alcoholic.  NO RESE ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 11, 2016* *A True Cliché* Another cliché is equally true:  We keep sobriety by giving it away. When I went, reluctantly, to my first AA meeting, I was on a desperate treadmill. But as a half hour passed, something penetrated my closed mind. I began to get a feeling of hope.  There was something about those people; they seemed carefree, and there was a joy I hadn’t experienced for a long time. There was total acceptance for that chap in ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 10, 2016* *Discovery* I have found that the process of discovering who I really am begins with knowing who I really don’t want to be. And although the disease of alcoholism is like gravity, just waiting to pull me down, AA and the Twelve Steps are like the power that causes an airplane to become airborne: It only works when the pilot is doing the right things to make it work. /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ pp. 456-457 *Thought to Ponder . . .* Recovery is discove ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 9, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Solving a Dilemma* We lay the matter before our sponsor or spiritual advisor, earnestly asking God’s help and guidance —meanwhile, resolving to do the right thing when it becomes clear, cost what it may. /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/pp. 86-87 *Thought to Ponder . . .* Simply asking for help seems to be a help in itself. AA-related 'Alconym' . . . *H E L P* = **H**ope, **E**ncouragement, **L**ove, **P**atience. ** ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 8, 2016* *Today* Today is the day.  Doing our best, living each day to the fullest is the art of living. Yesterday is gone, and we don’t know whether we will be here tomorrow. If we do a good job of living today, and if tomorrow comes for us, then the chances are we will do a good job when it arrives—so why worry about it? /- Alcoholics Anonymous/ [Third Edition], p. 382 *Thought to Ponder . . .* Every day is a gift.  That is why we call it the pre ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 7, 2016* *Philosophy* For me, AA is a synthesis of all the philosophy I’ve ever read, all of the positive, good philosophy, all of it based on love. I have seen that there is only one law, the law of love, and there are only two sins; the first is to interfere with the growth of another human being, and the second is to interfere with one’s own growth. /- Alcoholics Anonymous/ [Third Edition], p. 542 *Thought to Ponder . . .* Love and tolerance of others is ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 6, 2016* *Acceptance* Our very first problem is to accept our present circumstances as they are, ourselves as we are, and the people about us as they are. This is to adopt a realistic humility without which no genuine advance can even begin. Again and again, we shall need to return to that unflattering point of departure. This is an exercise in acceptance that we can profitably practice every day of our lives. /- The Best of the Grapevine/ [Vol. 1], p. 199 * ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 5, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Aloneness* There is no more aloneness, with that awful ache, so deep in the heart of every alcoholic that nothing, before, could ever reach it.  That ache is gone and never need return again. Now there is a sense of belonging, of being wanted and needed and loved. /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 276 *Thought to Ponder . . .* I'm not alone anymore. AA-related 'Alconym' . . . *Y A N A* = **Y**ou **A**re **N**ot **A**lone. ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 4, 2016* *Step Ten* /“Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.”/ The wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching becomes a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong. /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/p. 88 *Thought to Ponder . . .* It's not making a mistake that will kill me.  ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 3, 2016* *Caretakers* Our Traditions are set down on paper.  But they were written first in our hearts. For each of us knows, instinctively I think, that AA is not ours to do with as we please. We are but caretakers to preserve the spiritual quality of our Fellowship; keep it whole for those who will come after us and have need of what has so generously been given to us. /- The Language of the Heart,/p. 124 *Thought to Ponder . . .* The Twelve Steps tel ...Continue Reading