*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *May 4, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Online Meetings In any meeting, anywhere, AA's share experience, strength, and hope with each other, in order to stay sober and help other alcoholics. Modem-to-modem or face-to-face, AA's speak the language of the heart in all its power and simplicity.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. xxiv *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Meetings: a check-up from the neck up. AA-related 'Alconym' . . . *A A** = **A**lways **A**live. ** *A Member Share ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *May 3, 2016* *The Great Obsession* It is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing.  Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death. /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 30 *Thought to Ponder . . .* When I drink, my past becomes m ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *May 2, 2016* *Our Common Solution* I think it is extremely important to emphasize that I am an alcoholic, and that in meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous we discuss the common solution to alcoholism that we share. If I'm "an alcoholic and an addict" and you're "an alcoholic and a compulsive overeater" and the person leading the meeting is "an alcoholic and a compulsive gambler," we begin to lose our commonality. I become slightly different ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *May 1, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Forgiveness The moment we ponder a twisted or broken relationship with another person, our emotions go on the defensive. To escape the wrongs we have done another, we resentfully focus on the wrong he has done us. Triumphantly we seize upon his slightest misbehavior as the perfect excuse for minimizing or forgetting our own. . . If we are about to ask for forgiveness for ourselves, why shouldn't we start out by forgiving them, o ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *April 30, 2016* *Resentment* With the alcoholic, this business of resentment is infinitely grave.  We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again.  And with us, to drink is to die. /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 66 *Thought to Ponder . . .* Resentment is like acid, eating away at the vessel it is stored in. *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *S W ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *April 29, 2016* *Anonymity* The entire future of our fellowship hangs upon this vital principle. If we continue to be filled with the spirit and practice of anonymity, no shoal or reef can wreck us. If we forget this principle, the lid to Pandora's box will be off and the spirits of Money, Power, and Prestige will be loosed among us. Obsessed by these evil genii, we might well founder and break up.  I devoutly believe this will never happen. /- Alcoholics Anonym ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *April 28, 2016* *Dedication* Early in my AA life, I asked myself how I could express my gratitude. The answer was simple: by dedicating my life to AA and its people. I found out that the more I know about AA, the more effectively I could carry the message. The more I know about AA -- from the bottom up and the top down, across its scope world-wide -- the more I love it. And the more I love it, the better equipped I am to carry the message. /- The AA Service Manual,/ ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *April 27, 2016* *Action* I heard someone say that AA works for those who work for it, those who put /action/ into the program. . . I heard that I should forget about yesterday and instead concentrate on today and staying away from the first drink today -- now.  I tried it and it worked. /- Came To Believe . . .,/ p. 42 *Thought to Ponder . . .* I must walk into darkness to find the light. *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *A A* = **A**lways **A**wesome. Thanks to ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *April 26, 2016* *Awareness* I need to feel a strong and helpful sense of myself. Such an awareness doesn't happen overnight, and no one's self-awareness is permanent. Everyone has the capacity for growth, and for self-awareness, through an honest encounter with reality. /- Daily Reflections,/ p. 100 *Thought to Ponder . . .* What I am is God's gift to me.  What I make of myself is my gift to Him. *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *A A* = **A**lways **A**ware. Than ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *April 25, 2016* *The Ladder* No one who drank as I did wakes up on the edge of the abyss one morning and says: Things look pretty scary; I think I'd better stop drinking before I fall in. I was convinced I could go as far as I wanted, and then climb back out when it wasn't fun anymore. What happened was, I found myself at the bottom of the canyon thinking I'd never see the sun again. AA didn't pull me out of that hole.  It did give me the tools to construct a la ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *April 24, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Life is not a Dead End When a man or a woman has a spiritual awakening, the most important meaning of it is that he has now become able to do, feel, and believe that which he could not do before on his unaided strength and resources alone. He has been granted a gift which amounts to a new state of consciousness and being. He has been set on a path which tells him he is really going somewhere, that life is not a dead end, not ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *April 23, 2016* *Consistency* And as I peel away the layers of day-to-day expediency, I realize that my zigzag, erratic, and inconsistent course was in the general direction of progress all the time.  That's good. What right do I have to expect perfection and efficiency in my spiritual growth when my life is so full of ups and downs, ins and outs, and backs and forths? Throughout this whole adventure, the only consistency I have maintained is an absolute and tot ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *April 22, 2016* *Let Go* If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it -- then you are ready to take certain steps.  At some of these we balked. We thought we could take an easier, softer way.  But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely. /- ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *April 21, 2016* *'Pass It On'* ". . . I'll never forget the first time I met Bill Wilson.  I was a couple of months sober and so excited, so thrilled to meet the co-founder that I gushed all over him with what my sobriety meant to me and my undying gratitude for his starting AA. When I ran down, he took my hand in his and said simply, 'Pass it on.'" /- 'Pass It On,' The story of Bill Wilson and how the AA message reached the world,/ Preface *Thought t ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *April 20, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Tenth Step Promise We have entered the world of the Spirit.  Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter.  It should continue for our lifetime. . . We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality -- safe and protected. . . That is how we react so long as we keep in a fit spiritual condition.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ pp. 84-85 *Thought to Ponder ...Continue Reading