*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 26, 2016* *A Sturdy Start* We didn’t get sober entirely on our own.  That isn’t the way we learned to stay sober. And the full enjoyment of living sober isn’t a one-person job, either. When we could look, even temporarily, at just a few new ideas different from our old ones, we had already begun to make a sturdy start toward a happy, healthier new life. /- Living Sober,/ p. 73 *Thought to Ponder . . .* I alone can get sober, but I can't get sober alon ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 25, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Resentment 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. 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 . . .* * ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 24, 2016* *Tornado* The alcoholic is like a tornado roaring his way through the lives of others. Hearts are broken.  Sweet relationships are dead.  Affections have been uprooted. Selfish and inconsiderate habits have kept the home in turmoil. We feel a man is unthinking when he says that sobriety is enough. He is like the farmer who came up out of his cyclone cellar to find his home ruined. To his wife, he remarked, “Don’t see anything the matter ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 23, 2016* *Fallible* I have shortcomings and defects of character.  I never have been and never can be perfect. As that realization became a part of me—and it took time— it brought me one of the greatest of the many blessings that have come to me from AA. I learned to accept myself as a fallible human being. /- The Best of the Grapevine/ [Vol. 2}, p. 167 *Thought to Ponder . . .* Give me the courage to be imperfect. *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *A R ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 22, 2016* *Real Willpower* Consider the ways we could manage to get a drink in defiance of all visible possibilities. Merely to get up some mornings—with a rusting cast-iron stomach, all your teeth wearing tiny sweaters, and each hair electrified— takes willpower many nondrinkers rarely dream of. Once you’ve gotten up with your head, on those certain mornings, the ability to carry it all through the day is further evidence of fabulous strength of will. Oh y ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 21, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Self-pity “Self-pity is one of the most unhappy and consuming defects that we know. It is a bar to all spiritual progress and can cut off all effective communication with our fellows because of its inordinate demands for attention and sympathy. It is a maudlin form of martyrdom, which we can ill afford.”* /- As Bill Sees It,/ p. 238 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Self-pity is followed by isolation is followed by a drink. AA ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 20, 2016* *Emotional Sobriety* Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for top approval, perfect security, and perfect romance —urges quite appropriate to age seventeen— prove to be an impossible way of life when we are at age forty-seven or fifty-seven. Since AA began, I’ve taken immense wallops in all these areas because of my failure to grow up, emotionally and spiritually. /- The Language of the Heart,/ p. 236 *Thought to Ponder . . .* Growing o ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 19, 2016* *A New Life* Sobriety is only a bare beginning; it is only the first gift of the first awakening. If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go on. As it does go on, we find that bit by bit we can discard the old life —the one that did not work— for a new life that can and does work under any condition whatever. /- As Bill Sees It,/ p. 8 *Thought to Ponder . . .* Life will take on new meaning. *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *A A* = **A ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 18, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Our Primary Purpose Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.* /- The AA Grapevine,/ Preamble *Thought to Ponder . . .* *I keep my sobriety by giving it away. AA-related 'Alconym' . . . *P R O G R A M** = **P**eople **R**elying **O**n **G**od **R**elaying **A** **M**essage. ** *A Member Shares: Hi everyone, I am Tim, an alcoholic.  When I found AA, my primary purpose was ge ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 17, 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 ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 16, 2016* *Grace* May we never forget that we live by the grace of God -- on borrowed time; that anonymity is better than acclaim; that for us as a movement poverty is better than wealth. And may we reflect with ever deepening conviction, that we shall never be at our best except when we hew only to the primary spiritual aim of AA. /- The Language of the Heart,/ p. 83 *Thought to Ponder . . .* The will of God will never take me where the grace of God will ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 15, 2016* *Awakening* To begin with, a spiritual awakening is our means of finding sobriety. And to us of AA sobriety means life itself. We know that a spiritual experience is the key to survival from alcoholism and that for most of us it is the only key. We must awake or we die. /- The Language of the Heart,/ pp. 233-234 *Thought to Ponder . . .* A spiritual awakening is our greatest gift. *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *A A* = **A**lways **A**ware. Thank ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 14, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Carry The Message Carry this message to other alcoholics!  You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 89 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *In AA we don't carry the alcoholic; we carry the message. AA-related 'Alconym' . . . *W E** = **W**alls **E**vaporate. ** *A Member Shares: Hi, Maureen here, alcoholic.  I love this reading and topic.  An ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 13, 2016* *One Day At A Time* At first, I was like a lot of others on a pink cloud for two or three weeks. Then, all of a sudden, I came crashing down to earth and began to feel that awful, apprehensive, depressive pain that said if I wanted to stay stopped, I would have to change. Thank goodness, I was told at meetings that I could now live one day at a time. I didn’t need to project the future or cry about the past. Just live to the best of my ability, on ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 12, 2016* *Courage* Courage to face each day has replaced the fears and uncertainty of earlier years. Acceptance of things as they are has replaced the old impatient champing at the bit to conquer the world. I have stopped tilting at windmills and, instead, have tried to accomplish the little daily tasks, unimportant in themselves, but tasks that are an integral part of living fully. /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 266 *Thought to Ponder . . .* Courage is fea ...Continue Reading