*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *March 6, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ The Home Group The home group is where recovery begins; it is where AA members grow up in sobriety by the time-honored process of trial and error, to discover that they can be loved, "warts and all." It is where they learn to put the needs of others, especially the needs of the group, ahead of their own desires. It is where they first have the opportunity to serve others, and where they learn of opportunities to serv ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *March 5, 2016* *Letting Go* *For a long time, I had the idea that I must succeed, I must be right, I must be important. If I let go, I thought, then I wouldn't be anybody.  Well, who was I, anyway?  Just a willful alcoholic woman. Now I'm beginning to see that letting go doesn't mean giving up.  It means opening myself to new vistas. There have been moments of what I would call ecstasy.  I'm thrilled and I'm scared at the same time.* /- Came To Be ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *March 4, 2016* *The Lesson* *Above all, AA taught me how to handle sobriety.  I have learned how to relate to people; before AA, I could never do that comfortably without alcohol. I have learned to deal with disappointments and problems that once would have sent me right to the bottle. I have come to realize that the name of the game is not so much to stop drinking as to /stay sober./ Alcoholics can stop drinking in many places and many ways -- but Alcoholics An ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *March 3, 2016* *Surrender* *It is only when I have experienced enough emotional pain, through failed attempts to fix myself, that I become willing to surrender to God's will for my life. Surrender is like the calm after the storm.  When my will is in line with God's will for me, there is peace within.* /- Daily Reflections,/ p. 77 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The storm has passed.  I've learned a little more about peace.  It was inside all the time.* * ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *March 2, 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. My God, how painful it is to keep demanding the impossible, and how very p ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *March 1, 2016* *An Explanation* *I woke up the Saturday morning following the beginners meeting with the answer absolutely clear: Religion was something taught me, acquired, an external experience, while spirituality welled up from within, and required no education, no Torah or Bible, no shaman or priest. I believe my Higher Power led me to this explanation, as it was too clear and bright an idea for so early in the morning!* /- Thank You For Sharing,/ p. 199 *Thoug ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 29, 2016* *A Healthy Respect* *Fear may have originally pushed some of us toward looking into the possibility that we may have a drinking problem. And over a short period, fear alone may help some of us stay away from a drink. But a fearful state is not a very happy or relaxed one to maintain for very long. So we try to develop a healthy respect for the power of alcohol, instead of a fear of it, just as people have a healthy respect for cyanide, iodine, or a ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 28, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Step Six* /"Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character."/ *Is our work solid so far?  Are the stones properly in place? Have we skimped on the cement put into the foundation?  Have we tried to make mortar without sand? If we can answer to our satisfaction, we then look at /Step Six./  We have emphasized willingness as being indispensable. . . If we still cling to somethi ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 27, 2016* *Time* *And what is time to me now?  It is a most precious asset. I have the luxury of being able to cherish the memory of yesterday, to live today with serenity, to wait for tomorrow. I find great contentment in just knowing where I was and where I am. And I am grateful; grateful for the existence of Alcoholic Anonymous; grateful to my God for leading me to the doors of AA and to himself, grateful for hope. I am grateful for this minute.  ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 26, 2016* *Generation Gap* *I walked into my first AA meeting a month after my 70th birthday. . .  Half-sober, I got myself to an AA meeting near my home. My first reaction, as I stared at the people in the meeting was to flee.  Unwittingly, I had walked into a young people's meeting. The leader, a girl named Kathy, was fourteen and one-half years old, with six months' sober. Muttering, I turned toward the exit and found myself face to face with a ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 25, 2016* *Complacency* *The truth is, that in the life of each AA member, there still lurks a tyrant.  His name is alcohol. He is cunning, ruthless.  And his weapons are misery, insanity, and death. No matter how long we may be sober, he always stands at each man's elbow, ever watchful of an opportunity to resume his destruction.* /- The Language of the Heart,/ p. 34 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The alcoholic is in no greater peril than when he tak ...Continue Reading

*Dear Gentle Readers, Here is a corrected copy of tomorrow's Daily Thought. Thanks for understanding. Blessings in sobriety, joanna* *AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 24, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Step Eight* /"Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all."/ *What real harm had we done?  No more, surely, than we could easily mend with a few casual apologies. This attitude, of course, is the result of purposeful forgetting. It is ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 24, 2016 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Step Eight* /"Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."/ *What real harm had we done?  No more, surely, than we could easily mend with a few casual apologies. This attitude, of course, is the result of purposeful forgetting. It is an attitude which can be changed by a deep and honest search of our motives and actions. . . . . .we should nevertheless make an accurate and exhaustive survey of our life as ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 23, 2016* *Rebellion* *A whole lifetime geared to self-centeredness cannot be set in reverse all at once.  Rebellion dogs our every step at first. When we have finally admitted without reservation that we are powerless over alcohol, we are apt to breathe a great sigh of relief, saying, "Well, thank God that's over!  I'll never have to go through /that/ again!" Then we learn, often to our consternation, that this is only the first mileston ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 22, 2016* *Young People* *It is very different to be a sober member of AA when you are young.  If you doubt this, think back to when you were sixteen and try to imagine yourself working the Steps in your life then as you do today. Couple this with other people telling you that you are too young be an alcoholic and you can see how hard it is. I know one thing for certain: no young person ever needs to hear that she has gotten sober before she had to hurt ...Continue Reading