*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *March 5, 2015* *Humility* *"Perpetual quietness of heart.  It is to have no trouble.  It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore: to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised, it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret and in peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *March 4, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Living Sober Somewhat to our surprise, staying sober turns out not to be the grim, wet-blanket experience we had expected! While we were drinking, a life without alcohol seemed like no life at all. But for most members of AA, living sober is really living -- a joyous experience. We much prefer it to the troubles we had with drinking.* /- Living Sober,/ Foreword *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The joy is in the journey, so enjoy th ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *March 3, 2015* *Tradition Three* /"The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking."/ *This Tradition is packed with meaning.  For AA is really saying to every serious drinker, "You are an AA member if /you/ say so. You can declare yourself in; nobody can keep you out, no matter how low you've gone, no matter how grave your emotional complications -- even your crimes -- we still can't deny you AA. We don't /want/ to keep you o ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *March 2, 2015* *Made a Decision* *My whole way of life followed decisions predicated on convenience and expedience, as well as willfulness. If I continued to bungle my decisions, there would be more suffering, and perhaps one of these days I might even forget and pick up the first drink, because everything was lousy anyway. . . I didn't want to go back to the binges, the blackouts, the hallucinations, the awful hangovers, and the guilt of past days. The only thing le ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *March 1, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Juggernaut The philosophy of self-sufficiency is not paying off. Plainly enough, it is a bone-crushing juggernaut whose final achievement is ruin. Therefore, we who are alcoholics can consider ourselves fortunate indeed. Each of us has had his own near-fatal encounter with the juggernaut of self-will,and has suffered enough under its weight to be willing to look for something better.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ pp ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 28, 2015* *'Live And Let Live'* *It is very easy to use other people's actions as an alibi for drinking.  We used to be experts at it. But in sobriety, we have learned a new technique: We never let ourselves get so resentful toward someone else that we allow that person to control our lives -- especially to the extent of causing us to drink. We have found we have no desire to let any other person run, or ruin, our lives.* /- Living Sober,/ p. 12 *Thoug ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 27, 2015* *Convincing Evidence* *My abuse of alcohol was the exterior manifestation of a disease much more complex and consuming than simple drunkenness, and similarly, my abstinence is the exterior manifestation of a wellness much more rewarding than simple sobriety. The most convincing evidence I have today that I'm an alcoholic is not how much or how long I drank, nor how drunk I got; the most convincing evidence I have is that Alcoholics Anonymous is wor ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 26, 2015* *An Open Channel* *I no longer allow others to make decisions for me and then criticize me for it. Today -- and every day -- with a heart full of gratitude, and a desire for God's will to be done through me, my life is worth sharing, especially with my fellow alcoholics! Above all, if I do not make a religion out of anything, even AA, then I can be an open channel for God's expression.* /- Daily Reflections,/ p. 92 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *True ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 25, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ /Came To Believe . . ./ What I have come to believe is profound, and my concept and understanding of the program are quite different from what they were before. My AA way of life now demands constant action -- an active self-honesty and recognition of the necessity for living in day-tight compartments. In gratitude, I must humbly come to believe every moment of every day.* /- Came To Believe . . .,/ p. 96 *Thought to Pond ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 24, 2015* *Coming to Believe* *It wasn't AA that had the closed mind, it was me.  The minute I stopped arguing, I could begin to see and feel. Right there, Step Two gently and very gradually began to infiltrate my life. I can't say upon what occasion or upon what day I came to believe in a Power greater than myself, but I certainly have that belief now. To acquire it, I had only to stop fighting and practice the rest of AA's program as enthusiastically ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 23, 2015* *Open-mindedness* *Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions. In this respect, alcohol was the great persuader.  It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness. Sometimes this was a tedious process; we hope no one else will be as prejudiced for as long as some of us were.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 48 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Recovery is not an event; ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 22, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Fantasy Above all, we reject fantasizing and accept reality.  The more I drank, the more I fantasized everything. . . In my mind's eye I played and replayed scenes in which I was plucked magically from the bar where I stood nursing a drink and was instantly exalted to some position of power and prestige.  I lived in a dream world. AA led me gently from this fantasizing to embrace reality with open arms.  And ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 21, 2015* *A Beginning* *My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea.  He said, /"Why don't you choose your own conception of God?"/ That statement 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. /It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning./* /- Alcoholics ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 20, 2015* *Challenges* *Life is meant to be lived by facing the challenges it brings.  Otherwise, I'm not living, just existing. God didn't give me this gift of sobriety to sit in a rocking chair, imagining myself as some wise old woman who has arrived somewhere. There is no easier, softer way. . .  The teaching I receive in AA about courage and love helps me to continue to grapple with the challenges of life as they are given to me, one day at a t ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 19, 2015* *Powerless* *I did not know that my body's drinking machinery had worn out, and that the parts could not be replaced. I did not know that just one drink made it impossible for me to control my behavior and conduct and my future drinking. I did not know, in short, that I was powerless over alcohol. My family and friends knew these things about me long before I did.* /- Experience, Strength and Hope,/ p. 153 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Alcohol -- cun ...Continue Reading