*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 4, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Gossip In a perverse way we can actually take satisfaction from the fact that many people annoy us, for it brings a comfortable feeling of superiority. Gossip barbed with our anger, a polite form of murder by character assassination, has its satisfactions for us, too. Here we are not trying to help those we criticize; we are trying to proclaim our own righteousness.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ p. 67 *Thought to ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 3, 2015* *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 find 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 tried to hold on to our old ideas but the result was nil until we let go absolutely.* ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 2, 2015* *Footprints of Hope* *So I looked ahead, along the path marked by the footprints of hope, commitment, and action. All around me were many happy, sober people who had walked that path. Listening intently to their stories, I heard some more horrifying than mine, others, less so. But it was plain that all these alcoholics had /felt/ the same hopelessness, fear, pain, and anger I had experienced. It was also obvious that people with drinking problems lik ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 1, 2015* *Promises* *We will be amazed before we are half way through.  We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.  We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. . ..* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ pp. 83-84 *Th ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 31, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Faith When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands were better than anything we could have planned.* /- As Bill Sees It,/ p. 2 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Breathe in faith, breathe out fear.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* **F A I T H** = **F**inding **A**nswers **I**n **T**he **H**eart. ** *A Member Shares: Hello everyone Jenny, an alcoholic, here.  Whew!  Th ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 30, 2014* *Acceptance* *And acceptance is the answer to /all/ my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God's world by mistake.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 417 *Thought ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 29, 2014* *Pickles* *We are convinced, after the countless attempts we made to prove otherwise, that alcoholism in incurable -- just like some other illnesses.   It cannot be "cured" in this sense:  We cannot change our body chemistry and go back to being the normal, moderate social drinkers lots of us seemed to be in our youth. As some of us put it, we can no more make that change than a pickle can change itself back into a cucumber.* /- ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 28, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ The Circle and Triangle Above us, at the International Convention in St. Louis in 1955, floated a banner on which was inscribed the then new symbol for AA, a circle enclosing a triangle. The circle stands for the whole world of AA, and the triangle stands for AA's Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity, and Service. It is perhaps no accident that priests and seers of antiquity regarded this symbol as a means of warding off spirit ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 27, 2014* *Red Flags* *Many years later, although alcohol is not a part of my life and I no longer have the compulsion to drink, it can still occur to me what a good drink tastes like and what it can do for me, from my stand-at-attention alcoholic taste buds right down to my stretched-out tingling toes. As my sponsor used to point out, such thoughts are like red flags, telling me that something is not right, that I am stretched beyond my sober limit.  I ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 26, 2014* *Listening* *As I've grown in the Fellowship, I've learned to love everyone just from listening to what they had to say. That person over there, or the one right here, may be the one God has chosen to give me the message I need for today. I must always remember to place principles above personalities.* /- Daily Reflections,/ p. 365 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Learn to listen; listen to learn.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *G I F T = **G**od **I**s ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 25, 2014* *Neighbors* *Near you, alcoholics are dying helplessly like people on a sinking ship.  If you live in a large place, there are hundreds. High and low, rich and poor, these are future fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous. Among them, you will make lifelong friends. You will be bound to them with new and wonderful ties, for you will escape disaster together and you will commence shoulder to shoulder your common journey. Then you will know what it mea ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 24, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ A Leap of Faith We needed to ask ourselves but one short question. "Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?" As soon as a man can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 47 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Faith dares the soul to go beyond what the eyes can see.* *AA-relate ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 23, 2014* *The Blunt Truth* *The blunt, psychological truth for us, as of today, is that a drink surely means a drunk sooner or later, and that spells trouble. Drinking /for us/ no longer means music and gay laughter and flirtations.  It means sickness and sorrow.* /- Living Sober,/ p. 52 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *If I don't drink today, I have the hope of a tomorrow.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *A A* = **A**lways **A**live. Thanks to all of you f ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 22, 2014* *The First Step* *The First Step and I have always been great friends. I repeated it and thanked God each day for my sobriety -- the only grace, maybe, for that day. Gradually, I began to see another part of me emerging -- a grateful me, expecting nothing, but sure that another power was beginning to guide me, counsel me, and direct my ways.  And I was not afraid.* /- Came To Believe . . .,/ p. 45 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Many of our fears ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 21, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ False Pride We will humbly reflect that each of AA's principles, /every one of them,/ has been borrowed from ancient sources. We shall remember that we are laymen, holding ourselves in readiness to co-operate with all men of good will, whatever their creed or nationality. Then, too, it would be a product of false pride to believe that Alcoholics Anonymous is a cure-all, even for alcoholism.* /- - Alcoholics Anonymous Comes ...Continue Reading