*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 20, 2014* *Any Length* *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 have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolu ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 19, 2014* *No Cop-outs* *We have to stay sober no matter how life treats us, no matter whether non-alcoholics appreciate our sobriety or not. We have to keep our sobriety independent of everything else, not entangled with any people, and not hedged in by any possible cop-outs or conditions.* /- Living Sober,/ p. 64 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Keep your sobriety first to make it last.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *O D A A T* = **O**ne **D**ay **A**t **A** * ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 18, 2014* *Grace* *Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from asking yourself what they may mean to you. At the start, this was all we needed to commence spiritual growth, to effect our first conscious contact with God as we understood Him. Afterward, we found ourselves accepting things which then seemed entirely out of reach.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 47 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Hold your face up to the Light, even t ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 17, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Resentments This business of harboring resentments is infinitely grave.  For then 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.* /- - As Bill Sees It,/ p. 5 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Resentment is like acid, eating away at the vessel it is stored in.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* **A A** = **A**void **A**nger. ** *A ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 16, 2014* *Grace* *I think we all find an unavoidable association between what AA does and the grace of God. AA reflects, in a limited, human sense, the way God works with us. AA people love us when we're newcomers, not because of what we've done, but in spite of it, not because we've earned love, but because we need it. And so, I think, comes the final great acceptance of the AA member: the realization that I have been accepted by God -- that, when I stagge ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 15, 2014* *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 his hand in mine and said simply, "Pass it on."* /- 'Pass It On',/ preface *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Gratitude is not a word in AA; it's an action.* *AA-relate ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 14, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Perspective Where other people were concerned, we had to drop the word "blame" from our speech and thought. This required great willingness even to begin. But once over the first two or three high hurdles, the course ahead began to look easier. For we had started to get perspective on ourselves, which is another way of saying that we were gaining in humility.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ pp. 47-48 *T ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 13, 2014* *The Twelve Steps* *I often say and shall always say that the Twelve Steps are one of the very great summaries and organic collections of spiritual truth known to history. They have an almost universal relevance (not a relevance for alcoholics alone). They will offer a way out for many a person who knows nothing personally of alcoholism. They will point up the way for those who have known it and lost it. Thank God for the Twelve Steps and for a man ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 12, 2014* *The Language of the Heart* *From the beginning, communication in AA has been no ordinary transmission of helpful ideas and attitudes. It has been unusual and sometimes unique.  Because of our kinship in suffering, and because our common means of deliverance are effective only when constantly carried to others, our channels of contact have always been charged with /the language of the heart./* /- The Language Of The Heart,/ p. 243 *Thought to ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 11, 2014* *Happiness* *Happiness happens when results exceed expectations.  Maybe this is working after all. Deep down, there is also a warm, small ball of faith, never dimmed, unexplainable, asking nothing, but giving much. To define it or try to bounce it would distort or destroy it.  It just is, that's all.* /- The Best of the Grapevine/ [Vol. 1], pp. 187-188 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *True happiness is found in the journey, not the destination ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 10, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Helping Others When I talk to a newcomer to AA, my past looks me straight in the face. I see the pain in those hopeful eyes, I extend my hand, and then the miracle happens: /I/ become healed. My problems vanish as I reach out to this trembling soul.* /- As Bill Sees It,/ p. 274 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *In AA, we discover that it is impossible to give without receiving, or receive without giving.* *AA-related 'Alconym' ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 9, 2014* *Only One Reason* *I believe we are all sober and alive for only one reason: God has a job for us to do. I have also come to believe that I must please God first, myself second, and everybody else third. When I can live and feel that way -- and it isn't all day every day -- things seem to work out. When /I/ try to run the show, everything goes to hell.* /- Came to Believe . . .,/ p. 97 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *No God, no peace -- know God, know p ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 8, 2014* *Reality* *Moments of perception can build into a lifetime of spiritual serenity, as I have excellent reason to know. Roots of reality, supplanting the neurotic underbrush, will hold fast, despite the high winds of the forces which would destroy us, or which we would use to destroy ourselves.* /- As Bill Sees It,/ p. 173 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Few people have the imagination to see reality.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *A A* = **A**ttitude ** ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 7, 2014 ~ 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 sober members of AA, living sober is /really/ living -- a joyous experience. We much prefer it to the troubles we had with drinking. One more note: anyone can /get/ sober.  We have done it lots of times.  The tr ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *December 6, 2014* *Thankful* *I'm still learning how to be thankful.  I must work on defects of character every morning. Slow down and smell the flowers -- they will surely come to this beautiful valley soon, something to look forward to. Enjoy the phone calls from friends, as far away as Toronto.  I may even learn French. I have done something with my life, instead of complaining. I owe it all to that day when a member of AA said to me, "Maybe you'd l ...Continue Reading