*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 9, 2014* *Inventory* *When evening comes, perhaps before going to sleep, many of us draw up a balance sheet for the day. This is a good place to remember that inventory-taking is not always done in red ink. It's a poor day indeed when we haven't done /something/ right. As a matter of fact, the waking hours are usually well filled with things that are constructive. Even when we have tried hard and failed, we may chalk that up as one of the greatest credits of ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 8, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ The Actor Most people try to live by self-propulsion.  Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way. . . What usually happens?  The show doesn't come off very well. He begins to think life doesn't treat him right.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ pp. 60-61 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *When I choose ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 7, 2014* *Anger* *It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong /with us./ If somebody hurts us and we are sore, we are in the wrong also.  But are there no exceptions to this rule? What about "justifiable" anger?  If somebody cheats us, aren't we entitled to be mad? Can't we be properly angry with self-righteous folk?  For us of AA these are dangerous exceptions. We have ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 6, 2014* *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 a ladder ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 5, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Sharing When I talk with 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.* /- Daily Reflections,/ p. 274 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The ankle-biters of everyday struggles will eat away at me unless I go to meetings and share.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 4, 2014* *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 of 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 ve ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 3, 2014* *Circus Act* *I realized I'd been living outside myself for so long I'd almost become a walking vacancy. In my prized AA sobriety, I was still running a kind of circus which had numerous, highly believable posters plastered all over its outside -- /See the Spectacular Non-Drinking Person!  Watch How Movingly He can Recite the Twelve Steps!/ -- but which had nothing much going on inside the tent. I've been working hard to shut that circus down ev ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 2. 2014* *Obsession* *Under the lash of alcoholism, we are driven to AA, and there we discover the fatal nature of our situation. Then, and only then, do we become as open-minded to conviction and as willing to listen as the dying can be. We stand ready to do anything which will lift this merciless obsession from us.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ p. 24 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Within our wonderful new world, we have found freedom from our fatal ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *October 1, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ The Program The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action. This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 17 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The Program was a dazzling gem being dangled before my eyes.* *AA-related ' ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 30, 2014* *Perfection* *I have never 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.  I do not have to strive for perfection.  Mistakes are permissible. I have the right to be wrong.  And what a comfort that thought is to me, as I make my bemused way thr ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 29, 2014* *One Day At A Time* *The 24-hour plan is very flexible.  We can start it afresh at any time, wherever we are. At home, at work, in a bar or in a hospital room, at 4:00 p.m. or at 3:00 a.m., we can decide right then not to take a drink during the forthcoming 24 hours or five minutes. . . But today is always here.  Life /is/ daily; today is all we have; and anybody can go one day without drinking.* /- Living Sober,/ p. 7 *Thought to Pond ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 28, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Fear For all its usual destructiveness, we have found that fear can be the starting point for better things. Fear can be a stepping-stone to prudence and to a decent respect for others. It can point the path to justice, as well as to hate.  And the more we have of respect and justice, the more we shall begin to find the love which can suffer much, and yet be freely given. So fear need not always be destructive, becau ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 27, 2014* *Home Group* *This is where the AA member begins to learn about the /how/ of Alcoholics Anonymous. By selecting a home group, the newcomer begins to feel like he belongs somewhere. He begins to know people and let people know him. He feels safe in this meeting because he knows everyone's story and where they came from. He gets to watch people come and go, so he can see what works and what doesn't work. He develops close friendships and when the se ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 26, 2014* *Different* *I cannot consider myself "different" in AA; if I do I isolate myself from others and from contact with my Higher Power. If I feel isolated in AA, it is not something for which others are responsible. It is something I've created by feeling I'm "different" in some way. Today I practice being just another alcoholic in the worldwide Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.* /- Daily Reflections,/ p. 58 *Thought to Ponder ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *September 25, 2014* *Let Go* *Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. 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 s ...Continue Reading