*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

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 18, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Change Let us never fear needed change.  Certainly we have to discriminate between changes for worse and changes for better. But once a need becomes apparent in an individual, in a group, or AA as a whole, it has long since been found out that we cannot stand still and look the other way.* /- As Bill Sees it,/ p. 115 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *If nothing changes, nothing changes.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* **N O ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 17, 2015* *Obsession* *It is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing.  Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 30 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *When we tr ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 16, 2015* *Making Coffee* *All I thought about as I was making the coffee was making the coffee and how people could enjoy it. At my sponsor's suggestion, I stood near the coffeepot and welcomed everyone who came by. I must have experienced a million smiles in a very short time. And when I pushed the broom all I concentrated on was the dust rising from it as I moved across the floor. My troubles were gone for the time that I was doing these things.  And ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 15, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Seeing Is Believing The Wright brothers' almost childish faith that they could build a machine which would fly was the mainspring of their accomplishment.  Without that, nothing could have happened. . . When others showed us that God-sufficiency worked with them, we began to feel like those who had insisted the Wrights would never fly. We were seeing another kind of flight, a spiritual liberation from this world, peop ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 14, 2015* *Love* *The spiritual growth we enjoy in AA is a product of the never-ending school for living which our Fellowship provides. The subject in that school that opened my eyes most quickly and filled my heart most fully was love. I never knew what true love was until I began my recovery in AA.  My schooling in that emotion began early and led me to the conclusion that love is what creates in a sober AA member the outer show of an inner glow.* /- ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 13, 2015* *Humility* *Humility is a personal achievement, it cannot be given away. It comes in glimmers and grows like an ice crystal.  It is fragile, too, thus requiring constant care and protection. Maintaining anonymity insures that the focus of our efforts is on the program and not the personalities.* /- The Home Group: Heartbeat of AA,/ p. 126 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Humility is not a station we arrive at; it's a way of traveling.* *AA-related ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 12, 2015* *Infallible Heartbeat* *We need each other's experience, strength, and hope, regardless of age or length of sobriety. The shining grace of God doesn't come like a bolt out of the blue. It comes through, in, and from other suffering, as well as rescued, souls like you and me. I am happy to be part of a living and growing fellowship with an infallible heartbeat. Divine power is the pulse of AA, and it doesn't change, no matter how foolish and errant ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 11, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Clear Ideas Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas: (a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. (b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. (c) That God could and would if He were sought.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 60 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Hold your face up to the Light, ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 10, 2015* *Tolerance* *I try to practice tolerance in small ways, putting aside the little resentments, making light of that stealthy foe, self-pity, which will keep creeping in. I know if I succeed, then I'm more likely to beat that great big resentment which nothing has been able to pry from its roots deep in my soul.* /- Thank You For Sharing,/ pp. 42-43 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Flexible people do not get bent out of shape.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 9, 2015* *Selfishness* *So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making.  They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness.  We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 62 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Reliance on God enables me to match calamity with serenity.* ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 8, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Willingness A beginning, even the smallest, is all that is needed. Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock and have the door ever so slightly open, we find that we can always open it some more. Though self-will may slam it shut again, as it frequently does, it will always respond the moment we again pick up the key of willingness.* /- As Bill Sees It,/ p. 122 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *If I have the courage ...Continue Reading