*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 7, 2015* *Discovery* *AA has accomplished so many things in my life today.  It has given me my sanity and an all-around sense of balance. Now willing to listen and take suggestions, I have found that the process of discovering who I really am begins with knowing who I really don't want to be. And although the disease of alcoholism inside of me is like gravity, just waiting to pull me down, AA and the Twelve Steps are like the power that causes an airpla ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 6, 2015* *Sobriety* *Sobriety is nothing like I thought it would be.  At first it was one big emotional roller coaster, full of sharp highs and deep lows. My emotions were new, untested, and I wasn't entirely certain I wanted to deal with them. I cried when I should have been laughing.  I laughed when I should have cried. Events I thought were the end of the world turned out to be gifts.  It was all very confusing.  Slowly things began to ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 5, 2015* *Sanity* *"Sanity" is defined as "soundness of mind."  Yet no alcoholic, soberly analyzing his destructive behavior, whether the destruction fell on the dining-room furniture or his own moral fiber, can claim "soundness of mind" for himself. . . and every AA meeting is an assurance that God will restore us to sanity if we rightly relate ourselves to Him.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ p. 33 *Thought to P ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 4, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ A Spiritual Experience As I work the Steps in everything I do, practicing these principles in all my affairs, now I find that I am awake to God, to others, and to myself. The spiritual awakening I have enjoyed as the result of working the Steps is the awareness that I am no longer alone.* /- Daily Reflections,/ p. 345 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *A spiritual awakening is our greatest gift.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* **H ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 3, 2015* *Guidance* *With the guidance of the program and the encouragement and examples within the Fellowship, I could begin to find out about myself and be prepared to accept what I found. I learned in the Fellowship that if others could love me, then I should love myself as I was -- not for what I was, but for what I could become. So I have learned a little about my mind and about my will and about my emotions and passions.* /- Came To Believe. . .,/ p. 3 ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 2, 2015* *Double-edged Sword* *The tyrant alcohol wielded a double-edged sword over us: first we were smitten by an insane urge that condemned us to go on drinking, and then by an allergy of the body that insured we would ultimately destroy ourselves in the practice. Few indeed were those who, so assailed, had ever won through in singlehanded combat. It was a statistical fact that alcoholics almost never recovered on their own resources. And this had been tr ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *February 1, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ A New Self 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 . . .* *A new world came into view.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* **H J F** = **H**appy, **J**oyous, **F**ree. ** *A Member Shares: Hi AA Family, I'm Peyton ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 31, 2015* *Easier, Softer Way* *When I couldn't find an easier, softer way, I looked for the person with the magic wand, the one person in AA who could make me all better, right now.  This was a frustrating task, and I finally realized that if I wanted this life, I was going to have to do what the others had done. No one made me drunk, and no one was going to make me stay sober. This program is for people who want it, not people who need it.* /- Alcoholi ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 30, 2015* *Control* *When I was still drinking, I couldn't respond to any of life's situations the way other, more healthy, people could. The smallest incident triggered a state of mind that believed I had to have a drink to numb my feelings. But the numbing did not improve the situation, so I sought further escape in the bottle. Today I must be aware of my alcoholism.  I cannot afford to believe that I have gained control of my drinking -- or again I wi ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 29, 2015* *Identity* *Every day, I feel a little bit more useful, more happy and more free.  Life, including some ups and downs, is a lot more fun. I am a part of AA which is a way of life.  If I had not become an active alcoholic and joined AA, I might never have found my own identity or become part of anything . . . I like to think about this.* /- Experience, Strength and Hope,/ p. 363 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The peaks and valleys of my life h ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 28, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Maintenance and Growth It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worthwhile. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of harboring resentment is infinitely grave.* /- As Bill Sees It,/ p. 5 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *H ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 27, 2015* *Responsibility* *To my chagrin, I've learned the hard way that I am responsible for slipping into mental and emotional depressions. . . My depressions are mostly brought on by frustration, fear of the future, rage at my lot in life, but above all /fear./ AA has taught me that I will not be asked to bear more than I can, regardless of what I think but that I am responsible for reporting for duty and making the effort to overcome the adversity, and i ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 26, 2015* *Loneliness* *When we first listen to recovered alcoholics in AA talking freely and honestly about themselves, we are stunned. Their tales of their own drinking escapades, of their own secret fears and loneliness, jar us like a thunderbolt. We discover -- but can hardly dare to believe right at first -- that /we are not alone./ We are /not/ totally unlike /everybody,/ after all. . . We sense, almost before we can articulate it, that we do belong som ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 25, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ A Spiritual Awakening When a man or a woman has a spiritual awakening, the most important meaning of it is that he has now become able to do, feel, and believe that which he could not do on his unaided strength and resources alone. He has been granted a gift which amounts to a new state of consciousness and being.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ pp. 106-107 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *A spiritual awakening is our g ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 24, 2015* *Open-mindedness* *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 the merciless obsession from us.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ p. 24 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The gritty pain of alcoholism is the traction of recovery.* *A ...Continue Reading