*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 9, 2015* *Hope and Dignity* *I stumbled through the doors of AA in disgrace, expecting nothing from life, and I have been given hope and dignity. Miraculously, the only way to keep the gifts of the program is to pass them on.* /- Daily Reflections,/ p. 62 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *In AA, we discover that it is impossible to give without receiving, or receive without giving.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *G I F T S = **G**etting **I**t **F**rom **T**he **S* ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 8, 2015* *A New Beginning* *I knew I had to have a new beginning, and this beginning had to be here.  I had to let go of the past and forget the future. As long as I held on to the past and grabbed at the future with the other hand, I had nothing to hold on to today with. So I had to begin here, now.* /- - Came To Believe . . .,/ p. 46 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *There are no endings ... only new beginnings.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *A B C = **A**c ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 7, 2015 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Surrender Because I find it hard to let go of the kind of worrisome thoughts and attitudes that cause me immense anguish, all I need to do during those times is allow God, as I understand Him, to release them for me, and then and there, I let go of the thoughts, memories and attitudes that are troubling me. * /- Daily Reflections / p. 320 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *When I struggle, I sink. When I let go, I float.* *AA-rela ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 6, 2015* *Powerlessness* *Who cares to admit complete defeat?  Practically no one, of course. Every natural instinct cries out against the idea of personal powerlessness.  It is truly awful to admit that, glass in hand, we have warped our minds into such an obsession for destructive drinking that only an act of Providence can remove it from us.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ p. 21 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Within our wonderful new world, ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 5, 2015* *Isolation* *Isolation sneaks up on us.  We can mask it with familiar props that are not in themselves bad. We can isolate ourselves in an attempt to clean up our apartments (and then not do the cleaning); we can isolate ourselves in churches or in sleep; we can use family, sweethearts, compulsive working, television. The list is long.  The only way to end it is the way you and I do: together. Reach out -- people can't read your mind.  ...Continue Reading

*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