*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 20, 2014* *Great Reality* *Deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there. For faith in a Higher Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself. . . We found the Great Reality deep down within us.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 55 *Thought to Ponder . . ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 19, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Complacency It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism.  What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 85 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The alcoholic is in no greater peril than when he takes sobriety for gr ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 18, 2014* *Spiritual Growth* *Growth and understanding came slowly, but they came steadily. And finally, I could feel gratitude for my sobriety -- for the saving grace of God. Now I feel totally free, because I know the truth about myself. I learned about /people/ in AA, and this brought me to an understanding about myself. I know that spiritual growth is a great, wide, beautiful thing and that I have only stepped up to the open door.* /- Came To Believe . . ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 17, 2014* *Convincing Evidence* *The most convincing evidence I have today that I'm an alcoholic is not how much or how long I drank, nor how drunk I got; the most convincing evidence I have is that Alcoholics Anonymous is working for me.* /- Thank You For Sharing,/ p. 181 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *I would rather go through life sober, believing I am an alcoholic, than go through life drunk, trying to convince myself that I am not. * *AA-related 'Alconym' ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 15, 2014* *Expectations* *Until I could honestly look at myself and see that I was the problem in many situations and react appropriately inside and out; until I could discard my expectations and understand that my serenity was directly proportional to them, I could not experience serenity and sound sobriety.* /- Daily Reflections,/ p. 71 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Expectations are resentments 'under construction.'* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *G R A C E* ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 15, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Promises We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Are these extravagant promises?  We think not. They are being fulfilled among us -- sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 84 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Never mistake motion for action.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* **W O R K** = **W**hat **O**ur ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 14, 2014* *Obsession* *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 . . .* *Within our wonderful new world, we have found freedom from our fatal obsession.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *H J F* = **H**appy, **J**oyous, **F**ree. Tha ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 13, 2014* *Our Gateway* *None of us can fathom the glories and the uncharted regions of the universe. But we /can/ live on earth and love one another. We can let in the beginnings of /concern, compassion, consideration,/ and watch ourselves grow. With the tools and guideposts of AA, we can learn a little of this precious gift -- our gateway to human spirituality.* /- Came To Believe . . .,/ p. 120 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The Three "C's" -- /Conc ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 12, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Self-pity I began to understand why, when I first came into AA, the most frequent warnings from some of the old-timers were against self-pity. All those sensations I'd been wallowing in with such enjoyment -- of being aggrieved, of being wronged, of being victimized, of being (for once!) in the right -- added up to the heady brew of self-pity.  And I then comprehended fully why self-pity, leading to isolation, was pres ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 11, 2014* *Fear* *At heart we had all been abnormally fearful. It mattered little whether we had sat on the shore of life drinking ourselves into forgetfulness or had plunged in recklessly and willfully beyond our depth and ability. The result was the same -- all of us had nearly perished in a sea of alcohol. But today, in well-matured AA's, these distorted drives have been restored to something like their true purpose and direction.* /- Twelve Steps and Twel ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 10, 2014* *Impatience* *The slogan "Easy Does It" is one way we AA's remind each other that many of us have tendencies at times to overdo things, to rush heedlessly along, impatient with anything that slows down. We find it hard to relax and savor life. When one of us is in a dither to get something done or get somewhere in a hurry, a friend may gently remonstrate,"'Easy Does It,' remember?" Then there's often a flash of annoyance at the a ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 9, 2014* *Peace of Mind* *AA has taught me that I will have peace of mind in exact proportion to the peace of mind I bring into the lives of other people, and it has taught me the true meaning of the admonition "happy are ye who know these things /and do them."/ For the only problems I have now are those I create when I break out in a rash of self-will.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ pp. 550-551 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *A candle loses nothing by ligh ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 8, 2014 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Change The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.* /- As Bill Sees It,/ p. 115 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Learn to change, change to learn.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* **A B C** = **A**cceptance, **B**elief, **C**hange. ** *A Member Shares: Joannie here, an alkie for sure.  I woke up this morning rememberi ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 7, 2014* *No Reservations* *We have seen the truth demonstrated again and again: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic." Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad as ever. If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol.* /- Alcoholics Anonymous,/ p. 33 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Times change, alcoholism doesn't.* * ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *January 6, 2014* *Unmanageability* *All the laws that are at work in the world are going to make every life unmanageable to one degree or another from time to time. But for the alcoholic there is not only an additional danger, but also an additional opportunity. AA offers us a program of recovery from our past feelings about the unmanageability of life, a program that put life's unmanageability into perspective. That's more than most of the rest of the people in the ...Continue Reading