*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 9, 2013* *Paradox #4* *When we work at our Twelve Steps, the old life of guzzling and fuzzy thinking, and all that goes with it, gradually dies, and we acquire a different and better way of life. As our shortcomings are removed, one life of us dies, and another life of us lives. We in AA die to live.* /- Experience, Strength and Hope,/ p. 156 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *We surrender to win; we give away to keep; we suffer to get well; we die to live. * *AA-re ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 8, 2013* *Paradox #3* *There is no way to escape the terrible /suffering/ of remorse and regret and shame and embarrassment which starts us on the road to getting well from our affliction. There is no new way to shake off a hangover. It's painful. And for us, necessarily so. . . . We suffer to get well.* /- Experience, Strength and Hope,/ p. 156 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *We suffer to get well.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* *N O W* = **N**o **O**ther **W**ay ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 7, 2013 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Principles Before Personalities We of AA believe that the principle of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility.* /- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,/ p. 192 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *The Steps are there to protect me from myself; the Traditions are there to protect AA from me ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 6, 2013* *Paradox #2* *How can you keep anything if you give it away? It seems absurd and untrue. But in order to keep whatever it is we get in AA, we must go about giving it away to others, for no fee or rewards of any kind. When we cannot afford to give away what we have received so freely in AA, we had better get ready for our next "drunk." It will happen every time. We've got to continue giving it away in order to keep it.* /- Experience, Strengt ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 5, 2013* *Paradox #1* *On the face of it, /surrendering/ certainly does not seem like /winning./ But it is in AA. Only after we have come to the end of our rope, hit a stone wall in some aspect of our lives beyond which we can go no further; only when we hit "bottom" in despair and surrender, can we accomplish sobriety, which we could never accomplish before. We must, and we do, surrender in order to win.* /- Experience, Strength and Hope,/ pp. 155-1 ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 4, 2013 ~ 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 . . .* *In order to change the way I feel, I need to change the way I act.* *AA-related 'Alconym' . . .* **F E E L** = **F**eel, **E**xperience, **E**xpress, **L**et go. * A Member Shares: Hello. I'm ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 3, 2013* *Faith* *If all I have is a dollar in my pocket and I'm at a meeting, logic tells me to save it for myself for later. If I give it to AA, and have faith in the process, it will come back to me in ways I can't even imagine. Spirituality is not based on logic, it is faith-driven. Faith makes the impossible possible.* The AA Grapevine, September 2005 *Thought to Ponder . . .* *Faith dares the soul to go beyond what the eyes can see.* *AA-related 'Alcon ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 2, 2013* *A New Beginning* *I knew I had to have a new beginning, and this beginning had to be here. I could not start anywhere else. I had to let go of the past and forget the future. As long as I held on to the past with one hand 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 . . .* *If I have the courage to begin, I have the courage to ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *August 1, 2013* *Fellowship* *In AA, afflicted men and woman have recaptured the lost art of fellowship. We came together because we were in trouble. We leave our references and credentials at the door. We learn that we can recover from this trouble through the most powerful remedy in the world for sick souls -- the face-to-face relation, respect for one another as human beings, and the right to live well as complete persons.* /- Thank You For Sharing,/ p. 58 *Thoug ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 31, 2013 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Promises We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. 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 . . .* *It works ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 30, 2013* *Merry-Go-Round* *I began to feel like a clown juggling too many balls. Each ball represented a problem I was keeping up in the air. My arms were weary and I knew I couldn't keep on much longer, but I was not about to give up. My pride and ego wouldn't let me. Bosses, judges, co-workers, lawyers, car notes, bar tabs, loan sharks . . . I looked to all these as the source of my problems, while overlooking the most basic problem: my drinking and myself. I ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 30, 2013* *Merry-Go-Round* *I began to feel like a clown juggling too many balls. Each ball represented a problem I was keeping up in the air. My arms were weary and I knew I couldn't keep on much longer, but I was not about to give up. My pride and ego wouldn't let me. Bosses, judges, co-workers, lawyers, car notes, bar tabs, loan sharks . . . I looked to all these as the source of my problems, while overlooking the most basic problem: my drinking and myself. I ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 29, 2013* *Laughter* *Once we recognize self-pity for what it is, we can start doing something about it other than drink. . . Some of the biggest belly laughs at AA meetings erupt when a member describes his or her own latest orgy of self-pity, and we listeners find ourselves looking into a fun-house mirror. There we are -- grown men and women tangled up in the emotional diaper of an infant. It can be a shock, but the shared laughter takes the pain out of it.* / ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 28, 2013 ~ Scroll Down for Share ~ Step Four Nearly every serious emotional problem can be seen as a case of misdirected instinct. When that happens, our great natural assets, the instincts, have turned into physical and mental liabilities. Step Four is our vigorous and painstaking effort to discover what these liabilities in each of us have been, and are. . . Without a willing and persistent effort to do this, there can be little sobriety or ...Continue Reading

*AA Thought for the Day* (courtesy AA-Alive.net) *July 27, 2013* *Priceless* *One looks in one's mirror to powder, shave, or admire. But the good AA is apt to look deeper. Every morning he gives thanks for a sober countenance. . . At nightfall he takes another look, saying, "Well, my friend, how did we do today? Thanks be to thee for the privilege of living." Thus the AA's mirror reflects not rouge, but gratitude; not conceit, but humility; not froth, but reality. It reflects a priceless experience.* /- Th ...Continue Reading