AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 31, 2024  Tradition One - UnityThe unity of Alcoholics Anonymous is the most cherished quality our Society has. Our lives, the lives of all to come, depend squarely upon it. We stay whole, or A.A. dies. Without unity, the heart of A.A. would cease to beat; our world arteries would no longer carry the life-giving grace of God; His gift to us would be spent aimlessly. Back again in their caves, alcoholics would reproach us and say, “What a great thing A.A. might h ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 30, 2024  Problems Pile UpThese allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (The Doctor's Opinion) p. xxviii  Thought to Ponder . . .The gritty pain of alcoholism is the traction of recovery.  AA-re ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy AA-Alive.net)December 29, 2024~ Scroll Down for Share ~  Old, Insidious InsanityUnless he took some drinks, he might not have the courage to scrape an acquaintance and would have a lonely week-end. Of course he couldn't drink, but why not sit hopefully at a table, a bottle of ginger ale before him? After all, had he not been sober six months now? Perhaps he could handle, say, three drinks—no more! Fear gripped him. He was on thin ice. Again it was the old, insidious insanity—that fir ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 28, 2024  ResentmentsFew people have been more victimized by resentments than have we alcoholics. It mattered little whether our resentments were justified or not. A burst of temper could spoil a day, and a well-nursed grudge could make us miserably ineffective. Nor were we ever skillful in separating justified from unjustified anger. As we saw it, our wrath was always justified.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Ten) p. 90  Thought to Ponder . . . ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 27, 2024  No FightShortly afterward I came home drunk. There had been no fight. Where had been my high resolve? I simply didn’t know. It hadn't even come to mind. Someone had pushed a drink my way, and I had taken it. Was I crazy? I began to wonder, for such an appalling lack of perspective seemed near being just that.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (Bill's Story) p. 5  Thought to Ponder . . .We are without defense against the first drink.  AA-related 'Alconym ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 26, 2024  InvestigationWhile the purpose of making restitution to others is paramount, it is equally necessary that we extricate from an examination of our personal relations every bit of information about ourselves and our fundamental difficulties that we can. Since defective relations with other human beings have nearly always been the immediate cause of our woes, including our alcoholism, no field of investigation could yield more satisfying and valuable rewa ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 25, 2024  Radiance of This PrayerWe treasure our "Serenity Prayer" because it brings a new light to us that can dissipate our oldtime and nearly fatal habit of fooling ourselves. In the radiance of this prayer we see that defeat, rightly accepted, need be no disaster. We now know that we do not have to run away, nor ought we again try to overcome adversity by still another bulldozing power drive that can only push up obstacles before us faster than the ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 24, 2024  Act of Will"Personally, I take the attitude that I intend never to drink again. This is somewhat different from saying, 'I will never drink again.' The latter attitude sometimes gets people in trouble because it is undertaking on a personal basis to do what we alcoholics never could do. It is too much an act of will and leaves us too little room for the idea that God will release us from the drink obsession provided we follow the A.A. program.&quo ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 23, 2024  Reliance"Belief meant reliance, not defiance. In A.A. we saw the fruits of this belief: men and women spared from alcohol's final catastrophe. We saw them meet and transcend their other pains and trials. We saw them calmly accept impossible situations, seeking neither to run nor to recriminate. This was not only faith; it was faith that worked under all conditions."- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Two) p. 31  Thought to Ponder ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy AA-Alive.net)December 22, 2024~ Scroll Down for Share ~  All PowerWithout help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power—that One is God. May you find Him now! Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (How It Works) p. 59  Thought to PonderWe will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.  AA-related 'Alconym'F A I T H&nb ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 21, 2024  Over and OverAfter they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (The Doctors Opinion,) p. xxix  Thought to Ponder . . .Insa ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 20, 2024  My DisturbanceDid these perplexities beset me because of selfishness or unreasonable demands? Or, if my disturbance was seemingly caused by the behavior of others, why do I lack the ability to accept conditions I cannot change? These are the sort of fundamental inquiries that can disclose the source of my discomfort and indicate whether I may be able to alter my own conduct and so adjust myself serenely to self-discipline.- Twelve Steps and Twelve Trad ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 19, 2024  Admission and CorrectionBut there is another kind of hangover which we all experience whether we are drinking or not. That is the emotional hangover, the direct result of yesterday's and sometimes today's excesses of negative emotion—anger, fear, jealousy, and the like. If we would live serenely today and tomorrow, we certainly need to eliminate these hangovers. This doesn't mean we need to wander morbidly around in the past. It requires an admission a ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 18, 2024  Solid Spiritual GroundSo our rule is not to avoid a place where there is drinking,if we have a legitimate reason for being there. . . Go or stay away, whichever seems best. But be sure you are on solid spiritual ground before you start and that your motive in going is thoroughly good. Do not think of what you will get out of the occasion. Think of what you can bring to it. But if you are shaky, you had better work with another alcoholic instead!- Alcoh ...Continue Reading

AA Thought for the Day(courtesy aa-alive.net)December 17, 2024  Any ConceptionTell him exactly what happened to you. Stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God. He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him. The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles.- Alcoholics Anonymous, (Working With Others) p. 93  Thou ...Continue Reading