“We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness.”

We have a good friend who asks this question at meetings – “how do I know that AA is working?” The answer?
I’ve never had it so good!
There are times like right now that I must bring this to the forefront of my mind. I’m on the right track. God has me exactly where he wants me. How do I know? Because I’ve never had it so good!
I could spend hours …read more

Derived from Back To Basics – The Alcoholics Anonymous Beginners Meetings

“Please remember that, in order to remain spiritually fit we must be of service to other alcoholics.”
“We can think of no greater service than helping newcomers through the Twelve Steps so they, too, can find the spiritual solution to alcoholism.”
Today’s Daily Reflection;
“Without Unity, the heart of A.A. would cease to beat; …”
“The ability of Bill W. and Dr. Bob, working together and passing it on to other members, tells me that to give it away is to keep it.”
Passing what on? Giving what away? Whatever “it” is relates to unity, …read more

How To Listen to God
God will tell you all that you need to know.
He will not always tell you all that you want to know.
These are a few simple suggestions for people who are willing to make an experiment.
You can discover for yourself the most important and practical thing any human being can ever learn – how to be in touch with God.
All that is needed is the willingness to try it honestly. Every person who has done this consistently and sincerely has found that it really works.
Before you begin, look over these fundamental points. They are true and …read more

The Tenth Step Promises from the AA History Lovers Group at Yahoo!

We continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. (84:2)
We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. (84:2)
We have entered the world of the Spirit. (84:2)
Love and tolerance of others is our code. (84:2)
We have ceased fighting anything or anyone even alcohol. (84:3)
For by this time sanity will have returned. (84:3)
We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. (84:3)
We react sanely and normally, and …read more

The first sentence of today’s daily reflection. How true! Seemingly always in a state of frustration.

The second sentence also hits home, today… “With more to do than seemed possible, I fell further behind, no matter how hard I tried.”
It hasn’t been easy leaving someone that I was emotionally invested in for over forty years but peace of mind and sobriety transcend all else in my life now. One of the realities of this move has been the small task of getting “back on track.” New living arrangements, different travel times and execution along with simply getting adjusted brought about some …read more

It is my personal perception that saying “At Peace At Last” might sound dirgeful.
I’d like to look at it in a positive light. From page 559 in the Big Book;
“We are told in A.A. that we cannot afford resentments and self-pity, so we learn to avoid these festering mental attitudes. Similarly, we rid ourselves of guilt and remorse as we “clean out the garbage” from our minds through the Fourth and Fifth Steps of our recovery program. We learn how to level out the emotional swings that got us into trouble both when we were up and when we were …read more

Keep your head and your arse in the same place your feet are at. That’s what I was told when I took my thoughts out of the moment, out of the day.
Every once in a while I catch myself looking down at my feet and thinking this exact phrase. Keep it in the day, Mark, I remind myself.
TIME – we have cute acronyms for TIME;
Things I Must Earn
Things I Must Endure
Here’s a suggestion. Imagine if all the sad times, all the most challenging problems, all the real tragedies, all the unfairnesses of the world, had all happened at the same …read more

From page 91 in the 12 and 12;
“Our first objective will be the development of self-restraint. This carries a top priority rating. When we speak or act hastily or rashly, the ability to be fair-minded and tolerant evaporates on the spot. One unkind tirade or one willful snap judgement can ruin our relation with another person for a whole day, or maybe a whole year. [Or, from my experience - a whole decade]. Nothing pays off like restraint of tongue and pen. We must avoid quick-tempered criticism and furious, power-driven argument. The same goes for sulking or silent scorn. These …read more

I’ll never forget Tom. He had been a sober member of the Patchogue group of A.A. (which meets at St. Josephs) for about 17 years when I was walked in by the Grace of God.
Tom had a story as we all do – part of his story was about hollow apologies. They were actually the tool which God used through Tom’s wife to motivate him to go to AA. He told us like this;

Today’s reflection says in part (paraphrased);
“When selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, or fear crop up we ask God at once to remove them, then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help.”
The question, for me for today, is at the end of the reading;