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 picking out all the negatives and fears in my life each day. All I have to do to live a happy day is remember, see factually, know without doubt, that my life is truly a gift. Had God not walked my ugly butt into AA when He did, there are many alternatives to what my life might have been like. The simplest is dead. I’m alive and thankful.

I’ll live it from there…

Post from: Blisstree

The World Of The Spirit

“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, can you decide what “it” is?

Post from: Blisstree

To Remain Spiritually Fit

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 are based on the experience of thousands of people.

1. God is alive. He always has been and He always will be.

2. God knows everything.

3. God can do anything.

4. God can be everywhere – all at the same time. (These are the important differences between God and us human beings.)

5. God is invisible – we can’t see Him or touch Him – but God is here. He is with you now. He is beside you. He surrounds you. He fills the room or the whole place where you are right now. He is in you now. He is in your heart.

6. God cares very much for you. He is interested in you. He has a plan for your life. He has an answer for every need and problem you face.

7. God will help you do anything that He asks you to do.

8. Anyone can be in touch with God, anywhere and at any time, if conditions are obeyed.

These are the conditions:
- To be quiet and still
- To listen
- To be honest about every thought that comes
- To test the thoughts to be sure that they come from God
- To obey

So, with these basic elements as a background, here are specific suggestions on how to listen to God:

1. Take Time

Find some place and time where you can be alone, quiet and undisturbed. Most people have found that the early morning is the best time. Have with you some paper and pen or pencil.

2. Relax

Sit in a comfortable position. Consciously relax all your muscles. Be loose. There is no hurry. There needs to be no strain during these minutes. God cannot get through to us if we are tense and anxious about later
responsibilities.

3. Tune In

Open your heart to God. Either silently or aloud, just say to God in a natural way that you would desire to find His plan for your life – you want His answer to the problem or situation that you are facing just now. Be definite and specific in your request.

4. Listen

Just be still, quiet, relaxed and open. Let your mind go “loose.” Let God do the talking. Thoughts, ideas, and impressions will begin to come into your mind and heart. Be alert and aware and open to every one.

5. Write!

Here is the important key to the whole process. Write down everything that comes into your mind. Everything. Writing is simply a means of recording so that you can remember later. Don’t sort out or edit your thoughts at this point.

Don’t say to yourself;

This thought isn’t important;
This is just an ordinary thought;
This can’t be guidance;
This isn’t nice;
This can’t be from God,
This is just me thinking, etc.

Write down everything that passes through your mind.

Names of people;
Things to do;
Things to say;
Things that are wrong and need to be made right.

Write down everything.

Good thoughts – bad thoughts;
Comfortable thoughts – uncomfortable thoughts;
“Holy” thoughts–”unholy’ thoughts;
Sensible thoughts–”crazy” thoughts.
Be Honest! Write down everything. A thought comes quickly, and it escapes even more quickly unless it is captured and put down.

6. Test

When the flow of thoughts slows down, stop. Take a good look at what you have written. Not every thought we have comes from God so we need to test our thoughts. Here is where the written record helps us to be able to look at them.

a) Are these thoughts completely honest, pure, unselfish and loving?
b) Are these thoughts in line with our duties to our family, to our country?
c) Are these thoughts in line with our understanding of the teachings found in our spiritual literature?

7. Check

When in doubt and when it is important, what does another person who is living two-way prayer think about this thought or action? More light comes in through two windows than one. someone else who also wants God’s plan for our lives may help us to see more clearly.

Talk over together what you have written. Many people do this. They tell each other what guidance has come. This is the secret of unity. There are always three sides to every question – your side, my side, and the right side. Guidance shows us which is the right side – not who is right, but what is right.

8. Obey

Carry out the thoughts that have come. You will only be sure of guidance as you go through with it. A rudder will not guide a boat until the boat is moving. As you obey, very often the results convince you that you are on the right track.

9. Blocks?

What if I don’t seem to get any definite thoughts? God’s guidance is as freely available as the air we breathe. If I am not receiving thoughts when I listen the fault is not Gods.

Usually it is because there is something I will not do:
something wrong in my life that I will not face and make right;
a habit or indulgence I will not give up;
a person I will not forgive;
a wrong relationship in my life I will not give up;
a restitution I will not make;
something God has already told me to do that I will not obey.
Check these points and be honest. Then try listening again.

10. Mistakes

Suppose I make a mistake and do something in the name of God that isn’t right? Of course we make mistakes. We are humans with many faults. However, God will always honor our sincerity.

He will work around and through every honest mistake we make. He will help us make it right. But remember this – sometimes when we do obey God, someone else may not like it or agree with it. So when there is opposition, it doesn’t always mean you have made a mistake. It can mean that the other person doesn’t want to know or to do what is right. Suppose I fail to do something that I have been told and the opportunity to do it passes? There is only one thing to do. Put it right with God. Tell Him you’re sorry. Ask Him to forgive you, then accept His forgiveness and begin again. God is our Father – He is not an impersonal calculator. He understand us far better than we do.

11. Results

We never know what swimming is like until we get down into the water and try. We will never know what this is like until we sincerely try it. Every person who has tried this honestly finds that a wisdom, not their own, comes into their minds and that Power greater than human power begins to operate in their lives. It is an endless adventure. There is a way of life, for everyone, everywhere. Anyone can be in touch with the living God, anywhere, anytime, if we fulfill His conditions.

When man listens, God Speaks.
When man obeys, God Acts.

This is the law of Prayer,

God’s plan for this world goes forward through the lives of ordinary people who are willing to be governed by Him.

John E. Batterson

[May I suggest you adapt this to the Higher Power you understand... This is a reprint linked above. Here is the link again to my source at AA Bibliography.]

Post from: Blisstree

How To Listen to God

1. We continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. (84:2)
2. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. (84:2)
3. We have entered the world of the Spirit. (84:2)
4. Love and tolerance of others is our code. (84:2)
5. We have ceased fighting anything or anyone even alcohol. (84:3)
6. For by this time sanity will have returned. (84:3)
7. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. (84:3)
8. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. (85:0)
9. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. (85:0)
10. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. (85:0)
11. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality-safe and protected. (85:0)
12. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. (85:0)
13. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. (85:0)
14. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition. (85:0)
15. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. (85:1)
16. We are not cured of alcoholism. (85:1)
17. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. (85:1)
18. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. (85:1)
19. “How can I best serve Thee-Thy will (not mine) be done.” These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. (85:1)
20. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will. (85:1)

Post from: Blisstree

Tenth Step Promises

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 confusion and a bit of mental chaos with any writing schedule I had.

The third “statement” in today’s reflection is decidedly no longer true

“Worries about things not done yesterday and fear of tomorrow’s deadlines denied me the calm I needed to be effective each day.”

I’m functioning at a much more wonderful level today and I owe it to my God together with the miracle He brought into my life – Alcoholics Anonymous. The reflections speaks to it: “I tried to focus on God’s will, not my problems, and to trust that He would manage my day. It worked!”

It isn’t perfect, nor will it ever be, but, as my friend Mel says “It’s a beautiful day in the land of the living!”

Post from: Blisstree

I Lacked Serenity

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 down.”

Now, for a sentence that has become very important to me because I can truly identify it with how I was;

“We are taught to differentiate between our wants (which are never satisfied) and our needs (which are always provided for).”

That is a distinction I was never able to make before AA! It goes on to say;

“We cast off the burdens of the past and the anxieties of the future, as we begin to live in the present, one day at a time. We are granted ‘the serenity to accept the things we cannot change’ – and thus lose our quickness to anger and our sensitivity to criticism.”

True, without perfection… More truth (about me);

“Above all, we reject fantasizing and accept reality. The more I drank, the more I fantasized everything. I imagined getting even for hurts and rejections. In my mind’s eye I played and replayed scenes in which I was plucked magically from the bar where I stood nursing a drink and was instantly exalted to some position of power and prestige. I lived in a dream world.”

How well that describes me can’t be put into words… And now;

“A.A. led me gently from this fantasizing to embrace reality with open arms. And I found it beautiful! For, at last, I was at peace with myself. And with others. And with God.”

And there are those who would belittle that peace – to whom I say – screw you…

At Peace At Last!

Post from: Blisstree

At Peace At Last

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 time! How overwhelming might that be???

I personally owe a debt of gratitude to a fellow from Morehead City, NC who, back in 1993, taught me that;

TIME – Is what keeps everything from happening at once!

We’re having what has become an interesting discussion on the Traditions over here. Why don’t y’all drop in?

Post from: Blisstree

Keep Your Head And Your Arse

“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 are emotional booby traps baited with pride and vengefulness.”

First Things First – I’ve been forcefully told that my ego and pride would f****** kill me! < That made me pay attention! Secondly – a booby trap is designed to kill or maim. That isn’t lost on me. Thirdly, my big mouth has had a tendency (lol) to get me in trouble for my entire life! (Many might want to make note especially in this day of the “blogosphere.”)

So, now I’m in recovery. I’m still an alcoholic. I restrain myself more than ever. Sometimes I even restrain myself to a point of silence. No, it isn’t silent scorn. It is a fear of pain. It was brought to my attention this weekend that there was an old lesson which would serve me well today. Write a letter, get it off my chest, get my feelings “out there.”

And then – don’t send it! Thanks Mike.

Post from: Blisstree

And Then – Don’t Send It

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;

It was his habit to go out drinking on Christmas Eve and come stumbling home drunk on Christmas morning. It was also his habit to have written a note, apologizing, promising he’d never do it again. The last Christmas he did this before he got sober he’d done what he’d always done and had walked into the entryway of the house with a new note of apology. His wife greeted him and he handed her this note. She told him not to move, she’d be right back.

Tom’s wife walked away, went into their bedroom closet, pulled out a shoebox and returned to the front of the house. As she approached Tom she removed the cover from the shoebox and tossed the many years of apology notes she’d been saving, at him, saying, “Here’s all your hollow apologies, they ain’t worth a sh**.” He went to A.A. and got sober.

Even though I have been “corrected, chastised and character assassinated” for this, I’d like to refer to the Big Book on page 86 regarding hidden agendas or self-serving motives. It says;

“On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.”

The paragraph prior to that one provides a long laundry list of self-serving motives which we will review. One of those is “Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time?”

The Hidden Agenda. “Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time?” Absolutely not middle-of-the-road fellowship babble!

For a very real life example of this outside in the real world you might not have to look any farther than this…

Post from: Blisstree

Hidden Agendas

“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;

Do I have the “willingness to admit when the fault is mine to facilitate the progression of my growth and help myself to become more understanding and helpful to others?”

Once again – paraphrased.

The answer? Not really – that’s the truth! I’m comfortable in my anger today (and we discussed this at length at the meeting last night). My anger is a familiar “blankie” for “his majesty the baby.” What I will do today to be of help, is make sure I don’t lose my cool, throw a tantrum like a true baby, open my mouth inappropriately or even react “with a face.” If I were to do that “fair-mindedness and tolerance would evaporate on the spot” and then I’d be looking to make amends. Nope. Not going there!

The eventuality of all these is to be led back to a state of mind that would be closer to a drink than farther away. Nope! Not going there either!

K.I.S.S.!

Post from: Blisstree

Who Can I Help Today?