Please, I pray I don’t go to that place where I believe I can live on yesterday’s sobriety…
Borrowed from last year;
Constant = Unchanged, Consistently recurring over time, persistent…
Page 20: “Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs.”
Page 73: “But they had not learned enough of humility, fearlessness and honesty, in the sense we find it necessary, until they told someone all their story… He is under constant fear and tension – that makes for more drinking.”
Page 155: “He told me how he lived in constant worry about …read more

Avail us nothing…

I first published this last year. It remains true.
January 7th’s Reflection speaks of turning points. Sometimes they are beginnings and sometimes they are endings. I can understand that. I don’t like it but, then again, it doesn’t matter whether I like them or not, everything will unfold the way it was meant to.
Thy Will, Not Mine Be Done

Thanks again to the folks at the AA History Lovers Group at Yahoo!
There are far more than Twelve Promises written in the Big Book “Alcoholics Anonymous.”
This is a listing of only those relating to the First Step (please, some may be a stretch – utilize, don’t analyze);
First Step Promises:
1. How many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism. (Title page).
2. Who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. (foreword 1st edition xiii)
3. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. (foreword 1st edition xiii)
4. We are …read more

TO ALL MEMBERS
Greetings On Our 10th Christmas
1944
Yes, it’s in the air! The spirit of Christmas once more warms this poor distraught world. Over the whole globe millions are looking forward to that one day when strife can be forgotten, when it will be remembered that all human beings, even the least are loved by God, when men will hope for the coming of the Prince of Peace as they never hoped before.
But there is another world which is not poor. Neither is it distraught. It is the world of Alcoholics Anonymous, where thousands dwell happily and secure. Secure because …read more

Service work will guarantee you another 24 hours will it? And you’re telling this to newcomers? Well, I think two-stepping usually carries an opportunity to get drunk along with it! That might be why they speak of it in the Twelve and Twelve…
Page 113;
“We temporarily cease to grow because we feel satisfied that there is no need for all of A.A.’s Twelve Steps for us. We are doing fine on a few of them, the First Step and that part of the Twelfth where we “carry the message.” In A.A. slang, that blissful state is known as ‘two-stepping.’ And it …read more

After you’ve had the magnificent opportunity to have been a satisfied customer of Alcoholics Anonymous for some time you gather what is called “experience.” With that experience along with the Twelve Steps, there also comes a moment now and then when you “intuitively know how to handle situations that used to baffle us.”
One such moment occurred in the last day or so when I “listened” to a fellow alcoholic share in a general way and use words that offer someone whose seen them before, some intuitive insight that this person wasn’t quite right emotionally.

Yeah, yeah…
Folks, please, if you find yourself in meetings where there is someone who never shares until the end of the meeting and then begins their sharing with “During this meeting I have observed blah, blah, blah,” then offers up some magnificent wisdom based on a few years away from a drink, that is a certain example of something you’ll want to leave there and take the rest. You might want to run it past your sponsor especially if it sounds like it applies to your case.
On the same thought – if you are approached by anyone, in a meeting …read more

So, you say you’ve been making your relationships better because you’re not drinking anymore. Your wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend is acting nicely towards you today. Your children aren’t running around with computer eyes wondering when you’ll lose your cool.
The neighbors say “good morning,” the boss says “good morning,” people smile at you as they pass by. The young lady at the coffee shop has a kind greeting for you.
It seems as if you’re not raising your middle finger to other drivers nor they to you. You have extra time when you arrive at work. You have extra time when you arrive home.
Your grades …read more

I’m about to head off to “work.” Bleccchhh!
Yet, its at work now that I have been given the opportunity to watch someone who is keeping it green for me. He simply cannot, will not, whatever – stop drinking. All day, every day, through the night into the morning and so on and so on. At 9:15 am he has been unable to string two coherent words together to make a sensible comment over the phone and his workers are telling him to stay home. He owns the business!
Which brings to my mind one of the profundity pushers’ statements …read more

Last year we made an attempt to determine what is the message that we carry in Alcoholics Anonymous and received a couple of excellent responses;
Joe said: “The message that I carry is AA’s message. 12 steps which guarantee a spiritual awakening to be the result. My obligation is to try to share my experience with those twelve steps with other Alcoholics and to practice the 12 disciplines in all my affairs. Most important to me is that I be cognisant that this is AA’s program and AA’s steps! Not mine! My program is what brought me to AA! One path …read more