Today’s Daily Reflections speaks of removing the ground glass in us. Damn – that’s sounds and “feels” painful…
Remember, from the Seventh Step;
“In every case, pain had been the price of admission into a new life.”
I’d asked God for dozens of do-overs, never believing there was any hope. In addition, I sure didn’t exactly perceive that were I to be graced with a new life that, by necessity, it would have to be born through pain!
“But this admission price had purchased more than we expected. It brought a measure of humility, which we soon discovered to be a healer of pain.”
In …read more

If you don’t know please ask your sponsor…
From today’s Daily Reflection: “Those Who Still Suffer”
“For us, if we neglect those who are still sick, there is unremitting danger to our own lives and sanity.”
It is my personal opinion (fwiw) that this is a piece of writing that undoes the profundity expressed in meetings that the newcomer is the most important person in the room. I think whoever made that statement up about the newcomer needed to say something they thought made them sound important.
When you get down to reality, in a belief system based on a Higher Power, each and …read more

Keep your big mouth shut!
This, for me, goes a very long way to defining humility.
I was always Johnny-On-The-Spot when someone was troubled, in harms’ way or hurt. It seemed that accidents happened close by and I’d be there to help. But I had a motive despite the coincidental nature of most of these circumstances.
I wanted attention. I wanted someone to pay attention to me, to reward me. Self-centered in the extreme because if I didn’t receive attention or reward I got angry and pouted. Of true humility I knew absolutely nothing.
Then came AA and wise oldtime AA members including Matt …read more

My friend asked and I’ll try…
My first thought relating to how pride aims at the destruction of others comes from the term “character assassination.”
Suppose for a moment that you’ve worked on a project for your company for months finally arriving at what you believe in your heart is a magnificent piece of work.
Your co-worker has also worked on a similar project and has the same feelings about his/hers.
The boss chooses their project for the honors. And you begin a campaign of character assassination maligning anything good about your fellow worker, raising doubt about anything they’ve ever accomplished. You tell everybody …read more

I’m an alcoholic. I know, for me, that I drank over guilt and, if I don’t continue to follow the principles I’ve learned, I’ll drink over guilt again. I’m certain there are others who are the same. I’m also certain, from current experiences, that many are somehow being misled into believing that pride in recovery is okay. Which is why I stay on this quest for writings about pride vs humility.
This is from “The Language of the Heart,” June, 1961 – “Humility For Today,” pg. 258.
Bill wrote:
“Today I think I can trace a clear linkage between my guilt and my …read more

Really? But you’ve “done” your Seventh Step, right? Um Hmmm.
This applies to me as well folks! Today’s Reflection;
Shortcomings Removed
“When I put the Seventh Step into action I must remember that there are no blanks to fill in.”
Isn’t this interesting? If I hadn’t read this I’d be wondering what they meant. They go on to say;
“It doesn’t say, ‘Humbly asked Him to (fill in the blank) remove our shortcomings.’ For years, I filled in the imaginary blank with ‘Help me!’ ‘Give me the courage to,’ and ‘Give me the strength,’ etc. The Step says simply that God will remove my shortcomings.”
Must …read more

“Of myself I am nothing, the Father doeth the works.”
From page 75 in AA’s 12&12;
“During this process of learning more about humility, the most profound result of all was the change in our attitude toward God. And this was true whether we had been believers or unbelievers. We began to get over the idea that the Higher Power was a sort of bush-league pinch hitter, to be called upon only in an emergency.”
You know what the two foxhole prayers are – don’t you?
The first is “Please dear God, get me out of this one and I swear, I’ll never do …read more

My first stop each day, if you hadn’t figured it out , is the Daily Reflection. Today’s begins with this: “My stability came out of trying to give, not out of demanding that I receive.”
And I damn well want to know why I am still unstable when I make no friggin’ demands upon God for anything!!!
I’ve been reading our literature and it’s references to demands as opposed to requests for some time now. I understand the differences. It was made clear to me what I’d been doing with my alcoholic, negative thinking when I was drinking and even early …read more

The title of today’s Daily Reflection is Pride. Without going into detail, this reading is very appropriate for me right now! I really like what it says because it truly nails the subject and transcends pitiful and pathetic injustices.
“For thousands of years we have been demanding more than our share of security, prestige, and romance. When we seemed to be succeeding, we drank to dream still greater dreams. When we were frustrated, even in part, we drank for oblivion. Never was there enough of what we thought we wanted.
In all these strivings, so many of them well-intentioned, our crippling handicap …read more

Doesn’t necessarily work if you’re an alcoholic…
From The Seventh Step in the 12&12;
“True, most of us thought good character was desirable, but obviously good character was something one needed to get on with the business of being self-satisfied.”
Yeah – right. In the case of most alcoholics and also most humans, we were previously told “Instead of regarding the satisfaction of our material desires as the means by which we could live and function as human beings, we had taken these satisfactions to be the final end and aim of life.” How true! And how perverse was that thinking…
That led to …read more