There is at least one arrogant bonehead online who would love to convince you, for some selfish motive, that One Day At A Time is “middle-of-the-road” psycho-babble but – here it is! Right from our literature!
The Daily Reflection for May 20th and a direct quote from “As Bill Sees It” – One Day At A Time
“Above all, take it one day at a time.”
How about that? Amazing…
“Why do I kid myself that I must stay away from a drink for only one day, when I know perfectly well I must never drink again as long as I live?”
Phew! That’s …read more

Bacchus? Who the heck is Bacchus?
From page 57 in the 12&12;
“Almost without exception, alcoholics are tortured by loneliness. Even before our drinking got bad and people began to cut us off, nearly all of us suffered the feeling that we didn’t quite belong. Either we were shy, and dared not draw near others, or we were apt to be noisy good fellows craving attention and companionship, but never getting it – at least to our way of thinking. There was always that mysterious barrier we could neither surmount nor understand. It was as if we were actors on a stage, …read more

I’ll try to make use of my imagination because this feels like one of “those” statements that I probably heard many dozens of times when I was drinking and either blew it off out of hand or denied the daylights out of it. I had to have my way of perceiving it for some dark, hidden motive which no doubt rested in some form of self-pity or self-seeking.
From today’s Daily Reflection;
“Whatever is done is over.” Simple, easy statement that irked me. Oh heck no, its not over! One unreimbursed rental coming up! For days on end… weeks, perhaps even months …read more

I am grateful to whoever did the Lijit search for “How To Do A Fifth Step.” It helped me find a resource within a resource I already knew. Now I’ll pass that on…
Dr. Paul O’s Step Study Program
The guide begins with;
“Welcome to The Land of Beginning Again! If you aren’t satisfied with the way your life has been going and you’d like to chuck the whole thing and start all over again, then you hold in your hand a tool for doing just that and for doing it right this time. Beginning again, in the opinion of the editor, is …read more

Very short and sweeeeet… from Silkworth.net;
5th STEP Prayer
God I thank you from the bottom of my heart that I know you better. Help me become aware of anything I have omitted discussing with another person. Help me to do what is necessary to walk a free man at last. AMEN
(p. 75 BB)

“Having made our personal inventory, what shall we do about it?”
Don H. would tell us when he shared that “AA has changed. Used to be that you’d throw your problems out on the table in a meeting then you’d wait to hear the solution. Now, you throw your problems out on the table and then go out and have a cigarette. You don’t wait for the answer. I wouldn’t mind if you’d throw your problems out if you’d just tell me what you’re going to do about them!”
Lest you attempt to diminish Don – he died with 55 years sober …read more

This is probably for all you lion taming, white knucklers out there…
From the 12&12 of Alcoholics Anonymous, page 55;
“So intense, though, is our fear and reluctance to do this (talk to somebody), that many A.A.’s at first try to bypass Step Five. We search for an easier way – which usually consists of the general and fairly painless admission that when drinking we were sometimes bad actors. Then, for good measure, we add dramatic descriptions of that part of our drinking behavior which our friends probably know about anyhow.”
You know, stuff exactly like what we did in those glorious gin …read more

I first heard it from Fr. Martin…
Many people mistake activity for action. I think Fr. Martin relates it somewhat like this: I have to do a Fifth Step. Admit it to God, to myself and another human being. Well, I’ll go to another meeting and share about it there. And then another meeting, and another, etc. Hopefully you’ll get the idea.
That’s not action, that’s activity!
It is my personal belief that the Fifth Step is where I discovered what a master of self-delusion I am. Not only is going to more meetings to avoid actually doing a Fifth Step not action, …read more

No, sorry, not a military reference (btw – offer a soldier thanks today wouldya’?).
Today’s reflection speaks to page 124 in our basic text;
“Cling to the thought that, in God’s hands the dark past is the greatest possession you have – the key to life and happiness for others. With it you can avert death and misery for them.”
And the “response” reads;
“No longer is my past an autobiography, it is a reference book to be taken down, opened and shared. Today as I report for duty, the most wonderful picture comes through. For, though this day be dark – as some …read more