Hope you have a wonderful Independence Day. As you are celebrating the rights and liberties you enjoy because some men decided to stand up for their rights many years ago, please take a moment to think about those who aren’t so fortunate.
Not sure what to do? Here are a few ideas:

You can head to freerice.com and donate some food to people in an underdeveloped nation.
Grownups can watch a movie like Beyond Rangoon that shows how hard it is to live in a country that doesn’t offer the freedom we have in the US. (This excellent movie starring Patricia Arquette is …read more

With thoughts of patriotism in our minds around the Fourth of July, why not  teach our children more about the Service Flags for military personnel serving, injured or killed?  These window or service flags are part of our history and originated to commemorate soldiers in World War I, sometimes called The Great War.
I found one in my grandmother’s memorabilia trunk.  It represented her son, my Uncle Charles, who served in that war and came back alive.  These flags, a blue star on white background surrounded by a red border hung in the windows of families who had a member fighting for …read more

Thanks NA…
Freedom From Prejudice
“We do not and cannot recover alone. Some members can remember being unwelcome in other fellowships. Some of us recall sitting alone with a White Booklet waiting for another addict to show up at a meeting so that we could have our own NA group. Another addict, any addict, was exceedingly welcome. As we have become prosperous, laden with choices of where to recover and with whom, we have allowed the defect of prejudice to assert itself and, more sadly, to live in our hearts.
While it is possible for us to walk through the doors of NA …read more

Having read yesterday’s Daily Reflections and seeing the results of letting go…
“Now I was stuck on Step Six and, in despair, I picked up the Big Book and read this passage. I was outside, praying for willingness, when I raised my eyes and saw a huge bird rising up in the sky. I watched it suddenly give itself up to the powerful air currents of the mountains. Swept along, swooping and soaring, the bird did things seemingly impossible for mortal birds to do. It was an inspiring example of a fellow creature ‘letting go’ to a power greater than itself. …read more

Rick taught me to never give up the dream…
I haven’t paid attention all that often – usually only when I need to the most. Like now.
Today’s Daily Reflection;
“We want to find exactly how, when, and where our natural desires have warped us. We wish to look squarely at the unhappiness this has caused others and ourselves. By discovering what our emotional deformities are, we can move toward their correction.”
Emotional deformities – that’ll stop ya’!

If you’re having a difficult time finding the wisdom in the stories in the back of The Big Book this is one you might seriously consider giving your focus;
Freedom From Bondage
If, for nothing else, how to be rid of a resentment.
This story, and the wise counsel of the oldtimers who were in my life at a time I needed them the most, went a very long way to helping me understand it is better to be about love than to be about hate!
A small bit of wisdom first – offering a dictionary definition: “Rationalization is giving a socially acceptable reason …read more

I received a comment into moderation the other day relating to an older post on Clubs In AA. I haven’t approved it because I doubt its sincerity. It says: “Recently a AA club moved into a building that has a bar on the second floor. This to me is completely unacceptable.”
Really??? Think about this. Unacceptable to you??? I thought we stopped playing God in recovery.
From page 100;
“Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do. People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we must not have it …read more

Heard it at a meeting tonight… perception deception – defect.

From page 129;
“If the family cooperates, dad will soon see that he is suffering from a distortion of values.”
A Distortion of Values
Distortion is a misrepresentation of the truth. That certainly works for me!
“He will perceive that his spiritual growth is lopsided, that for an average man like himself, a spiritual life which does not include his family obligations may not be so perfect after all.”
True – so true…
“If the family will appreciate that dad’s current behavior is but a phase of his development, all will be well.”
Possibly, unless, through him, the …read more

I think Bill W. “happened” on something very important, to me at least, with what he speaks of here. He begins by saying that without freedom from alcohol, “we have nothing at all.”

From The Language of the Heart: Bill W’s Grapevine Writings, page 315;
“Paradoxically, though, we can achieve no liberation from the alcohol obsession until we have become willing to deal with those character defects which have landed us in that helpless condition.”