Do you really mean that? Are you sure?
It seems like this months Daily Reflections are more on target, for me, than most other months. What today’s actually speaks to my mind is: “Count Your Blessings, Not Your Troubles”
“One exercise that I try to practice is to try for a full inventory of my blessings…”

“What did I have to be grateful for? I shut myself up and started listing the blessings for which I was in no way responsible, beginning with having been born of sound mind and body.”

Well, maybe he was born with a sound mind lol.

“I went through seventy-four …read more

Today’s Daily Reflection;
Giving Without Strings
“And he well knows that his own life has been made richer, as an extra dividend of giving to another without any demand for a return.”
If you might be living with a belief that you did what it took to direct sobriety in AA your way, you might want to pass on this…
I had place myself beyond human aid. It took an Act of Providence for me to receive the gift of sobriety. I believe that.
When I honestly take a look at this I find that I did absolutely nothing to be deemed qualified. I wasn’t …read more

Well, this first sentence has the promise of becoming long and a run-on eh?
We’ve seen the First Step Promises, the Second Step Promises, , the Third Step Promises, and the Fourth Step Promises, now here are the Fifth Step Promises from the AA History Lovers Group at Yahoo!
1. In actual practice, we usually find a solitary self-appraisal insufficient. (72:2)
2. If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking. (72:2)
3. They took inventory all right, but …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

I can relate to what is said in today’s reflection…
“If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing.”
It adds;
“When I had taken my Fifth Step, I became aware that all my defects of character stemmed from my need to feel secure and loved.”
And that’s where I identify!
Reading further, the message becomes – I ask for God’s help and somehow (?) I find myself, having decided to walk through my fear, helping someone else who is walking through their fear! In this reflection the fears are identical.
I’m finding it “funny” right …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