Many of the discussion topics chosen are taken from AA literature that may not be generally available to all participants in this meeting. This blog will share this AA literature that a chairperson has chosen that may not be generally available.
Many of the posts come from the over 60 years of archives from the monthly AA magazine, Grapevine. Other sources may include AA literature such as ‘As Bill Sees It’ as well as AA pamphlets.
There is also a growing set of quotes from the AA Big Book , Twelve and Twelve, Daily Reflections, and Living Sober.
All of these posts are categorized to allow quicker access. You can also search on key words that you are interested in learning more about.
Try harder. Do better. Be perfect. These messages are tricks that people have played on us. No matter how hard we try, we think we have to do better. Perfection always eludes us. Messages of perfectionism are tricks because we can never achieve that goal. We cannot feel good about ourselves or what we have…
Rick W has written a short, outstanding book about the linkage between preparation and taking the actions suggested in the Twelve Steps. He explains the challenge he addresses with his book this way: Bill W. and the early members of A.A. learned this the hard way. The Steps were shaped not by theory, but by…
Rick W has written a short, outstanding book about the linkage between preparation and taking the actions suggested in the Twelve Steps. He explains the challenge he addresses with his book this way: I began to notice that the Steps didn’t just ask me to act, they taught me how to become ready to act.…
2nd Step Proposition Exercise The 2nd Step Proposition Exercise is a specific Spiritual exercise for members of Alcoholics Anonymous interested in attaining a new level in the 4th Dimension of existence. The whole purpose of this exercise is to have a new experience and to discover that which has been blocking us off from God.…
Healing from the inside out takes time, but the rewards are great The Big Book suggests that I am to share with you, in a general way, what I used to be like, what happened and what I am like today. Here’s what I used to be like: I came from a home where I…
We’re on this earth to learn how to “bear the beams of love,” as William Blake wrote, to lean into the Spirit, to avail ourselves of healing, to ease the burdens of others, and not rely on overeating, drinking, drugging, watching porn, compulsively controlling people, or any other repetitive, self-medicating behaviors to escape reality and…
It was a Rockwellian October morning when I first visited A.A. founder Bill Wilson’s grave in East Dorset, Vermont. The sky was cerulean blue; the tips of the towering maples were flaring orange and red; and the air was hazy from the smoke wafting from nearby chimneys, sweetening the crisp, cool autumn air. No other…
How does surrender address the fundamental reality of ‘lack of power, that was our dilemma’ (BB p.45) ? What is the dynamic between the surrender of offering myself or abandoning myself and finding who I really am … my true self … distinguishing the true from the false ? Is it possible that to “thine…
Master the lessons of your present circumstances. We don’t move forward by resisting what’s undesirable in our lives today. We move forward, we grow, we change by acceptance. Avoidance is not the key; surrender opens the door. Listen to this truth: We are each in our present circumstances for a reason. There is a lesson,…
I like to tell students the story of a man who went to a mindfulness retreat because his therapist said he’d feel better if he learned to meditate. The retreat turned out to be a real roller coaster. Yes, there were moments of calm, but he also plunged deeply into fear, anger, and grief. The…
