Happiness Comes Quietly – Daily Reflection January 17th

When we examine what we demand and what we desire to possess, we have a great starting point for revealing our self-centered fears that may be unconscious and in need of healing. This can be a tremendous aid in our 4th step inventory. Click on the links to demands in this meditation to understand thisContinue reading “Happiness Comes Quietly – Daily Reflection January 17th”

In The Sunlight At Last – As Bill Sees It #313

When the thought was expressed that there might be a God personal to me, I didn’t like the idea. So my friend Ebby made what then seemed a novel suggestion. He said, “Why don’t you choose your own conception of God?” That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadowContinue reading “In The Sunlight At Last – As Bill Sees It #313”

Spiritual Kindergarten – As Bill Sees It #95

“We are only operating a spiritual kindergarten in which people are enabled to get over drinking and find the grace to go on living to better effect. Each man’s theology has to be his own quest, his own affair.” << << << >> >> >> When the Big Book was being planned, some members thoughtContinue reading “Spiritual Kindergarten – As Bill Sees It #95”

Discovering True Worth – Humility’s Role In Overcoming Shame and Pride – Practicing These Principles by Ray A.

Feeling that we are different, that we don’t belong or fit in, is a staple of the alcoholic story. However, few openly connect the feeling with shame. Bill W does. In Pass It On and Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, we read about two circumstances that fostered the emotion in him growing up. The firstContinue reading “Discovering True Worth – Humility’s Role In Overcoming Shame and Pride – Practicing These Principles by Ray A.”

Release And Joy – As Bill Sees It # 163

Who can render an account of all the miseries that once were ours, and who can estimate the release and joy that later years have brought to us? Who can possibly tell the vast consequences of what God’s work through A.A. has already set in motion? And who can penetrate the deeper mystery of ourContinue reading “Release And Joy – As Bill Sees It # 163”

4th Step Fear Inventory – Practice These Principles by Ray A.

Healthy and Unhealthy Fear Overcoming our fear is not always a good thing. We ought to have feared drinking, suggests the Big Book, for we knew how much suffering and humiliation it had wrought. But we did not. We lacked “the kind of defense that keeps one from putting his hand on a hot stove”Continue reading “4th Step Fear Inventory – Practice These Principles by Ray A.”

Never The Same Again – As Bill Sees It #209

It was discovered that when one alcoholic had planted in the mind of another the true nature of his malady, that person could never be the same again. Following every spree, he would have to say to himself, “Maybe those A.A.’s were right.” After a few such experiences, often before the onset of extreme difficulties,Continue reading “Never The Same Again – As Bill Sees It #209”

Powerless Over Alcohol – As Bill Sees It #283

I had gone steadily downhill, and on that day in 1934 I lay upstairs in the hospital, knowing for the first time that I was utterly hopeless. Lois was downstairs, and Dr. Silkworth was trying in his gentle way to tell her what was wrong with me and that I was hopeless. “But Bill hasContinue reading “Powerless Over Alcohol – As Bill Sees It #283”

Your Move – Grapevine Article July 2000 by Willa R.

False ideals Readers tell us about their favorite passages in AA literature. By the age of twenty-six I had all the ingredients of success as defined by our society: money, recognition, and the ability to buy all the trappings; yet I wasn’t happy and neither were the people I met who had the same advantages.Continue reading “Your Move – Grapevine Article July 2000 by Willa R.”

Mashup – Bill W’s Last Relapse from Bill’s Story in the Big Book and AA Comes of Age

Big Book Chapter: Bill’s Story Pages 6,7 My brother-in-law is a physician, and through his kindness and that of my mother I was placed in a nationally-known hospital for the mental and physical rehabilitation of alcoholics. Under the so-called belladonna treatment my brain cleared. Hydrotherapy and mild exercise helped much. Best of all, I metContinue reading “Mashup – Bill W’s Last Relapse from Bill’s Story in the Big Book and AA Comes of Age”