I went through several fruitless years in a state called ‘viewing with alarm for the good of the movement.’ I thought it was up to me to be always ‘correcting conditions.’ Seldom had anybody been able to tell me what I ought to do, and nobody had ever succeeded in effectively telling me what IContinue reading “A Viewer-With- Alarm – As Bill Sees It #183”
Category Archives: AA History
Self-Pity: A Barrier to Lasting Sobriety – A.A. District 2 Alabama June 2024 By Anonymous
Self-pity is one of the most insidious obstacles to lasting sobriety. Both Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson, the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), frequently discussed the detrimental effects of self-pity on alcoholics. In the pages of the Big Book, “Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers,” and various articles in the Grapevine, they highlighted howContinue reading “Self-Pity: A Barrier to Lasting Sobriety – A.A. District 2 Alabama June 2024 By Anonymous”
AA and the Oxford Group – By Ray A Author Of Book ‘Practice These Principles’
For the first 12 years of my sobriety, I attended meetings in the Gramercy Park section of New York, near the headquarters of the Oxford Group at Calvary Episcopal Church and their 23rd Street mission, where Bill W. first got sober. AA meetings were still held in the adjacent church building, where Bill, Ebby T.,Continue reading “AA and the Oxford Group – By Ray A Author Of Book ‘Practice These Principles’”
The Individual’s Rights – As Bill Sees It #134
We believe there isn’t a fellowship on earth which devotes more care to its individual members; surely there is none which more jealously guards the individual’s right to think, talk, and act as he wishes. No A.A. can compel another to do anything; nobody can be punished or expelled. Our Twelve Steps to recovery areContinue reading “The Individual’s Rights – As Bill Sees It #134”
Listening In Recovery – 12 Step Philosophy By Galen T.
Many of us are familiar with the events that brought AA’s two founders together for the first time. On May 11th of 1935 Bill found himself pacing back and forth in the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel in Akron, OH. At one end of the lobby was a bar and at the other a public phone.Continue reading “Listening In Recovery – 12 Step Philosophy By Galen T.”
No Orders Issued – As Bill Sees It # 237
Neither the A.A. General Service Conference, its Board of Trustees, nor the humblest group committee can issue a single directive to an A.A. member and make it stick, let alone mete out any punishment. We’ve tried this lots of times, but utter failure is always the result. Groups have sometimes tried to expel members, butContinue reading “No Orders Issued – As Bill Sees It # 237”
On The Broad Highway – As Bill Sees It #119
I now realize that my former prejudice against clergymen was blind and wrong. They have kept alive through the centuries a faith which might have been extinguished entirely. They pointed out the road to me, but I did not even look up, I was so full of prejudice and self-concern. When I did open myContinue reading “On The Broad Highway – As Bill Sees It #119”
Two-Way Tolerance – As Bill Sees It #73
Your point of view was once mine. Fortunately, A.A. is constructed so that we need not debate the existence of God; but for best results, most of us must depend upon a Higher Power. You say the group is your Higher Power, and no right-minded A.A. would challenge your privilege to believe precisely that way.Continue reading “Two-Way Tolerance – As Bill Sees It #73”
What’s My Business – Powerful Quotes From A New Pair of Glasses By Chuck C
So, my business is to go about His business, and it’s His business to take care of me. That is not my business, that’s His business. Now what is His business that I’m going about? Helping His kids do things they need to get done because I want to. (Page 105) Two verses popped throughContinue reading “What’s My Business – Powerful Quotes From A New Pair of Glasses By Chuck C”
An Unlikely Hero – Grapevine Article January 2001 By Hannah H.
My father passed away this year, just two months before he would have celebrated thirty years in AA. As we cleared away his desk littered with stacks of Grapevines, notes for AA meetings, and dozens of Serenity Prayers, I am painfully saddened that he didn’t live to celebrate this milestone. Up until the day heContinue reading “An Unlikely Hero – Grapevine Article January 2001 By Hannah H.”