Father Richard Rohr describes the necessity of attending to our emotions while not clinging to them. You may also find his reflection on how the Twelve Steps address our Stinking Thinking helpful. Emotions are necessary weathervanes, in great part body-based, that help us read situations quickly and perhaps in depth. But they are also learned andContinue reading “Emotional Equilibrium Welcoming But Not Clinging – Daily Meditation August 17th 2025 By Father Richard Rohr”
Category Archives: Distortion
False Pride – As Bill Sees It #285
The alarming thing about pride-blindness is the ease with which it is justified. But we need not look far to see that self-justification is a universal destroyer of harmony and of love. It sets man against man, nation against nation. By it, every form of folly and violence can be made to look right, andContinue reading “False Pride – As Bill Sees It #285”
Accepting Ourselves As Works In Progress – A Spiritual Principle A Day August 8th
“A spiritual understanding of self-acceptance is knowing that it is all right to find ourselves in pain, to have made mistakes, and to know that we are not perfect.” IP #19, Self-Acceptance, “The Twelve Steps are the solution” “Change is a process, not an event,” we often say–because we find it to be true! TheContinue reading “Accepting Ourselves As Works In Progress – A Spiritual Principle A Day August 8th”
The Spiritual Alibi – As Bill Sees It #193
Our first attempts at inventories are apt to prove very unrealistic. I used to be a champ at unrealistic self-appraisal. On certain occasions, I wanted to look only at the part of my life which seemed good. Then I would greatly exaggerate whatever virtues I supposed I had attained. Next I would congratulate myself onContinue reading “The Spiritual Alibi – As Bill Sees It #193”
Love & Humility Reveal Reality – The Art Of Loving By Eric Fromm
Extract from Chapter 4 “The Practice of Love” This classic book, The Art Of Loving, has some great wisdom for how the practice of love and humility relate to our ability to experience ‘life as it is’ … to avoid the distortions of our self centeredness. You may also find these articles linked below onContinue reading “Love & Humility Reveal Reality – The Art Of Loving By Eric Fromm”
An AA Doctor’s Prescription – Grapevine Article July 1963 By Dr. Hal S.
As a doctor I don’t claim to be an authority on alcoholism. In some phases of the illness, however, I have acquired a specialized knowledge that is not taught in medical schools or developed in actual medical practice. During my years of “research” into the subject, I drank myself out of my profession and intoContinue reading “An AA Doctor’s Prescription – Grapevine Article July 1963 By Dr. Hal S.”
So That’s A Spiritual Experience – Grapevine Article January 1977 By Ed O.
Not always a flash of light, but being capable of doing what we couldn’t do before I CAN REMEMBER, early in my sobriety, feeling depressed because I not had a spiritual experience. I was sure that I alone had not undergone a sudden change of heart. This impression came from listening to some other membersContinue reading “So That’s A Spiritual Experience – Grapevine Article January 1977 By Ed O.”
Basis Of All Humility – As Bill Sees It #139
For just so long as we were convinced that we could live exclusively by our own individual strength and intelligence, for just that long was a working faith in a Higher Power impossible. This was true even when we believed that God existed. We could actually have earnest religious beliefs which remained barren because weContinue reading “Basis Of All Humility – As Bill Sees It #139”
Acceptance Not Blaming Others Or Condemning Ourselves – Touchstone Reflection July 2nd
Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us.—Eric Hoffer As adults, we accept responsibility for our feelings and our circumstances. We haven’t chosen our own troubles, but we have the job of dealing with them. If a person falls and breaks a leg, he might say to someone, “It’sContinue reading “Acceptance Not Blaming Others Or Condemning Ourselves – Touchstone Reflection July 2nd”
The Answer In The Mirror – As Bill Sees It #225
While drinking, we were certain that our intelligence, backed by will power, could rightly control our inner lives and guarantee us success in the world around us. This brave philosophy, wherein each man played God, sounded good in the speaking, but it still had to meet the acid test: How well did it actually work?Continue reading “The Answer In The Mirror – As Bill Sees It #225”