Though I still find it difficult to accept today’s pain and anxiety with any great degree of serenity—as those more advanced in the spiritual life seem able to do—I can give thanks for present pain nevertheless. I find the willingness to do this by contemplating the lessons learned from past suffering—lessons which have led toContinue reading “Give Thanks – As Bill Sees It #266”
Category Archives: Effort
No One Is Coming – 12 Essential Insights For Emotional Sobriety By Allen Berger
What if what we were seeking was already within us but was masked , hidden and unknown? This article is extracted from Chapter 7 of Dr. Allen Berger’s outstanding book 12 Essential Insights For Emotional Sobriety. You can think of this article as helping us discover and welcome with curiosity the ‘unsuspected inner resource’(BB p.567) describedContinue reading “No One Is Coming – 12 Essential Insights For Emotional Sobriety By Allen Berger”
The Essential To Recovery Of Self Acceptance By James Hollis
There is something in us, all of us, that knows what is right for us, which path is ours and not someone else’s, something that pushes us beyond our comfort zone into areas of growth, development, and presence in this world greater than we have lived up to this point. ….While all the twelve-step programsContinue reading “The Essential To Recovery Of Self Acceptance By James Hollis”
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”
Bless My Enemies – Recovery Poem/Prayers By Saint Nikolai Velimirovich
As we attempt to practice the willingness of Step 8 , we are confronted with this dilemma and challenge: “If we are now about to ask forgiveness for ourselves, why shouldn’t we start out by forgiving them, one and all?” – Twelve & Twelve p.78 I find this poem/prayer to be extremely helpful in openingContinue reading “Bless My Enemies – Recovery Poem/Prayers By Saint Nikolai Velimirovich”
Clarity In Our Seeing – Refection By Herb K.
In prayer for guidance, we take inventory of the obstacles within ourselves. This begins to remove these impediments to the relationship with Spirit within ourselves. We consciously look at what we’re unconsciously looking through. Thus, we begin to objectively see the lens through which we look that has produced our subjective interpretation of reality. ThisContinue reading “Clarity In Our Seeing – Refection By Herb K.”
Letting Go Of Our Old Selves – Daily Reflection June 4th
Carefully reading the first five proposals we ask if we have omitted anything, for we are building an arch through which we shall walk a free man at last. . . .Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable? ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pages 75, 76Continue reading “Letting Go Of Our Old Selves – Daily Reflection June 4th”
Growing Up Emotionally – 12 Smart Things To Do When The Booze And Drugs Are Gone By Dr. Allen Berger
Emotional sobriety doesn’t spontaneously appear. We have to work hard at growing up. Bill did. In addition to the time he spent working the Steps, getting spiritual direction from the Reverend Sam Shoemaker, spending time alone in contemplation, and working with others, he also sought out psychotherapy. His therapist was the famous Dr. Harry Tiebout,Continue reading “Growing Up Emotionally – 12 Smart Things To Do When The Booze And Drugs Are Gone By Dr. Allen Berger”
Thousands Of “Founders” – As Bill Sees It #67
While I thank God that I was privileged to be an early member of A.A., I honestly wish that the word ‘founder’ could be eliminated from the A.A. vocabulary. When you get right down to it, everyone who has done any amount of successful Twelfth Step work is bound to be the founder of aContinue reading “Thousands Of “Founders” – As Bill Sees It #67”
Step Nine: Scene Of The Crime – Grapevine Article September 1993 By Kit K.
The rocks looked the same. The light in the sky at sunset was as I remembered it; the stillness and silence of the pinyon-juniper forest had not changed. This was the day I returned to the windswept landscape of northern Arizona from which I had fled five years before. When I left, I was runningContinue reading “Step Nine: Scene Of The Crime – Grapevine Article September 1993 By Kit K.”