Watch the new life and feel its awakening EACH spring, as I watch the green shoots in the earth struggle towards the light, I am reminded of another spring and another struggle. As I watch the buds on the trees begin to open, as if they were awakening from a long sleep, I am remindedContinue reading “A Beginning in Springtime – AA Grapevine April 1964 by M.C. Reno, NV”
Category Archives: Freedom
Happiness Overrated? – Grapevine Article August 2006 Jim W
I sometimes find myself irritable, restless, discontented, or depressed for no apparent reason at all. Today, in my recovery, it usually doesn’t take long before I suffer from ill attitudes or behaviors directly linked to what I describe as being disconnected, or in a stagnant spiritual pool. At this point, I usually launch a personalContinue reading “Happiness Overrated? – Grapevine Article August 2006 Jim W”
Spiritual Agony – Grapevine Article February 2001 by Holly H also published in AA Grapevine Book entitled ‘Emotional Sobriety’
MAKING AN AMENDS to the murderer of a precious friend was the most terrifying prospect — next to taking another drink — that I have faced in sobriety . But it also turned out to be the most liberating action I have ever taken sober and the opportunity for which I am most grateful .Continue reading “Spiritual Agony – Grapevine Article February 2001 by Holly H also published in AA Grapevine Book entitled ‘Emotional Sobriety’”
True Independence of the Spirit – As Bill Sees It (Meditation #26)
The more we become willing to depend upon a Higher Power, the more independent we actually are. Therefore, dependence as A.A. practices it is really a means of gaining true independence of the spirit. At the level of everyday living, it is startling to discover how dependent we really are, and how unconscious of thatContinue reading “True Independence of the Spirit – As Bill Sees It (Meditation #26)”
Suffering Transmuted – As Bill Sees It Meditations #35
“A.A. is no success story in the ordinary sense of the word. It is a story of suffering transmuted, under grace, into spiritual progress.” LETTER, 1959 ‹‹ ‹‹ ‹‹ ›› ›› ›› For Dr. Bob, the insatiable craving for alcohol was evidently a physical phenomenon which bedeviled several of his first years in A.A., aContinue reading “Suffering Transmuted – As Bill Sees It Meditations #35”
Satisfactions of Right Living As Bill Sees It # 254
How wonderful is the feeling that we do not have to be specially distinguished among our fellows in order to be useful and profoundly happy . Not many of us can be leaders of prominence , nor do we wish to be . Service gladly rendered , obligations squarely met , troubles well accepted orContinue reading “Satisfactions of Right Living As Bill Sees It # 254”
Isolation – Are You Kidding? Ruth H. Grapevine July 2020
Who said change is easy? Staying sober and sane through a health crisis requires all the Steps she’s got Without the support of my Twelve Step programs, I don’t know that I could navigate the kind of change that’s happening now. As it became obvious that COVID-19 was going to impact our world and myContinue reading “Isolation – Are You Kidding? Ruth H. Grapevine July 2020”
It Works At Work – Grapevine Article June 2000 Debra M Richland , WA
A FRUSTRATING MORNING AT WORK drove me to a noon AA meeting where I was called on to share . I unloaded my frustration of working with people who cared only for themselves . A coworker had ( I thought ) intentionally misled me about the location of a business meeting where , as aContinue reading “It Works At Work – Grapevine Article June 2000 Debra M Richland , WA”
The Choice – Grapevine Article June 1991 Isabella H.
Step Six – Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character All of them? As Bill W. points out in the chapter on Step Six in the “Twelve and Twelve,” “Some people, of course, may conclude that they are indeed ready to have all these defects taken from them. But evenContinue reading “The Choice – Grapevine Article June 1991 Isabella H.”
Pain and Progress – Meditation #3 As Bill Sees It
Years ago I used to commiserate with all people who suffered. Now I commiserate with only those who suffer in ignorance, who do not understand the purpose and the ultimate utility of pain (Letter 1950) Someone once remarked that pain is the touchstone of spiritual progress. How heartily we AA’s can agree with him, forContinue reading “Pain and Progress – Meditation #3 As Bill Sees It”