I love these two short daily meditations from Henri Nouwen. I see so much of what drives my addiction as an unhealthy response and relationship to pain. I have been a pain killer and am now learning, with the help of a Higher Power and my A.A. community, to be a pain healer. That transformingContinue reading “Live Your Wounds & Befriend Your Pain – Henri Nouwen Daily Meditation October 9th, 10th”
Category Archives: Friendship
The Twelve Steps And Shame – Steps 1 -3 Booklet By Mic Hunter
What Is Shame? Shame is that burning in our faces when we think those around us have finally figured out how worthless we are. We think we’re inadequate or worthless. It’s when we hate to look anyone in the eye; when time seems to crawl and we wish we could disappear. It makes us feelContinue reading “The Twelve Steps And Shame – Steps 1 -3 Booklet By Mic Hunter”
Inside Out – Grapevine Article June 1995 By Fred H
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character If Alcoholics Anonymous were a self-help program, Step Six might read something like this: “Became determined in our minds to overcome all our character defects.” Mercifully, this is not what we are asked to do in AA. In fact, no action at allContinue reading “Inside Out – Grapevine Article June 1995 By Fred H”
Faith And Action – As Bill Sees It #212
Your prospect’s religious education and training may be far superior to yours. In that case, he is going to wonder how you can add anything to what he already knows. But he will be curious to learn why his convictions have not worked and yours seem to work so well. He may be an exampleContinue reading “Faith And Action – As Bill Sees It #212”
Let’s Be Friendly With Our Friends …The Clergy – Grapevine Article September 1957 By Bill W.
EVERY RIVER HAS A WELLSPRING at its source. AA is like that, too. In the beginning, there was a spring which poured out of a clergyman, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. ‘Way back in 1934 he began to teach us the principles and attitudes that afterward came to full flower in AA’s Twelve Steps for Recovery. IfContinue reading “Let’s Be Friendly With Our Friends …The Clergy – Grapevine Article September 1957 By Bill W.”
A Circle Of Friends – Grapevine Article December 1992 By Jim D.
I was a loner all my life. I was always scared and ashamed. I was poor, I lived in a dilapidated house, and my alcoholic father put my family through hell. I never had any friends. I despised alcohol for dealing me such a rotten break in life. As an adult, I vowed never toContinue reading “A Circle Of Friends – Grapevine Article December 1992 By Jim D.”
Blind Trust – As Bill Sees It #144
Most surely, there can be no trust where there is no love, nor can there be real love where distrust holds its malign sway. But does trust require that we be blind to other people’s motives or, indeed, to our own? Not at all; this would be folly. Most certainly, we should assess the capacityContinue reading “Blind Trust – As Bill Sees It #144”
It’s What We Do – Grapevine Article May 2024 By Alex M
What all does AA give us? A member in Kentucky attempts to answer A newcomer recently asked me what AA taught me. I thought, how on earth can I possibly summarize my time in the Fellowship? First off, it taught me how to be a decent person and how to live a life inconceivablyContinue reading “It’s What We Do – Grapevine Article May 2024 By Alex M”
Our Companions – As Bill Sees It #45
Today, the vast majority of us welcome any new light that can be thrown on the alcoholic’s mysterious and baffling malady. We welcome new and valuable knowledge whether it issues from a test tube, from a psychiatrist’s couch, or from revealing social studies. We are glad of any kind of education that accurately informs theContinue reading “Our Companions – As Bill Sees It #45”
Let’s Be Friendly With Our Friends – Grapevine Article March 1958 By Bill W
Friends on the Alcoholism Front WE ARE TOLD there are 4,500,000 alcoholics in America. Up to now AA has sobered up perhaps 250,000 of them. That’s about one in twenty, or five per cent of the total. This is a brave beginning, full of significance and hope for those who still suffer. Yet these figuresContinue reading “Let’s Be Friendly With Our Friends – Grapevine Article March 1958 By Bill W”