Category Archives: Growth

The Key To Step 1 – Recovery 2.0 By Tommy Rosen

The 1st Step is the most important one of all, and for so many, this is where the internal struggle begins. Admitting one’s powerlessness is hard enough on the ego, but it also hits on a deep fear that most people hold: the fear of change. One senses that “the party is over.” By reallyContinue reading “The Key To Step 1 – Recovery 2.0 By Tommy Rosen”

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”

Noticing Synchronicity – May 4th Reflection

Things happen in our lives for a reason, even if that reason is not clear to you right away. When events appear to fit together perfectly in our lives it may seem at first that they are random occurrences, things that are the result of coincidence. These synchronous happenings, though, are much more than that,Continue reading “Noticing Synchronicity – May 4th Reflection”

Freed Prisoners – As Bill Sees It #234

Letter to a prison group: Every A.A. has been, in a sense, a prisoner.  Each of us has walled himself out of society; each has known social stigma.  The lot of you folks has been even more difficult:  In your case, society has also built a wall around you.  But there isn’t any really essentialContinue reading “Freed Prisoners – As Bill Sees It #234”

Happiness Is Not The Point – Daily Reflection April 26th

I don’t think happiness or unhappiness is the point. How do we meet the problems we face? How do we best learn from them and transmit what we have learned to others, if they would receive the knowledge?AS BILL SEES IT, p. 306 In my search “to be happy,” I changed jobs, married and divorced,Continue reading “Happiness Is Not The Point – Daily Reflection April 26th”

Changing The Way We See In Our 4th Step – Practice These Principles Ray A.

“We swing from blaming others and getting angry, to blaming ourselves and getting depressed. In either case, we weren’t seeing straight” For us alcoholics, changing the way we see is changing the way we are in every significant aspect of our being: morally, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. Our goal is to be better, not justContinue reading “Changing The Way We See In Our 4th Step – Practice These Principles Ray A.”

Letting Go – Grapevine Article June 2017 By Lynne D.

When a defect arises, she tries to release it like a balloon and let it float up to the sky. It feels so much lighter when it’s gone  For a long time I thought Step Six meant doing nothing, just waiting around and being ready. I wondered why it had to be a separate Step.Continue reading “Letting Go – Grapevine Article June 2017 By Lynne D.”

How Finding FRED And Responding Differently To Him Keeps Us Sober – Grapevine Article March 2022 By Carol K

Bruce M (italics) – This article uses an acronym I had never heard before FRED for fear, resentment, ego, and dishonesty. Like weeds in the garden of my life, I need discernment to see FRED clearly and the courage with God’s help to respond completely differently to my FRED. So much of my life hasContinue reading “How Finding FRED And Responding Differently To Him Keeps Us Sober – Grapevine Article March 2022 By Carol K”

The Ego & The AA – Grapevine Article February 2009 By Greg M.

Self-centeredness can be the most baffling of character defects The pain and misery and horrible loneliness I experienced prior to my first meeting, sixteen years ago, finally convinced me of the need to honestly look at my drinking. But that battle and every one since has been hard-fought. At times it seems to take aContinue reading “The Ego & The AA – Grapevine Article February 2009 By Greg M.”

Unpacking The 4th Step Example P.65 In The Big Book – Practice These Principles By Ray A.

Making  a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves in Step 4 is fundamentally a spiritual enterprise. Yet it is at the same time intensely practical and uncompromisingly moral. Indeed, as we have seen, in AA the spiritual is understood to encompass the practical and the moral. The interaction of these three, the spiritual, theContinue reading “Unpacking The 4th Step Example P.65 In The Big Book – Practice These Principles By Ray A.”