For some of us, being a member of an AA group gives us our first taste of what it feels like to be reliable. When we are new, members urge us to come to the next meeting and come back clean. Group members remember us, seem happy to see us, ask us to share orContinue reading “Reliability Matters – A Spiritual Principle A Day February 28th”
Category Archives: Healing
Mindful Self Compassion – Buddhism And The Twelve Steps February 10th Reflection By Kevin G
One of the great diseases of our culture is self-loathing. Many of us internalize an “inner critic” who is never satisfied with our behavior, our accomplishments, or even our thoughts and feelings. This negative self-belief is behind the crippling depression and anxiety that permeate Western society. Mindful self-compassion is an antidote to this disease. MindfulContinue reading “Mindful Self Compassion – Buddhism And The Twelve Steps February 10th Reflection By Kevin G”
Convey Not Convince – Emotional Sobriety Podcast – Dr. Allen Berger
In our February 2026 Emotional Sobriety Series, we’ve discussed how the power of pause can help us discover how ‘the best in me can lead the rest in me’. We discussed how this ‘best in me’ discloses itself when I find a ‘position of neutrality’ which has no agenda to produce some desired outcome. WeContinue reading “Convey Not Convince – Emotional Sobriety Podcast – Dr. Allen Berger”
God Speaks to Us in Silence – Grapevine Article April 2025 By M.B.
With AA’s help and prayer, a mother puts down the bottle, lets go of the past and reconnects with her family in a new way Most of my life I was a weekend drinker. I had a successful career teaching college and high school. When I retired in 2017, lacking the daily routine and purpose that had filledContinue reading “God Speaks to Us in Silence – Grapevine Article April 2025 By M.B.”
The Gift Of Tolerance – Each Day A New Beginning February 22nd Reflection
Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind. —Helen Keller Facing conditions we would like to change, letting go of people we wish were different, takes growth, patience, tolerance. We’re so easily enticed into thinking we’d be happier, “If only my partner change,” or “If I had a better job,” or “If the kids wouldContinue reading “The Gift Of Tolerance – Each Day A New Beginning February 22nd Reflection”
Two-Way Tolerance – As Bill Sees It #73
Your point of view was once mine. Fortunately, A.A. is constructed so that we need not debate the existence of God; but for best results, most of us must depend upon a Higher Power. You say the group is your Higher Power, and no right-minded A.A. would challenge your privilege to believe precisely that way.Continue reading “Two-Way Tolerance – As Bill Sees It #73”
Finding Our Way Home As We Accept Our Brokenness – Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation February 11th 2026
The mythical wisdom of the ancients reminds us of the sense of wonder at the beginning of time when all was innocence, nothing yet wounded. The garden was tended by the woman and the man. They lived in harmony with each other and with creation. And every day they walked with God in the coolContinue reading “Finding Our Way Home As We Accept Our Brokenness – Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation February 11th 2026”
Faith Without Works Is Dead – 12-Step Philosophy By Steve K.
One of the strengths of Alcoholics Anonymous (Both the Fellowship and Big Book) is that it is honest about its human origins. The Big Book was not intended to be a timeless, infallible spiritual text. The historical evidence clearly suggests that Bill Wilson intended the Big Book to be a living document, continuously shaped byContinue reading “Faith Without Works Is Dead – 12-Step Philosophy By Steve K.”
Pain, Resistance & Suffering – Suffer Like A Marine By Arthur Brooks
His Holiness the Dalai Lama often talks to me about pain and suffering, but he doesn’t use the terms interchangeably. On the contrary, he teaches that they exist together in the following way: Suffering = pain x resistance Pain can be physical or mental, and happens to you because of an outside stimulus—you slam your hand inContinue reading “Pain, Resistance & Suffering – Suffer Like A Marine By Arthur Brooks”
An Unlikely Hero – Grapevine Article January 2001 By Hannah H.
My father passed away this year, just two months before he would have celebrated thirty years in AA. As we cleared away his desk littered with stacks of Grapevines, notes for AA meetings, and dozens of Serenity Prayers, I am painfully saddened that he didn’t live to celebrate this milestone. Up until the day heContinue reading “An Unlikely Hero – Grapevine Article January 2001 By Hannah H.”