My first two or three years of contact with AA were the most exciting in my whole professional life. AA was then in its miracle phase; everything that happened seemed strange, wonderful, out of this world. Hopeless drunks were being lifted out of the gutter. Individuals who had sought every known means of help, without success, wereContinue reading “What Does ‘Surrender’ Mean? – Grapevine April 1963 Dr. Harry Tiebout”
Category Archives: Humility
When the Big “I” Becomes Nobody – Grapevine Article Sept 1965 By Dr. Harry Tiebout, MD
“And there was Dr. Harry Tiebout, our first friend of psychiatry, who very early began to use AA concepts in his own practice…” Bill W. in AA Comes of Age THE AA program of help is touched with elements of true inspiration, and in no place is that inspiration more evident than in the selection of itsContinue reading “When the Big “I” Becomes Nobody – Grapevine Article Sept 1965 By Dr. Harry Tiebout, MD”
Pain-Killer or Pain-Healer – As Bill Sees It Meditation #291
“I believe that when we were active alcoholics we drank mostly to kill pain of one kind or another—physical or emotional or psychic. Of course, everybody has a cracking point, and I suppose you reached yours—hence, the resort once more to the bottle. “If I were you, I wouldn’t heap devastating blame on myself forContinue reading “Pain-Killer or Pain-Healer – As Bill Sees It Meditation #291”
“Perfect” Humility – As Bill Sees It Meditation #106
For myself, I try to seek out the truest definition of humility that I can. This will not be the perfect definition, because I shall always be imperfect. At this writing, I would choose one like this: “Absolute humility would consist of a state of complete freedom from myself, freedom from all the claims thatContinue reading ““Perfect” Humility – As Bill Sees It Meditation #106″
A Beginning in Springtime – AA Grapevine April 1964 by M.C. Reno, NV
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”
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”
Daily Acceptance – Meditation #44 As Bill Sees It
Too much of my life has been spent in dwelling upon the faults of others . This is a most subtle and perverse form of self – satisfaction , which permits us to remain comfortably unaware of our own defects . Too often we are heard to say , ‘ If it weren’t for himContinue reading “Daily Acceptance – Meditation #44 As Bill Sees It”
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”
AA Tradition How It Developed – AA Pamphlet 1955 by Bill W
How shall we A.A.’s best preserve our unity? That is the subject of this booklet. When an alcoholic applies the Twelve Steps of our recovery program to his personal life, his disintegration stops and his unification begins. The Power which now holds him together in one piece overcomes those forces which had rent him apart.Continue reading “AA Tradition How It Developed – AA Pamphlet 1955 by Bill W”