In our group meditation, we refer to mindfulness as this ‘wise companion’ with our goal not being to become great meditators but rather to experience this Presence in every aspect of our lives. How do we come to recognize and know this wise companion? Certainly through prayer and meditation but this article explores another pathContinue reading “Using Written Dialogue To Improve Conscious Contact With Your Higher Power – Video By Robert Falconer”
Category Archives: Loneliness
Move Toward Not Away From What Disturbs Us – By Jenna Riemersma
I love the phrase ‘let the best in me lead the rest in me’ that Dr. Allen Berger came up with. This article can help us realize that within us there is an ‘unsuspected inner resource’ (BB p.567) where we experience a ‘place of neutrality’(BB p.85) and discover this ‘best in me’. It further helpsContinue reading “Move Toward Not Away From What Disturbs Us – By Jenna Riemersma”
The False Comfort Of Self Pity – A.A. Daily Reflection April 13th
Self-pity is one of the most unhappy and consuming defects that we know. It is a bar to all spiritual progress and can cut off all effective communication with our fellows because of its inordinate demands for attention and sympathy. It is a maudlin form of martyrdom, which we can ill afford. AS BILL SEESContinue reading “The False Comfort Of Self Pity – A.A. Daily Reflection April 13th”
A Viewer-With- Alarm – As Bill Sees It #183
I went through several fruitless years in a state called ‘viewing with alarm for the good of the movement.’ I thought it was up to me to be always ‘correcting conditions.’ Seldom had anybody been able to tell me what I ought to do, and nobody had ever succeeded in effectively telling me what IContinue reading “A Viewer-With- Alarm – As Bill Sees It #183”
From My Head to My Heart – Grapevine Article May 2026 By Terri R.
After years of being dry, a woman in Texas discovers a new hope and freedom by diving back into the Steps This past December I decided to visit one of my favorite recovery clubhouses to commemorate 28 years of sobriety. It had been a long time since I was in an AA meeting and evenContinue reading “From My Head to My Heart – Grapevine Article May 2026 By Terri R.”
Self-Pity: A Barrier to Lasting Sobriety – A.A. District 2 Alabama June 2024 By Anonymous
Self-pity is one of the most insidious obstacles to lasting sobriety. Both Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson, the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), frequently discussed the detrimental effects of self-pity on alcoholics. In the pages of the Big Book, “Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers,” and various articles in the Grapevine, they highlighted howContinue reading “Self-Pity: A Barrier to Lasting Sobriety – A.A. District 2 Alabama June 2024 By Anonymous”
AA and the Oxford Group – By Ray A Author Of Book ‘Practice These Principles’
For the first 12 years of my sobriety, I attended meetings in the Gramercy Park section of New York, near the headquarters of the Oxford Group at Calvary Episcopal Church and their 23rd Street mission, where Bill W. first got sober. AA meetings were still held in the adjacent church building, where Bill, Ebby T.,Continue reading “AA and the Oxford Group – By Ray A Author Of Book ‘Practice These Principles’”
The Individual’s Rights – As Bill Sees It #134
We believe there isn’t a fellowship on earth which devotes more care to its individual members; surely there is none which more jealously guards the individual’s right to think, talk, and act as he wishes. No A.A. can compel another to do anything; nobody can be punished or expelled. Our Twelve Steps to recovery areContinue reading “The Individual’s Rights – As Bill Sees It #134”
Listening In Recovery – 12 Step Philosophy By Galen T.
Many of us are familiar with the events that brought AA’s two founders together for the first time. On May 11th of 1935 Bill found himself pacing back and forth in the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel in Akron, OH. At one end of the lobby was a bar and at the other a public phone.Continue reading “Listening In Recovery – 12 Step Philosophy By Galen T.”
Facing Our Darker Side – The Language of Letting Go By Melody Beattie April 2nd
“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” – Step Four By the time we get to the Fourth of the Twelve Steps, we are ready to face our darker side, the side that prevents us from loving others, from letting others love us, and from enjoying life and ourselves. The purpose of StepContinue reading “Facing Our Darker Side – The Language of Letting Go By Melody Beattie April 2nd”