I’ve heard some version of this from newcomer sponsees more times than I can count: “I put down the bottle. I’m praying every day. I’m going to meetings. I’m calling you. Why don’t I feel better? Why isn’t my life getting better? And why am I not farther along than some of these other people?” It’s a fairContinue reading “The Recovery Scorecard: Why Isn’t My Life Better Yet? – Take The 12 Blog September 2026 By Rick W”
Category Archives: Step 12
Our Critics Can Be Our Benefactors – Grapevine Article April 1963 By Bill W.
Bill’s View A magazine article criticizing certain aspects of AA reminds us of the need to review our relationships to medicine, to religion and to the world at large. When the Grapevine editors consulted Bill W. on the matter, he suggested a rereading of relevant portions of “Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age” (published in 1957)Continue reading “Our Critics Can Be Our Benefactors – Grapevine Article April 1963 By Bill W.”
How To Surrender Step By Step – Take The 12 Blog July 13th 2024 By Rick W.
How To Surrender Step By Step Each of A.A.’s 12 Steps calls the person taking them to become willing to surrender something. While this is not an exhaustive list, it represents a really great place to start and singularly, one member’s experience. (Use this as a litmus test for yourself to gauge the quality of yourContinue reading “How To Surrender Step By Step – Take The 12 Blog July 13th 2024 By Rick W.”
Practicing Surrender – Extract From Progloue/Epilogue Of Surrender To Love By David Benner
How does surrender address the fundamental reality of ‘lack of power, that was our dilemma’ (BB p.45) ? What is the dynamic between the surrender of offering myself or abandoning myself and finding who I really am … my true self … distinguishing the true from the false ? Is it possible that to “thineContinue reading “Practicing Surrender – Extract From Progloue/Epilogue Of Surrender To Love By David Benner”
Finding True Agency & Empowerment ‘With God’ – April 24th 2026 Reflection By Bruce M.
I’ll begin with a couple of reminders. First, progress not perfection … that true agency is a North Star I set my compass toward not a possession I’m expecting to acquire or achieve … I navigate with this aspiration not delude myself that it’s mine. Second, the Twelve & Twelve assertion “the more we becomeContinue reading “Finding True Agency & Empowerment ‘With God’ – April 24th 2026 Reflection By Bruce M.”
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”
Fear Of Financial Insecurity Will Leave Us – Twelve & Twelve Pages 120 – 122
One of the 9th step promises can be especially elusive for many of us …”fear of economic insecurity will leave us”. I believe the Twelve & Twelve actually goes into a very useful review about how this fear leaves us. It’s important to note that the promise isn’t that economic insecurity leaves us but thatContinue reading “Fear Of Financial Insecurity Will Leave Us – Twelve & Twelve Pages 120 – 122”
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.”
A Fellowship Of Giving And Getting – Each Day A New Beginning February 1st
You were there when I needed you. You stood above all of the others with your strength and you guided me. To each of you I offer my being, my love and all that I am.–Deidra Sarault Each of us is guided while we act as guides to one another, throughout the day, throughout ourContinue reading “A Fellowship Of Giving And Getting – Each Day A New Beginning February 1st”
The Joy Of Living By Rabbi Simon Jacobson
This short reflection is a great way to deepen our understanding of what Bill W in the Twelve & Twelve (p.106) describes as the theme of the Twelfth Step ‘the joy of living’. He also uses a phrase I love to describe our experience in this joy as ‘life is not a dead end, notContinue reading “The Joy Of Living By Rabbi Simon Jacobson”