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.”
Category Archives: Step 3
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”
Turning It Over and Acceptance – Buddhism And The Twelve Steps March 1st & 2nd Reflections By Kevin Griffin
March 1 “Turning it over” Step Three brings us into the heart of the program and gives us a new set of challenges. To begin, there is a question of what it means to “turn our lives over,” whether to God or anything else. What many people find when confronting this Step for the firstContinue reading “Turning It Over and Acceptance – Buddhism And The Twelve Steps March 1st & 2nd Reflections By Kevin Griffin”
Control – Buddhism and the Twelve Steps February 16th Reflection By Kevin G
Addiction is essentially a strategy to control how we feel. We want to be happy or high or just not in pain all the time, so we keep drinking, smoking, popping, eating, gambling, or otherwise finding ways to alter our consciousness to feel the way we want. This habit of control carries over into otherContinue reading “Control – Buddhism and the Twelve Steps February 16th Reflection By Kevin G”
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”
Movement From Fear To Faith – Just For Today January 15th
Powerless as we are, living on self-will is a frightening, unmanageable experience. In recovery, we have turned our will and our lives safely over to the care of the God of our understanding. When we lapse in our program, when we lose conscious contact with our Higher Power, we begin to take control of ourContinue reading “Movement From Fear To Faith – Just For Today January 15th”
Powerlessness; We Learn By Doing It Wrong March 23rd 2023 Daily Meditation By Richard Rohr
Father Richard describes the futility of trying to “fix” ourselves: The genius of Twelve Step programs is that they situate powerlessness and surrender right where they belong—at the beginning. They teach how sin or addiction are overcome not through willpower or by control, but much more by recognizing that we are powerless to overcome them. ForContinue reading “Powerlessness; We Learn By Doing It Wrong March 23rd 2023 Daily Meditation By Richard Rohr”
Circle & Triangle – As Bill Sees It #307
Above us, at the International Convention at St. Louis in 1955, floated a banner on which was inscribed the then new symbol for A.A., a circle enclosing a triangle. The circle stands for the whole world of A.A., and the triangle stands for A.A.’s Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity, and Service. It is perhaps no accidentContinue reading “Circle & Triangle – As Bill Sees It #307”
Another Perspective On Unsuspected Inner Resource By Albert Camus
I love this short letter. It reminds me of this Grapevine article that uses the phrase ‘unsuspected inner resource’ as its title. That phrase is also used in Appendix 2 of the Big Book as a way of connecting us to a spiritual experience that may not meet our expectations of grandeur but is nonethelessContinue reading “Another Perspective On Unsuspected Inner Resource By Albert Camus”