Daily Reflections-July 3

EXPERIENCE: THE BEST TEACHER

Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times.

- ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 87

Some say that experience is the best teacher, but I believe that experience is the only teacher. I have been able to learn of God's love for me only by the experience of my dependence on that love. At first I could not be sure of God's direction in my life, but now I see that if I am to be bold enough to ask for God's guidance, I must act as if God has provided it. I frequently ask God to help me remember that God has a plan for me.

Daily Reflections-July 2

THE HEART OF TRUE SOBRIETY

We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Willingness, honesty and open-mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable.

- ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 570

Am I honest enough to accept myself as I am and let this be the "me" that I let others see? Do I

have the willingness to go to any length, to do whatever is necessary to stay sober? Do I have the

open-mindedness to hear what I have to hear, to think what I have to think, and to feel what I

have to feel?

If my answer to these questions is "Yes," I know enough about the spirituality of the program

to stay sober. As I continue to work the Twelve Steps, I move on to the heart of true sobriety:

serenity with myself, with others, and with God as I understand God.

Daily Reflections-July 1

THE BEST FOR TODAY

The principles we have set down are guides to progress.

- ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 60

Just as a sculptor will use different tools to achieve desired effects in creating a work of art, in Alcoholics Anonymous the Twelve Steps are used to bring about results in my own life. I do not overwhelm myself with life's problems, and how much more work needs to be done. I let myself be comforted in knowing that my life is now in the hands of my Higher Power, a master craftsman who is shaping each part of my life into a unique work of art. By working my program I can be satisfied, knowing that "in doing the best that we can for today, we are doing all that God asks of us."

Daily Reflections-June 29

A RIPPLING EFFECT

Having learned to live so happily, we'd show everyone else how. . . . Yes, we of A.A. did dream those dreams. How natural that was, since most alcoholics are bankrupt idealists. . . . So why shouldn't we share our way of life with everyone?

- TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 156

The great discovery of sobriety led me to feel the need to spread the "good news" to the world

around me. The grandiose thoughts of my drinking days returned. Later, I learned that concentrating on my own recovery was a full-time process. As I became a sober citizen in this world, I observed a rippling effect which, without any conscious effort on my part, reached any "related facility of outside enterprise," without diverting me from my primary purpose of staying sober and helping other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

Daily Reflections-June 28

THE DETERMINATION OF OUR FOUNDERS

A year and six months later these three had succeeded with seven more.

- ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 159

If it had not been for the fierce determination of our founders, A.A. would have quickly faded like so many other so-called good causes. I look at the hundreds of meetings weekly in the city where I live* and I know A.A. is available twenty-four hours a day. If I had had to hang on with nothing but hope and a desire not to drink, experiencing rejection wherever I went, I would have sought the easier, softer way and returned to my previous way of life.

*note from Blog Author: those of us who live in smaller towns and rural areas must remember that our phone

list serves as our "meeting" available 24/7! When we can't reach someone by phone, if we need to talk, we can

keep going down the list, just like Bill W. before us. The act of calling is one of the suggestions that has worked

for countless of AAs before us.

Daily Reflections-June 27

CONFORMING TO THE A.A. WAY

We obey A.A.'s Steps and Traditions because we really want them for ourselves. It is no longer a question of good or evil; we conform because we genuinely want to conform. Such is our process of growth in unity and function. Such is the evidence of God's grace and love among us.

- A.A. COMES OF AGE, p. 106

It is fun to watch myself grow in A.A. I fought conformity to A.A. principles from the moment I entered, but I learned from the pain of my belligerence that, in choosing to live the A.A. way of life, I opened myself to God's grace and love. Then I began to know the full meaning of being a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Daily Reflections-June 26

A GIFT THAT GROWS WITH TIME

For most normal folks, drinking means conviviality, companionship and colorful imagination. It means release from care, boredom and worry. It is joyous intimacy with friends and a feeling that life is good.

- ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 151

The longer I chased these elusive feelings with alcohol, the more out of reach they were. However, by applying this passage to my sobriety, I found that it described the magnificent new life made available to me by the A.A. program. "It" truly does "get better" one day at a time. The warmth, the love and the joy so simply expressed in these words grow in breadth and depth each time I read it. Sobriety is a gift that grows with time.

Daily Reflections-June 25

A TWO-WAY STREET

If we ask, God will certainly forgive our derelictions But in no case does God render us white as snow and keep us that way without our cooperation.

- TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 65

When I prayed, I used to omit a lot of things for which I needed to be forgiven. I thought that if I didn't mention these things to God, God would never know about them. I did not know that if I had just forgiven myself for some of my past deeds, God would forgive me also. I was always taught to prepare for the journey through life, never realizing until I came to A.A. - when I honestly became willing to be taught forgiveness and forgiving - that life itself is the journey. The journey of life is a very happy one, as long as I am willing to accept change and responsibility.

Daily Reflections-June 24

A SPIRITUAL KINDERGARTEN

We are only operating spiritual kindergarten in which people are enabled to get over drinking and find the grace to go on living to better effect.

- AS BILL SEES IT, p. 95

When I came to A.A., I was run down by the bottle and wanted to lose the obsession to drink, but I didn't really know how to do that. I decided to stick around long enough to find out from the ones who went before me. All of a sudden I was thinking about God! I was told to get a Higher Power and I had no idea what one looked like. I found out there are many Higher Powers. I was told to find God, as I understand God, that there was no doctrine of the Godhead in A.A. I found what worked for me and then asked that Power to restore me to sanity. The obsession to drink was removed and - one day at a time - my life went on, and I learned how to live sober.

Daily Reflections-June 17

"DEEP DOWN WITHIN US"

We found the Great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis it is only there that God may be found. . . . search diligently within yourself. . . . With this attitude you cannot fail. The consciousness of your belief is sure to come to you.

- ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 55

It was out of the depths of loneliness, depression and despair that I sought the help of A.A. As I recovered and began to face the emptiness and ruin of my life, I began to open myself to the possibility of the healing that recovery offers through the A.A. program. By coming to meetings, staying sober, and taking the Steps, I had the opportunity to listen with increasing attentiveness to the depths of my soul. Daily I waited, in hope and gratitude, for that sure belief and steadfast love I had longed for in my life. In this process, I met my God, as I understand God.

Daily Reflections-November 8

AN INDIVIDUAL ADVENTURE

Meditation is something which can always be further developed. It has no boundaries, either of width or height. Aided by such instruction and example as we can find, it is essentially an individual adventure, something which each one of us works out in her own way.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 101

My spiritual growth is with God as I understand God. With Him/Her I find my true inner self. Daily meditation and prayer strengthen and renew my source of well-being. I receive then the openness to accept all that She/He has to offer. With God I have the reassurance that my journey will be as God wants for me, and for that I am grateful to have God in my life.

Daily Reflections-October 22

TRUE TOLERANCE

Finally, we begin to see that all people, including ourselves, are to some extent emotionally ill as well as frequently wrong, and then we approach true tolerance and see what real love for our fellows actually means.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITION, p. 92

The thought occurred to me that all people are emotionally ill to some extent. How could we not be? Who among us is spiritually perfect? How could any of us be emotionally perfect? Therefore, what else are we to do but bear with one another and treat each other as we would be treated in similar circumstances? That is what love really is.

Daily Reflections-October 21

NOTHING GROWS IN THE DARK

We will want the good that is in us all, even in the worst of us, to flower and to grow.

AS BILL SEES IT, p. 10

With the self-discipline and insight gained from practicing Step Ten, I begin to know the gratifications of sobriety - not as mere abstinence from alcohol, but as recovery in every department of my life.

I renew hope, regenerate faith, and regain the dignity of self-respect. I discover the word "and" in the phrase "and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it."

Reassured that I am no longer always wrong, I learn to accept myself as I am, with a new sense of the miracles of sobriety and serenity.

Daily Reflections-October 20

SOLACE FOR CONFUSION

Obviously, the dilemma of the wanderer from faith is that of profound confusion. She thinks herself lost to the comfort of any conviction at all. She cannot attain in even a small degree the assurance of the believer, the agnostic, or the atheist. She is the bewildered one.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 28

The concept of God was one that I struggled with during my early years of sobriety. The images that came to me, conjured from my past, were heavy with fear, rejection and condemnation. Then I heard my friend's image of a Higher Power: As a girl she had been allowed a litter of puppies, provided that she assume responsibility for their care. Each morning she would find the unavoidable "by-products" of the puppies on the kitchen floor. Despite frustration, she said she couldn't get angry because "that's the nature of puppies." She felt that God viewed our defects and shortcomings with a similar understanding and warmth. I've often found solace from my personal confusion in her calming concept of God.

Daily Reflections-October 19

A.A.'S "MAIN TAPROOT"

The principle that we shall find no enduring strength until we first admit complete defeat is the main taproot from which our whole Society has sprung and flowered.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 21-22

Defeated, and knowing it, I arrived at the doors of A.A., alone and afraid of the unknown. A power outside of myself had picked me up off my bed, guided me to the phone book, then to the bus stop, and through the doors of Alcoholics Anonymous. Once inside A.A. I experienced a sense of being loved and accepted, something I had not felt since early childhood. May I never lose the sense of wonder I experienced on that first evening with A.A., the greatest event of my entire life.