tolerance

“We enjoy certain inherent advantages
which should make our task of self-restraint
relatively easy.
There is no really good reason for anyone to object
if a great many drunks get sober.
Nearly everyone can agree that this is a good thing.
If, in the process, we are forced to develop
a certain amount of honesty, humility, and tolerance,
who is going to kick about that?
If we recognize that religion is the province of the clergy
and the practice of medicine is for doctors,
we can helpfully cooperate with both.
Certainly there is little basis for controversy in these areas.
It is a fact that AA has not the slightest reform
or political complexion.
We try to pay our own expenses,
and we strictly mind our single purpose.”
- Bill W.
1962AAWS, Twelve Concepts for World Service, 26th Printing, p. 69

Thought to Consider . . .

We are not living just to be sober;
we are living to learn, to serve, and to love.

AACRONYMS
S W A T = Surrender, Willingness, Acceptance, and Trust

Just For Today!

So Touchy

From: “We Agnostics”

Besides a seeming inability to accept much on faith, we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice. Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things made us bristle with antagonism. This sort of thinking had to be abandoned. Though some of us resisted, we found no great difficulty in casting aside such feelings. Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions. In this respect alcohol was a great persuader. It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness. Sometimes this was a tedious process; we hope no one else will be prejudiced for as long as some of us were.

2001, AAWS, Inc., Alcoholics Anonymous, pages 47-48

Daily Reflections
REMOVING “THE GROUND GLASS”

The moral inventory is a cool examination of the damages that occurred to us during life and a sincere effort to look at them in a true perspective.  This has the effect of taking the ground glass out of us, the emotional substance that still cuts and inhibits.

AS BILL SEES IT, p. 140

My Eighth Step list used to drag me into a whirlpool of resentment.  After four years of sobriety, I was blocked by denial connected with an ongoing abusive relationship.  The argument between fear and pride eased as the words of the Step moved from my head to my heart.  For the first time in years I opened my box of paints and poured out an honest rage, an explosion of reds and blacks and yellows.  As I looked at the drawing, tears of joy and relief flowed down my cheeks.  In my disease, I had given up my art, a self-inflicted punishment far greater than any imposed from outside.  In my recovery, I learned that the pain of my defects is the very substance God uses to cleanse my character and to set me free.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
As Bill Sees It
One Fellowship - Many Faiths

As a society we must never become so vain as to suppose that we are authors and inventors of a new religion. We will humbly reflect that every one of A.A.’s principles has been borrowed from ancient sources.

<<<>>>

A minister in Thailand wrote, “We took A.A.’s Twelve Steps to the largest
Buddhist monastery in this province, and the head priest said, ‘Why, these
Steps are fine! For us as Buddhists, it might be slightly more acceptable if
you had inserted the word ‘good’ in your Steps instead of ‘God.’
Nevertheless, you say that it is God as you understand Him, and that must
certainly include the good. Yes, A.A.’s Twelve Steps will surely be accepted
by the Buddhists around here.”

A.A. COMES OF AGE - 1. p. 231 - 2. p. 81 - 3. p. 37
Big Book Quote
“Outsiders are sometimes shocked when we burst into merriment over a
seemingly tragic experience out of the past. But why shouldn’t we
laugh? We have recovered, and have been given the power to help others.”

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 132
Twenty Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day

“While alcoholics keep strictly away from drink, they react
to life much like other people. But the first drink sets
the terrible cycle in motion. Alcoholics usually have no
idea why they take the first drink. Some drinkers have
excuses with which they are satisfied, but in their hearts
they really do not know why they do it. The truth is that
at some point in their drinking they have passed into a
state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is
of no avail.” Am I satisfied that I have passed my tolerance
point for alcohol?

Meditation for the Day

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may be led out of disorder into order. I pray
that I may be led out of failure into success.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

“Honesty with ourselves and others gets us sober,
but it is tolerance that keeps us that way.
Experience shows that few alcoholics
will long stay away from a group because
they don’t like the way it is run.
Most return and adjust themselves
to whatever conditions they must.
Some go to a different group, or form a new one.
In other words, once an alcoholic fully realizes
that he cannot get well alone,
he will somehow find a way to get well and stay well
in the company of others.
It has been that way from the beginning of AA
and probably always will be so.”
Bill W., Letter, 1943
1967AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 312

Thought to Consider . . .

What does it benefit me to not like another human being?

AACRONYMS
H E A R T = Healing, Enjoying, And Recovering, Together

Just For Today!

Home Group

From: “The Group and Its G.S.R.”

For most A.A.s, membership in a home group is one of the keys to continuing sobriety. In a home group, they accept service responsibilities and learn to sustain friendships. The home group affords individual A.A.s the privilege of voting on issues that affect the Fellowship as a whole; it is the very basis of the service structure. While most A.A. members attend other groups regularly, the home group is where they participate in business meetings and cast their vote as part of the group conscience of the Fellowship as a whole. As with all group conscience matters, each member has one vote.

The Long Form of Tradition Three and a section of Warranty Six, Concept 12, aptly describe what an A.A. group is:

Tradition Three: “Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.”

Warranty Six: “…much attention has been drawn to the extraordinary liberties which the A.A. Traditions accord to the individual member and to his group: no penalties to be inflicted for nonconformity to A.A. principles; no fees or dues to be levied – voluntary contributions only; no member to be expelled from A.A. – membership always to be the choice of the individual; each A.A. group to conduct its internal affairs as it wishes – it being merely requested to abstain from acts that might injure A.A. as a whole; and finally that any group of alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group provided that, as a group, they have no other purpose or affiliation.”

2006, AAWS, Inc., AA Service Manual, page S23

Daily Reflections
A “DESIGN FOR LIVING”

We in our turn, sought the same escape with all the desperation of drowning men.  What seemed at first a flimsy reed, has proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God.  A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, “a design for living” that really works.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 28

I try each day to raise my heart and hands in thanks to God for showing me a “design for living” that really works through our beautiful Fellowship.  But what, exactly, is this “design for  living” that “really works”?   For me, it is the practice of the Twelve Steps to the best of my ability, the continued awareness of a God who loves me unconditionally, and the hope that, in each new day, there is a purpose for my being.  I am truly, truly  blessed in the Fellowship.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
As Bill Sees It
Willing to Believe

Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from
honestly asking yourself what they might mean to you. At the start, this was
all we needed to commence spiritual growth, to effect our first conscious
relation with God as we understood Him. Afterward, we found ourselves
accepting many things which had seemed entirely out of reach. That was
growth. But if we wished to grow we had to begin somewhere. So at first we
used our own conceptions of God, however limited they were.
We needed to ask ourselves but one short question: “Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?” As soon
as a man can say that he does believe, even in this small degree, or is
willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 47
Big Book Quote
“Let no alcoholic say he cannot recover unless he has his family
back. This just isn’t so. In some cases the wife will never come
back for one reason or another. Remind the prospect that his
recovery is not dependent upon people. It is dependent upon his
relationship with God. We have seen men get well whose families have
not returned at all. We have seen others slip when the family came
back too soon.”

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Working With Others, pg. 99
Twenty Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day

Meditation for the Day

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may feel deeply that all is well. I pray
that nothing will be able to move me from that deep conviction.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012