AA Thoughts For Today - October

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AA Thought for the Day

October 18

Facts of Life

The A.A. answer to these questions about living is “Yes, all of these things
are possible.” We know this because we see monotony, pain, and even
calamity turned to good use by those who keep on trying to practice A.A.'s
Twelve Steps. And if these are facts of life for the many alcoholics who
have recovered in A.A., they can become the facts of life for many more.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Twelve) p. 112

Thought to Ponder . . .
The Twelve Steps -- a manuscript for rational living.

AA-related 'Alconym'
S T O P = Solution To Our Problems.

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~

Touchy
"Many of us have been so touchy
that even casual reference to spiritual things
make 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 prejudiced for as long as
some of us were."
c.1976AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 48

Thought to Consider . . .
The solution is simple.
The solution is spiritual.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
A A = Altered Attitudes

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*

Inspiration
From "When A.A. Came of Age":
"There came next to the lectern [at the 1955 Convention] a figure that not many A.A.'s had seen before, the Episcopal clergyman Sam Shoemaker. It was from him that Dr. Bob and I [Bill W.] in the beginning had absorbed most of the principles that were afterward embodied in the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, steps that express the heart of A.A.'s way of life. Dr. Silkworth gave us the needed knowledge of our illness, but Sam Shoemaker had given us the concrete knowledge of what we could do about it. One showed us the mysteries of the lock that held us in prison; the other passed on the spiritual keys by which we were liberated."
2001 AAWS, Inc.; Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pgs. 38-39

*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"One day leads to the next, no matter how unhappy I choose to be."
Sioux Rapids, IA, January 2004
"Adult Love,"
No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*

"Doubtless you are curious to discover how and why, in the face of
expert opinion to the contrary, we have recovered from a hopeless
condition of mind and body. If you are an alcoholic who wants to get
over it, you may already be asking What do I have to do?"
It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically.
We shall tell you what we have done.
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, There Is A Solution, Page 20~

' I realize that all I'm guaranteed in life is today. The poorest person has no less and the wealthiest has no more--each of us has but one day. What we do with it is our own business; how we use it is up to us individually.
I feel that I have been restored to health and sanity these past years not through my own efforts nor as a result of anything I may have done, but because I've come to believe--to really believe--that alone I can do nothing. That my own innate selfishness and stubbornness are the evils which which, if left unguarded, can drive me to alcohol.'
-Alcoholics Anonymous p.473

Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.
-Alcoholics Anonymous p.58

Already a willingness has been achieved to cast out one's own will and one's own ideas about the alcohol problem in favor of those suggested by A.A.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p.35

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

I believe that when we were active alcoholics we drank mostly to kill pain of one kind or another - physical or emotional or psychic. Of course, everybody has a cracking point, and I suppose you reached yours - hence, the resort once more to the bottle.
'If I were you, I wouldn't heap devastating blame on myself for this; on the other hand, the experience should redouble your conviction that alcohol has no permanent value as a pain-killer?'
In every A.A. story, pain has been the price of admission into a new life. But this admission price purchased more than we expected. It led us to a measure of humility, which we soon discovered to be a healer of pain. We began to fear pain less, and desire humility more than ever.

Prayer for the Day: First Things First - Dear Higher Power, remind me: To tidy up my own mind, To keep my sense of values straight, To sort out the possible and the impossible, To turn the impossible over to you, And get busy on the possible.