We Cannot Stand Still

"In the first days of A.A., I wasn't much bothered about the areas of life in which I was standing still. There was always the alibi: 'After all,' I said to myself, 'I'm far too busy with much more important matters.' That was my near perfect prescription for comfort and complacency."

"How many of us would presume to declare, 'Well, I'm sober and I'm happy. What more can I want, or do? I'm fine the way I am.' We know that the price of such self-satisfaction is an inevitable backslide, punctuated at some point by a very rude awakening. We have to grow or else deteriorate. For us, the status quo can only be for today, never for tomorrow. Change we must; we cannot stand still."

1. GRAPEVINE, JUNE 1961
2. GRAPEVINE, FEBRUARY 1961
 

The need to grow

Our desire to grow, to make a place for ourselves in the world of our friends, to know that we have counted in the lives of others, is healthy and necessary to our existence as whole women. The inner urging to move ahead, to try a new approach to an old problem, to go after a new job, to learn a new skill, is evidence of God's eternal Spirit within.

Our meaning in this life is found through following the guidance that beckons us toward these new horizons, perhaps new friends, even new locations. We can trust the urge. We can reverence the urge. It will not lead us astray, provided we do not try to lead it. We each have a special gift to express in this life among those to whom we've been led.

Growing

We all perform on two stages: one public, one private. Te public stage is what we do and say. The private stage is what we think and what we rehearse in our minds to do on the public stage. Even though we may never perform it, what we rehearse in our minds helps mold our characters and guide our actions.

Are we rehearsing anger, fights, and what we’re going to tell that annoying person next time? Are we rehearsing drug use, the old ways of living? If so, we are risking the recovery we have achieved

Spiritual Awareness

In this program, we learn about being receptive. A man in search of conscious contact with a Higher Power can simply stand still and open his eyes and ears to creation. Forcing a spiritual awareness is mostly wasted effort. Learning theology doesn’t create a spiritual experience either. We only need to see and hear what is around us. This is a vast and marvelous universe, and it speaks for itself. It has always been there, and when we are ready to receive the message, we will.

Be Constructive not Destructive

 

A.A. Thought for the Day

As we became alcoholics, the bad effects of drinking came more and more to outweigh the good effects. But the strange part of it is that, no matter what drinking did to us, loss of our health, our jobs, our money, and our homes, we still stuck to it and depended on it. Our dependence on drinking became an obsession. In A.A., we find a new outlook on life. We learn how to change from alcoholic thinking to sober thinking. And we find out that we can no longer depend on drinking for anything.

Vigilance

Deliver us from temptation must continue to be a prime ingredient of our every attitude, practice, and prayer. When things go well, we must never fall into the error of believing that no great ill can possibly befall us. Nor should we accuse ourselves of "negative thinking" when we insist on facing the destructive forces in and around us, both realistically and effectively. Vigilance will always be the price of survival.

Bill W., November 1960..The Language of the Heart, pp. 316-17

Thought to Consider . . .

Adversity introduces us to ourselves

  

AACRONYMS

P E A C E
Principles Experienced Activate Change Every day

 

Addiction

As our illness progressed, we became empty and hollow. We humans need real connections with other people, our Higher Power, our values, and ourselves. Our illness leads us to betray all of these connections. Addiction gives us an illusion of connection as long as we stay in the trance. When the trance ends, the emptiness appears, and we get scared and run back to the high. The end result of addiction is total aloneness, total emptiness. Our addiction pushes away the things that feed our hearts and souls.

Recovery asks that we open up our hearts and souls to be filled again. But to do this, we must face the emptiness of our

New way of living

A.A. Thought for the Day

On the foundation of sobriety, we can build a life of honesty, unselfishness, faith in God, and love of our fellow human beings. We'll never fully reach these goals, but the adventure of building that kind of a life is so much better than the merry-go-round of our old drinking life that there's no comparison. We come into A.A. to get sober, but if we stay long enough we learn a new way of living. We become honest with ourselves and with other people. We learn to think more about others and less about ourselves. And we learn to rely on the constant help of a Higher Power. Am I living the way of honesty, unselfishness, and faith?

Meditation for the Day

I believe that God had already seen my heart's needs

Living today well

Our Higher Power’s will for us is always better than our own, but we cannot see this truth unless we let go enough to venture into the new areas to which we are being led. To experience growth, we must let go of old ideas. (Our old ideas fit only our drug-centered, alcohol world.) Each day, well lived, moves us closer to what we are seeking. We must become more giving and more willing to use what we have today.

Am I living today well?

Higher Power, help me accept your will for me today.

I will live today well by…

 

Asking for Support

The bear cub was miserable. Her father, the leader of the pack, had left a month ago to find them winter shelter and had not yet returned. Everyone went on as if nothing had changed.

One evening the cub had a dream in which her father appeared and said, "Daughter, I know you grieve for me, but your burden is too heavy to carry alone. Share it with the others and let them comfort you. Sharing will only lighten your load, and if you can accept help now you will find it easier to give when others are in need."

Out of the Dark

"Self-searching is the means by which we bring new vision, action, and grace to bear upon the dark and negative side of our natures. With it comes the development of that kind of humility that makes it possible for us to receive God's help. Yet it is only a step. We will want to go further.
 

We will want the good that is in us all, even in the worst of us, to flower and to grow. But first of all we shall want sunlight; nothing much can grow in the dark. Meditation is our step out into the sun."

"A clear light seems to fall upon us all - when we open our eyes. Since our blindness is caused by our own defects, we must first deeply realize what they are. Constructive meditation is the first requirement for each new step in our spiritual growth."

1. TWELVE AND TWELVE, p. 98
2. LETTER, 1946

God’s love

We seem so certain at times that we alone must find the solution to a nagging, troubling situation. As we obsessively focus our attention on the problem, we feel even greater frustration when the solution eludes us.

Most of us have heard that we keep a problem a problem by giving our attention to it—by the power we give it. What we generally forget is that placing our focus on God instead, while believing in God’s love for us and

One Day at a Time

We come to understand time in a different way. Each day we discover that there is an order to life that is only revealed day-to-day. The moments when life forces us to reconsider our schedule are no longer met with anger and frustration. We begin to trust our Higher Power to actually dictate what will happen in our lives. We find ourselves staying close to people who have developed some measure of humility for they seem to have a better sense of timing.

We remember the times when we demanded;

Special gifts

As our recovery progresses, we discover ways to share ourselves with other people. We feel the desire to act on things we’ve learned and to apply them in our relationships. This way we can pass on to others the awareness and knowledge we have been given.

This wonderful urge to take action should be followed, not resisted. A spiritual awakening is just that—an awakening of the spirit, which then seeks to be part of all life itself.

When we discover our talents

Pain and Progress

"Years ago I used to commiserate with all people who suffered. Now I commiserate only with those who suffer in ignorance, who do not understand the purpose and ultimate utility of pain."

"Someone once remarked that pain is the touchstone of spiritual progress. How heartily we A.A.'s can agree with him, for we know that the pains of alcoholism had to come before sobriety, and continued turmoil before serenity."

"Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the Light, even though for the moment you do not see."

1. LETTER, 1950
2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, pp. 93-94

Faith

When I was driven to my knees by alcohol, I was made ready to ask for the gift of faith. And all was changed. Never again, my pains and problems notwithstanding, would I experience my former desolation. I saw the universe to be lighted by God's love; I was alone no more.

Bill W., Letter, 1966

c. 1967 AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 51

Thought to Consider . . . 

Sorrow looks back, worry looks around and faith looks within.

AACRONYMS

F A I T H
Finding Answers In The Heart