*************************************************** ~*~A.A. Thoughts for the Day~*~

Good Morning!!! God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; and Wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done. *~*~*~*~*^Daily Reflections^*~*~*~*~* June 26, 2026 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. **************************************************** "….......In All Our Affairs" "The chief purpose of A.A. is sobriety. We all realize that without sobriety we have nothing. "However, it is possible to expand this simple aim into a great deal of nonsense, so far as the individual member is concerned. Sometimes we hear him say, in effect, `Sobriety is my sole responsibility. After all, I'm a pretty fine chap, expect for my drinking. Give me sobriety, and I've got it made!' "As long as our friend clings to this comfortable alibi, he will make so little progress with his real-life problems and responsibilities that he stands in a fair way to get drunk again. This is why A.A.'s Twelfth Step urges that we `practice these principles in all our affairs.' We are not living just to be sober; we are living to learn, to serve, and to love." ~~~~~LETTER, 1966 ***************************************************** SELF-LOVE "Only a person who can live with himself can enjoy the gift of leisure." --Henry Greber As an alcoholic I could not tolerate my own company for long. I was forever telephoning somebody, going over to a friend's house, inviting people in, creating an "occasion" so I did not have to think or, at least, think about myself. Being alone terrified me. I was terrified because I would begin to think about what was happening in my life and I did not want to face it. Spirituality is reality. Some years ago, I decided to encounter the "real" me, painful but necessary. I began to develop an awareness of who I am. Acceptance followed: I am an alcoholic. Today I know me; today I like me; today I can love me – and this awareness brings with it a knowledge of God, self and my neighbor. Today I can be alone without feeling lonely. * In 1938, Inferno – Situated below, the lower regions, hell; a scene so horrible as to resemble hell. ~ The Winston Simplified Dictionary Encyclopedic Edition (1938) "After one of those days of inferno, I wobbled from a hotel bar to a brokerage office. " 4:1 ** You already know what they wrote. Now you know what they meant. ** * AA meetings were designed to establish a friendly venue where a Group of recovered alcoholics could assemble for the purpose of receiving yet unrecovered alcoholics – the unrecovered alcoholics being drawn to the Group members through desperation to get help. The recovered alcoholics in the Group, men, and woman who had a spiritual awakening as the result of the Twelve Steps – would show the un-recovered alcoholic precisely how they recovered, how it happened to them and take the suffering person through the very same process. In about a month’s time the formerly un-recovered alcoholic, now spiritually awakened and practicing the non-religious, Judeo-Christian spiritual principles codified into the Twelve Steps, would in turn “come back” to the venue and receive still more "newer" prospects for the same process— to experience what they had just undergone. The miraculous removal of the desire to drink. It worked so well, the recoveries so dramatic and rapid (a matter of days) that the Fellowship grew in bounds; Groups emerging as spiritual entities unto themselves. Today AA’s “recovered alcoholic” population is no longer growing. The spirituality of meetings has been subjected to a systematically dismantling and dissolved away; the Fellowship is shrinking— the Primary Purpose of most AA Groups no longer to engaging a spiritual protocol but to serve as a "talking cure" clubhouse of 'recovering', meeting, sponsor, and doctrine addicted zombies. From that perspective AA meeting attendance is proving to be a most ineffective method for “treating” alcoholics. “Talking cure” based solutions to addictions and mentally obsessive disorders always fail abysmally. AA isn’t GOING there. It already IS THERE. The secular invasion is complete. If you need to “share” – go to therapy. Call a friend. But do not confuse the relief that sharing” can offer with getting well from alcoholism. But if you need a solution to alcoholism – go to God. And if you haven’t a clue as to how or where to find Him, find someone who has discovered that path; who can point you in the right direction. (Oops I've already done that, haven't I?) Or you could wait to be hit by a bolt of lightning. That may work too. It’s happened before. Daniel J Schwarzhoff *************************************************** ~*~A.A. Thoughts for the Day~*~ ^*^*^*^*^ (\ ~~ /) ( \ (AA)/ ) (_ /AA\ _) /AA\ ^*^*^*^*^ Maturity ^*^*^*^*^ "Many oldsters who have put our AA 'booze cure' to severe but successful tests still find they often lack emotional sobriety. To attain this, we must develop a real maturity and balance (which is to say humility) in our relations with ourselves, with our fellows, and with God." Bill W., Box 1980: The AA Grapevine, January 1958 As Bill Sees It, p. 244