WILLINGNESS TO GROW If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go on. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 8 Sobriety fills the painful "hole in the soul" that my alcoholism created. Often I feel so physically well that I believe my work is done. However, joy is not just the absence of pain; it is the gift of continued spiritual awakening. Joy comes from ongoing and active study, as well as application of the principles of recovery in my everyday...
A UNIQUE PROGRAM Alcoholics Anonymous will never have a professional class. We have gained some understanding of the ancient words "Freely ye have received, freely give." We have discovered that at the point of professionalism, money and spirituality do not mix. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 166 I believe that Alcoholics Anonymous stands alone in the treatment of alcoholism because it is based solely on the principle of one alcoholic...
THE ONLY REQUIREMENT . . . "At one time . . . every A.A. group had many membership rules. Everybody was scared witless that something or somebody would capsize the boat. . . .The total list was a mile long. If all those rules had been in effect everywhere, nobody could have possibly joined A.A. at all, . . ." TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 139-40 I'm grateful that the Third Tradition only requires of me a desire to stop drinking. I had...
I CHOOSE ANONYMITY We are sure that humility, expressed by anonymity, is the greatest safeguard that Alcoholics Anonymous can ever have. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 187 Since there are no rules in A.A. I place myself where I want to be, and so I choose anonymity. I want my God to use me, humbly, as one of His tools in this program. Sacrifice is the art of giving of myself freely, allowing humility to replace my ego. With sobriety, I...
LIGHTENING THE BURDEN Showing others who suffer how we were given help is the very thing which makes life seem so worth while to us now. . . . the dark past is . . . the key to life and happiness for others. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 124 Since I have been sober, I have been healed of many pains: deceiving my partner, deserting my best friend, and spoiling my mother's hopes for my life. In each case someone in the program told me of a similar...
