A LIST OF BLESSINGS One exercise that I practice is to try for a full inventory of my blessings... AS BILL SEES IT, p. 37 What did I have to be grateful for? I shut myself up and started listing the blessings for which I was in no way responsible, beginning with having been born of sound mind and body. I went through seventy-four years of living right up to the present moment. The list ran to two pages, and took two hours to compile; I included...
ONE DAY AT A TIME Above all, take it one day at a time. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 11 Why do I kid myself that I must stay away from a drink for only one day, when I know perfectly well I must never drink again as long as I live? I am not kidding myself because one day at a time is probably the only way I can reach the long-range objective of staying sober. If I determine that I shall never drink again as long as I live, I set myself up. How can I be...
GIVING WITHOUT STRINGS And he well knows that his own life has been made richer, as an extra dividend of giving to another without any demand for a return. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 69 The concept of giving without strings was hard to understand when I first came into the program. I was suspicious when others wanted to help me. I thought, "What do they want in return?" But I soon learned the joy of helping another alcoholic and I understood why they...
FREEDOM TO BE ME If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 83 My first true freedom is the freedom not to have to take a drink today. If I truly want it, I will work the Twelve Steps and the happiness of this freedom will come to me through the Steps – sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. Other...
. . . AND FORGIVE Under very trying conditions I have had, again and again, to forgive others – also myself. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 268 Forgiveness of self and forgiveness of others are just two currents in the same river, both hindered or shut off completely by the dam of resentment. Once that dam is lifted, both currents can flow. The Steps of A.A. allow me to see how resentment has built up and subsequently blocked off this flow in my life....
