LOVE WITHOUT STRINGS Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 89 Sponsorship held two surprises for me. First, that my sponsees cared about me. What I had thought was gratitude was more like love. They wanted me to be happy, to grow and remain sober. Knowing how they felt kept me from drinking more than once. Second, I discovered that I...
WITHOUT RESERVATION When brimming with gratitude, one's heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, . . . AS BILL SEES IT, p. 37 While practicing service to others, if my successes give rise to grandiosity, I must reflect on what brought me to this point. What has been given joyfully, with love, must be passed on without reservation and without expectation. For as I grow, I find that no matter how much I give with love, I receive much more in...
OUR CHILDREN The alcoholic may find it hard to re-establish friendly relations with his children. . . . In time they will see that he is a new man and in their own way they will let him know it. . . . From that point on, progress will be rapid. Marvelous results often follow such a reunion. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 134 While on the road to recovery I received a gift that could not be purchased. It was a card from my son in college, saying, "Dad,...
FIRST THINGS FIRST Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth: Job or no job – wife or no wife – we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 98 Before coming to A.A., I always had excuses for taking a drink: "She said . . . ," "He said . . . ," "I got fired yesterday," "I got a great job today." No area of my life could be good if I drank...
VIGILANCE We have seen the truth demonstrated again and again: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic." Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad as ever. If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 33 Today I am an alcoholic. Tomorrow will be no different. My alcoholism lives within...
