AA Thoughts For Today - October

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AA Thought for the Day

October 2

First Awakening

I had my first awakening in A.A. The speaker said, "If you’re an
apple, you can be the best apple you can be, but you can never
be an orange." I was an apple all right, and for the first time I
understood that I had spent my life trying to be an orange. I looked
around at a room filled with apples and, if I was understanding the
speaker, most of them were no longer trying to be oranges.
- Alcoholics Anonymous, (Window Of Opportunity) p. 427

Thought to Ponder . . .
Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.

AA-related 'Alconym'
A A = Answer Available.

~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~

Amends
"Somehow, being alone with God doesn't seem so embarrassing
as facing up to another person.
Until we actually sit down and talk aloud
about what we have so long hidden,
our willingness to clean house is still largely
theoretical.
When we are honest with another person,
it confirms that we have been honest with ourselves
and with God."
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 60
Copyright 1952 by A.A.W.S. Inc.

Thought to Consider . . .
It is the highest form of self-respect to admit mistakes
and to make amends for them.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
H O W = Honest, Open, and Willing

*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*

Hang Together Forever
From: "When AA Came of Age"
On Sunday morning “ the last day of the [1950 International] Convention “ I found those Twelve Traditions still on my mind. Each of them I saw is an exercise in humility that can guard us in everyday AA affairs and protect us from ourselves. If AA were really guided by the Twelve Traditions, we could not possibly be split apart by politics, religion, money, or by any old-timers who might take a notion to be big shots. With none of us throwing our weight around in public, nobody could possibly exploit AA for personal advantage, that is sure. For the first time I saw AA's anonymity for what it really is. It isn't just something to save us from alcoholic shame and stigma; its deeper purpose is actually to keep those fool egos of ours from running hog wild after money and public fame at AA's expense. It really means personal and group sacrifice for the benefit of all AA. Right then I resolved to learn our Twelve Traditions by heart, just as I had learned the Twelve Steps. If every AA did the same thing and really soaked up these principles we drunks could hang together forever.
1985, AAWS, Inc., Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, page 43

*~*~*~*~*^ Grapevine Quote ^*~*~*~*~*

"We can always come up with a reason to drink. The secret is, how many reasons can we come up with to stay sober?"
Topeka, Kan., July 2001
An Important Secret
No Matter What: Dealing with Adversity in Sobriety

*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book & Twelve N' Twelve Quotes of the Day ^*~*~*~*~*

"If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely,
or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take,
you are probably alcoholic. If that be the case, you may be
suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will
conquer."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, pg. 44~

“My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, ‘Why don't you choose your own conception of God?’ That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.”
~Alcoholics Anonymous page 100

We needed to ask ourselves but one short question. 'Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?
-Alcoholics Anonymous p.47

For the time being, we who were atheist or agnostic discovered that our own group, or A.A. as a whole, would suffice as a higher power.
-Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 107

Misc. AA Literature - Quote

For a new prospect, outline the program of action, explaining how you made a self-appraisal, how you straightened out your past, and why you are now endeavoring to be helpful to him. It is important for him to realize that your attempt to pass this on to him plays a vital part in your own recovery. Actually, he may be helping you more than you are helping him. Make it plain that he is under no obligation to you.
In the first six months of my own sobriety, I worked hard with many alcoholics. Not a one responded. Yet this work kept me sober. It wasn't a question of those alcoholics giving me anything. My stability came out of trying to give, not out of demanding that I receive.

Prayer for the Day: Changes - Today, I pray that I may understand there are some things I cannot change; I cannot change the weather. I cannot change the tick of the clock. I cannot change the past. I cannot change another person against their will. I cannot change what is right and wrong. I cannot change the fact that a relationship ended. I can stop worrying over that which I cannot change and enjoy living more! I can place those things into the hands of my Higher Power. Save energy. Let go. Instead of trying to change someone else: I can change my attitude. I can change my list of priorities. I can change my bad habits into good ones. I can move from the place of brokenness into wholeness, into the beautiful person God created me to become.