Quotes, Sayings and Slogans

[bluidkiti]

Those who quit going to meetings aren't there to find out what happens to people who quit going to meetings. (Stacey)

Insanity is not doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results; insanity is doing the same thing over and over again knowing full well what the results will be! (Paul)

God answers our prayers in four ways: 1. No 2. Yes 3. Wait 4. I have a better idea in mind (Bob)

I asked for all things that I might enjoy Life, I was given Life that I might enjoy all things. (BJ)

Plant the seed of hope, it will grow in due time...for each of us the water of time is different..... (Janice)

[bluidkiti]

A A = Achieve Anything.

Inventory taking is not all in red ink.

It works - it really does.

F A I T H = Found Always In Trusting Him.

Some days I carry the message. Some days I AM the message. What message am I today? --Jan B.

[bluidkiti]

Walk softly and carry a Big Book.

[dwmoeller]

[dwmoeller]

We must be the change we wish to see in the world, - Gandhi

[MajestyJo]

Who are the forgotten children of AA?

- Those that came and went back out never to return?

- Those that came a long time ago and stayed and have forgotten where they came from?

- Those still in denial, but not wanting to go back to where they came from?

- Those that have a problem grasping for the knowledge of a Higher Power?

- Those who compare instead of identifying the feelings behind the acitons?

Please keep coming, don't leave until the miracle happens. The power is in the rooms. If you stay, it will raise you above anything you have ever experienced before. If you go back out, it will take you lower than you ever dreamed possible.

Lest I forget!

[dwmoeller]

Dare to be brave,
Dare to stand tall,
Give life the best,
Get up when you fall.

- William A. Ward

[MajestyJo]

THAT'S NOT ODD, THAT'S GOD!

I think God's job is to keep the planets from hitting each other, He's busy enough with that. I don't think He takes a lot of time wondering if I'm going to have a parking space at the meeting. - John L.

- Alkiespeaks

Thought this was cute, I was helping a newcomer, a temporary sponsor until he found someone he could identify with. I just happened to be the person he heard share and met me after the meeting. He said, I know if I make it to JoAnne's place, I know I will make it to a meeting and have a parking place. All I have to do is not drink in today. He carried a great message to me. He said, "If he didn't get a parking place, either I forgot to ask for one for him or he didn't something wrong during his day that he needed to address.

I look at those `That`s not odd, that`s God!` moments and try to remember to say thank you. They show me that my God is working in my life.

When we stay clean and sober over the holidays, it is just another 24 hours, that is not odd, that is God. The normal thing for an alcoholic to do is drink. For me, prescription drugs were like dried up alcohol, I had the same symptoms, more black outs with them that I had with alcohol.

It is my God working in my life, doing for me, something I couldn`t do for myself. I tried to quit my way for 8 years.

I like the saying, "Just because you have a feeling, doesn't mean you have to act on it." Also, feel the feelings and do it anyway and my personal favourite and a new one to me, "Just because you get a thought, it doesn't mean it is yours. It could be your Higher Power's or it could be something projected onto you by someone else.

Peace on your journey, when we go within and connect to our Higher Power, we can find the calm within the storm.

Posted in part on another site in 2011 and 2012.

[MajestyJo]

"If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?"

-- Erma Bombeck

When I saw this, I thought it read, "What am I doing with the pits?"

Both are worth thought and require action on my part. The 12 Steps are applicable to both.

Am I practicing the principles in all my affairs? Do I work the Steps into my daily life? Do I just think program in meetings and leave my program at the door when I go home, to work, or out into the community?

Do I think, oh woe is me? I am an alcoholic. I am so hard done by, forgetting that I should be grateful that I have found this new way of living. If I wasn't an alcoholic, I wouldn't have known that there was a chance at recovery.

Do I sometimes need to eat my words? Do I give others a second thought? Am I so caught up in self that I don't have time for others?

[MajestyJo]

I wish to live without hate, whim, jealousy, envy, and fear. I wish to be simple, honest, frank, natural, clean in mind and clean in body. . . to face any obstacle and meet every difficulty unabashed and unafraid.

--Elbert Hubbard

Growing up, we learned there were many places to make wishes: the first star, a well, candles on a birthday cake. We saw Dorothy return from Oz after she wished she were back home. Fairy tales taught us wishes can come true.

We don't have to stop wishing, even though many of our wishes never came true. We may have wished for the impossible when we said "I wish things would get better at home." But we may have gotten our way when we said, "I wish this pain would end." Our dreams came true with the program.

Our best wishes can be about ourselves and the lives we want to have. We can wish for riches and find friends with hearts of gold. We can wish for comfort and health, and get a night of uninterrupted sleep. Whatever we wish for, we can receive.

You are reading from the book:

Night Light by Amy E. Dean

Posted on another site in 2011

This reminds me of what my spiritual advisor once told me, "God meets my needs, sometimes my wishes and my wants. As a dear friend of mind use to say, "Put it out to the Universe and see what you get back."

[MajestyJo]

Walk in dry places
____

What causes a binge?

Understanding Honesty.

In the foggy world of drinking, we were sometimes confused about cause and effect. A person might think of a binge as having been caused by a fight with his or her spouse. The real truth, however, is that he or she provoked the fight in order to get out of the house to launch a drinking spree. It was really the need to drink that caused the fight, and not the reverse, as the alcoholic believes.

We must always understand that the compulsion to drink is the root cause of every binge. We may blame certain things that seemed to trigger a drunk, but it is always our own compulsion that gives force to such an action. Non-alcoholics have the same human experiences we do, but such things do not cause them to have binges.

Seasoned AA members are trained by they experience to detect and defuse these false causes. "There are excuses but never good reasons for drinking," they say. We always drink because we want to drink., not because another's actions forced us into it.

Once we've established real sobriety, we also learn to identify the excuses and devices that helped us blame our binges on other people and conditions. We learn that we are always responsible for maintaining our own sobriety.

............................

I intend to get along with everybody today and to meet all conditions and circumstances in a mature manner. Nothing can trigger a binge but my own desire to take a drink.

From an old site of Bluidkiti's

This reminds me of a co-sponsor I had for several years. She couldn't be my sponsor because she was a counsellor in the treatment center I went to. I had her in my life, because she was a Native American and I connected to her culture.

She asked a fellow client, "What does binge taste like?" It was one of the reasons I was attracted to her. She was very old school. She was short and had the tiniest hands that seemed as though they could move mountains.

One of my fellow clients was having a difficult and she asked me to go with a walk to see if she would open up to me. She didn't think she was an alcoholic. When we got back, she came to the realization that she too belonged and she later became my next door neighbour. You just never know.

The ultimate excuse, the devil made me do it.

[dwmoeller]

[MajestyJo]

We are all capable of causing damage and pain to others, but that doesn't make us hopeless or one-dimensional bad-guys. Perhaps the ones we harm won't be able to forgive us, and perhaps it is not right to expect or desire from them anything at all. But, I truly believe that each of us, as humans, have been deemed with the responsibility of giving compassion to our fellow humans and animals (and plants and earth, for that matter). And, so, even if there is one person we have difficulty forgiving, we can still give compassion to another who hasn't harmed us, while knowing that he/she may have harmed another. Those who cause damage suffer and need love as much as their victims.

Peace,
Frogdog

Posted on another site in 2004

Some thoughts that made me think. That our disease is one of perception. What one person sees may not be what another person perceives.

What might be taken as a slight by one person may be taken in stride or with acceptance by another.

We can ask for forgiveness. We do it for ourselves and our recovery. The acceptance of that forgiveness is not up to us.

Some quotes on forgiveness

www.quotegarden.com/forgiveness.html

[MajestyJo]

Live and Let Live:

This is a slogan that I have to live daily when it comes to my son. He came by yesterday and made the comment, "Your place is neat and tidy and you are glad to have your son out of your life." I said, "I don't want my son out of my life, I just don't want him living in my life." He always acted as if I didn't have one. If I did, it was one, certainly not worth putting aside for his higher good.

I have had to continually set boundaries, reinforce them, and at times, shut the door to make him aware, that I love you dearly, but I don't like it when you come into my home and act out in your disease. He has choices, and his choice is to continue to use. I have a choice. I chose to not let him use in my space, and that includes using me.

[MajestyJo]

It was good to be able to share with someone today at my bank while getting a money order that I was a recovering alcoholic/addict and had a son in recovery. The woman admitted to having phoned and asked for help and worried about her son but hadn't gone to a meeting.

You never know when you can reach out and help someone. With my disability I don't get out to do the service work that I use to. I still go into our local jail when called. I just got two letters of thanks from the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services. They have 3,744 volunteers and I am proud to be a part of that.

I have gone into the jail for AA, NA, and Al-Anon. I can see from both sides of the fence and have lived on both sides.

This is an old post from 2010 on another site. I can't get out and do the service I use to do, but I can come on line and share with others. It doesn't matter how small or how big a deed we do, a simple smile or a kind word can make a difference in someone's day.

If you stayed sober today, it has been a good day.