A Sober Life

ENEMIES… “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.” — G. K. Chesterton The spiritual program that I embrace makes me look to where I am, rather than where I want to be. I must live in the now, rather than [...]

Fantasy The more I drank, the more I fantasized everything. I imagined getting even for hurts and rejections. In my mind’s eye I played and replayed scenes in which I was plucked magically from the bar where I stood nursing a drink and was instantly exalted to some position of power and prestige. I lived [...]

Dear friend of Bill W., Through A.A., we can experience freedom from self. After all, it was self (you, me) that stood in our own way, that ran the show and ran ourselves into bankruptcy, that hurt the ones we loved. All Twelve Steps of A.A. are designed to kill the old self (deflate the [...]

The Treasure Of The Past Showing others who suffer how we were given help is the very thing which makes life seem so worth while to us now. Cling to the thought that, in God’s hands, the dark past is the greatest possession you have– the key to life and happiness for others. With it [...]

Keep It Simple I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.—Winston Churchill We addicts are used to learning the hard way. Many of us think we’re different and can do things our own way. But then we get in too much trouble or pain. The first AA members were just [...]

Walk In Dry Places Erasing Old Tapes___Living Today The human brain works like a tape recorder. With great fidelity, this built-in recorder stores up old memories that are recalled at surprising times. There are two kinds of these “old tapes” that are dangerous to the recovering alcoholic. One dangerous old tape is a bitter memory [...]

The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next. – Mignon McLaughlin I do not have to have courage for a lifetime, just for the moment. I am helped by the philosophy that teaches me to live one day at a time, one hour at a time, [...]

Self-acceptance. At the beginning of our AA sobriety, we were reminded that we were not reformers. Yet we sometimes have a tendency to want to “reform” ourselves or others after we’ve established sobriety. This can become a practice of “fixing things that aren’t broken”. We may not realize it, but many things in our lives [...]

Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss wants, small minds discuss people. – Laurence J. Peter Gossip is ultimately a form of malicious cowardice. It is a “blasphemy” because it seeks to denigrate the human being that God has made in His image. As a practicing alcoholic I was a gossip. I exaggerated and manipulated [...]

“When I want to understand what is happening today or try to decide what will happen tomorrow, I look back.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The writing is on the wall! My writing is on my wall and it is to be found in my life. My history of my life teaches me about my [...]