But then, after a sober while, for some of us there comes a time when - plop! - a new discovery slaps us in the face. That same old iffy thinking habit of our tippling days has, without our seeing it, attached itself to not drinking. Unconsciously, we have placed conditions on our sobriety. We have begun to think sobriety is just fine - if everything goes well, or if nothing goes askew.
In effect, we are ignoring
the biochemical, unchangeable nature of our ailment. Alcoholism respects no ifs.
It does not go away, not for a week, for a day, or even for an hour, leaving us
nonalcoholic and able to drink again on some special occasion or for some
extraordinary reason - not even if it is a once-in-a-lifetime celebration, or if
a big sorrow hits us, or if it rains in Spain or the stars fall on Alabama.
Alcoholism is for us unconditional, with no dispensations available at any
price.
1998 AAWS Inc.
Living Sober, page 63
*~*^As
Bill
Sees
It^*~*
Vision Beyond Today
Vision is, I think, the ability to make good
estimates, both for the immediate and for the more distant future. Some might
feel this sort of striving to be heresy against "One day at a time." But that
valuable principle really refers to our mental and emotional lives and means
chiefly that we are not foolishly to repine over the past nor wishfully to
daydream about the future. As individuals and as a fellowship, we shall
surely suffer if we cast the whole job of planning for tomorrow onto a fatuous
idea of providence. God's real providence has endowed us human beings with a
considerable capability for foresight, and He evidently expects us to use it. Of
course, we shall often miscalculate the future in whole or in part, but that is
better than to refuse to think at all.
TWELVE CONCEPTS, p. 41
*~*^Big
Book
Quote^*~*
"Practical experience shows
that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work
with other alcoholics."
~Alcoholics Anonymous,
4th Edition, Working With Others, pg. 89~
*^Twenty
Four
Hours
A Day^*
A.A. Thought for the Day
Who am I to judge other people?
Have I proved by my great success in life that I know all the answers? Exactly
the opposite. Until I came into A.A., my life could be called a failure. I made
all the mistakes one could make. I took all the wrong roads there were to take'
On the basis of my record, am I a fit person to be a judge of other people?
Hardly. In A.A. I have learned not to judge people. I am so often wrong. Let the
results of what they do judge them. It's not up to me, Am I less harsh in my
judgment of people?
Meditation for the Day
In our time
of meditation, we again seem to hear: "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Again and again we seem to hear God
saying this to us. "Come unto me" for the solution of every problem, for the
overcoming of every temptation, for the calming of every fear, for all our
needs, physical, mental, or spiritual, but mostly, "come unto me" for the
strength we need to live with peace of mind and the power to be useful and
effective.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that
I may go to God today for those things that I need to help me live. I pray that
I may find real peace of mind.
Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN
55012
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