TOPICS – 8 / 5 / 2025
LISTENING DEEPLY
1) How persistently we claim the right to decide all by ourselves just what we shall think and just how we shall act. If I accept and act upon the advice of those who have made the program work for themselves, I have a chance to outgrow the limits of the past.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 37
FELLOWSHIP
2) The fellowship I found in A.A. enabled me to face my problem honestly and squarely. I couldn’t do it among my relatives, I couldn’t do it among my friends. No one likes to admit they’re a drunk, that they can’t control this thing. But when we come into A.A., we can face our problem honestly and openly. I went to closed meetings and open meetings. And I took everything that A.A. had to give me. It was at that point I reached surrender.
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 340
A DOUBLE LIFE
3) “More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor. To the outer world he presents his stage character. This is the one he likes his fellows to see. He wants to enjoy a certain reputation, but knows in his heart he doesn’t deserve it.”
Big Book Into Action, p. 73
THOUGHTS
4)Today I make an effort to examine my thinking and check it out with a sponsor or in a support group. I know that my dignity in sobriety is connected not only with what I do but also with my attitudes and thoughts — when my thinking begins to go crazy, I know I am in a dangerous place and I need to talk. God created me with the ability to think, therefore, I need to safeguard the information I put in my mind.