“I look upon a pain in my feelings as temporary indigestion of the mind. When I get a stomach-ache, it is generally because I’ve eaten something that hasn’t agreed with me. Likewise, my mental indigestion comes from some story, bit of gossip or circumstance that I’ve swallowed without thinking.”
“AA has given each and every one of its groups and members the inalienable right to be unerringly wrong, which has many times resulted in the liberty to be foolish, the sovereignty to self-destruct, and the self-determination to learn from mistakes.”
“Every day is not a bed of roses, but it is such a relief to know that no matter what life throws my way, I never have to do it alone. I can’t wait to see what happens next.”
“We cannot just keep chipping away at defects of character without developing something to replace them. Assets are the only item I can find to develop, and the Fourth Step seems to be the ideal way of monitoring where I am at with both assets and defects.”
“I can better understand when I learn to listen.”
“I can choose to carry the weight of the world and my problems around on my shoulders, or I can turn them all over to my Higher Power and let her worry about them.”
“Reality nourishes and fulfills.”
“I’m better able to love people when the storm of my judgmental mind settles, when I understand and empathize rather than criticize and condemn.”
“As AA grows, it is impossible to know everyone, but if I try to relate myself with just one other person, something will happen, something remarkable.”
“When we early AAs got our first glimmer of how spiritually prideful we could be, we coined this expression: ‘Don’t try to get too damned good by Thursday!’”
“One of the first insights Dr. Bob and I shared was that all true communication must be founded on mutual need. Never could we talk down to anyone, certainly not to a fellow alcoholic. We saw that each sponsor would have to humbly admit his own needs as clearly as those of his prospect.”
“Until I was at my complete bottom, alcohol wasn’t even my problem. But thankfully, when I did hit bottom, AA was not hard to find.”
“It was at my home group that I learned to trust the experiences of the early groups with meetings. We have a Traditions meeting once a month and when I was new and heard the Traditions read out loud, the experiences of the early AA meetings gave me the first notion that real people -- drunks like me -- started this program.”
“If I am in pain, it may be beneficial to me if I am aware of those in even more pain ... The answer for my pain is in the Twelfth Step.”
“I had been introverted and tense. I had been blocked by a fat ego that made sharing impossible, by a lack of communication, by a fear of love. The Fifth Step swept away all those barricades. With some humility, I could begin to find joy in the simple delights of life.”
