Recovery Thoughts & Quotes 4/23

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~*~A.A. Thoughts For The Day~*~
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Gratitude

"One exercise that I practice
is to try for a full inventory of my blessings
and then for a right acceptance
of the many gifts that are mine--
both temporal and spiritual.
Here I try to achieve a state of joyful gratitude.
When such a brand of gratitude
is repeatedly affirmed and pondered,
it can finally displace the natural tendency to
congratulate myself on whatever progress
I may have been enabled to make
in certain areas of living.
I try hard to hold fast to the truth
that a full and thankful heart
cannot entertain great conceits.
When brimming with gratitude,
one's heartbeat must surely result
in outgoing love,
the finest emotion that we can ever know."
Bill W., Box 1980: The AA Grapevine, March 1962
As Bill Sees It, p. 37

Thought to Consider . . .

It's a pity we can't forget our troubles
the same way we forget our blessings.

*~*~*AACRONYMS*~*~*
GIFTS
Getting It From The Steps

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*~*~*~*~*^Just For Today!^*~*~*~*~*


Progress
From "Gutter Bravado":
"Still very impatient, I wanted the whole deal right away. That's why I related so well to the story about a wide-eyed new person and an oldtimer. When the newcomer approached the oldtimer, envying his accomplishments and many years of sobriety, the oldtimer slapped down his hand like a gavel and said, 'I'll trade you even! My thirty years to your thirty days right now!' He knew what the newcomer had yet to find out: that true happiness is found in the journey, not the destination."

2001 AAWS, Inc., Fourth Edition; Alcoholics Anonymous, pgs. 510-11

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*~*~*~*~*^ Big Book Quote ^*~*~*~*~*


"Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to
Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give
freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the
Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you
trudge the Road of Happy Destiny."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, A Vision For You, pg. 164

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Misc. AA Literature - Quote




To Be Fair-Minded

Too often, I think, we have deprecated and even derided projects of our friends in the field of alcoholism just because we do not always see eye to eye with them.
We should very seriously ask ourselves how many alcoholics have gone on drinking simply because we have failed to cooperate in good spirit with these many agencies--whether they be good, bad, or indifferent. No alcoholic should go mad or die merely because he did not come straight to A.A. at the beginning.
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Our first objective will be the development of self-restraint. This carries a top-priority rating. When we speak or act hastily or rashly, the ability to be fair-minded and tolerant evaporates on the spot.

1. GRAPEVINE, JULY 1965
2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 91

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Member Submitted Quote



The most important word in the Steps is the first one... WE

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12 x 12 Quote

"All these failings generate fear, a soul-sickness in its own right.
Then fear, in turn, generates more character defects. Unreasonable fear
that our instincts will not be satisfied drives us to covet the
possessions of others, to lust for sex and power, to become angry when
our instinctive demands are threatened, to be envious when the
ambitions of others seem to be realized while ours are not. We eat,
drink, and grab for more of everything than we need, fearing we shall
never have enough. And with genuine alarm at the prospect of work, we
stay lazy. We loaf and procrastinate, or at best work grudgingly and
under half steam. These fears are the termites that ceaselessly devour
the foundations of whatever sort of life we try to build." (Twelve and
Twelve, Step Four, pg. 49)