June 16, 2026 In Legacy of Recovery By Rick W.
The Message Never Changes, But The Methods Do One of the gifts of studying the Big Book with other alcoholics is discovering that sometimes the most interesting conversations happen in the tension between what the book says and how we experience recovery today. Tonight, I was in a Big Book study discussing pages 90-91 of …
June 12, 2026 In Legacy of Unity By Rick W.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” It’s a haunting statement because most of us know exactly what he meant. Many of us can recall moments when we were hurting, struggling, or lost and the people we expected …
June 12, 2026 In Legacy of Recovery By Rick W.
Why Bill W. Chose the Language of Humility One of the most fascinating things about the Big Book is not just what it says, but how it says it. In Chapter Five, How It Works, in what members have come to call the Sick Man’s Prayer, we find this familiar passage: “We realized that the people …
June 9, 2026 In General Information By Rick W.
A Letter That Revealed the Man The inspiration for this reflection came during my monthly sponsorship family meeting tonight with my sponsor and sponsor brothers. We are usually in the Big Book when we come together for our monthly meeting, but tonight, my sponsor chose to read the famous correspondence between Bill W. and Carl …
June 6, 2026 In Legacy of Service By Rick W.
I still remember walking into AA meetings and seeing that framed set of the Twelve Concepts for World Service hanging on the wall, and honestly, they looked like legal documents to me. I didn’t understand them or what they had to do with getting sober. The Steps made sense. They were about me and my …
June 6, 2026 In Legacy of Unity By Rick W.
There Is Always a Seat for One More “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.” I’ve always thought Tradition Three might be one of the most beautiful (and radical) things about Alcoholics Anonymous. Think about it for a moment. Most of us arrived at our first meeting carrying far more …
June 6, 2026 In Legacy of Recovery By Rick W.
One of the greatest freedoms recovery offers is the ability to stop letting other people decide who we’re going to be. Most of us arrived in Alcoholics Anonymous with a long list of reasons why we drank, acted out, exploded, withdrew, lied, manipulated, or held resentments. We became experts at pointing to what someone else …
May 26, 2026 In Legacy of Recovery By Rick W.
There’s a moment in recovery where life starts pressing in from every side and it feels like everything is falling apart. The relationship is strained. The finances are tight. The emotions are raw. The character defects are impossible to ignore. The loneliness feels louder now that the noise of alcohol, chaos, or compulsions has been …
May 23, 2026 In Legacy of Service, Legacy of Unity By Rick W.
There comes a point in recovery when the question is no longer, “Am I sober?” but instead, “What kind of witness (example) is my life becoming?” Not a witness in the courtroom sense. Not someone standing on a stage preaching to others. But a living, breathing example that change is possible. A person whose life …
May 21, 2026 In Legacy of Recovery By Rick W.
Recovery is not just about stopping a behavior. It’s about becoming a different person. Too often, people think sobriety simply means not drinking alcohol or avoiding destructive behaviors. While abstinence may be the beginning, it is not the whole journey. Real sobriety is much deeper. It is emotional, spiritual, relational, and personal transformation. Sobriety is …
