There’s a line in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, on pages 66–67, that has changed my life. It’s tucked in the middle of the chapter How It Works where the writers stop telling us what alcoholism is and start telling us what to do about it. “This was our course,” it says, pointing to …

Tonight at my home group, the chair read the 9th Step Promises and shared what her experience was with them. She mentioned that she went two years with them hanging on the wall of her home group at the time and she never really saw them. She shared it wasn't until she was two years sober ...

There is a strange paradox at the heart of recovery: it begins not with hope, but with hopelessness. Step One in the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous says, “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.” This admission isn’t theoretical. It isn’t poetic. It’s not a polite nod toward the idea that …

Since getting sober, have you ever said to yourself, “OH HELL NO! I’ll never share that,” or “What could possibly come from me dredging up THAT mess again?” I don’t know about you, but when I did my 4th and 5th Steps, I came face to face with not only a bunch of character defects …

On Sunday, November 2, 2024 (which is getting close to being 4 months ago at the time of this writing), I had literally nothing on my calendar for that day except to go to church. Having a “free” Sunday is very unusual for me, but I was grateful. At that same time, I was going …

I was sitting in a meeting tonight at my home group and we were reading, “Doctor Bob’s Nightmare.” It was an amazing meeting and as members were sharing their identification with Dr. Bob, one of our members shared something that their sponsor had shared with them I don’t think I’d ever heard around the topic …

On this Christmas Eve, I sat down this morning with one of my sponsees to read about Step Six. He and I have already taken the Steps together and when we were done, we decided to go back and spend some time specifically on Steps Six and Seven by reading (together) a non-Conference approved piece …

What Does a 4th Step Have To Do With Not Drinking? When I first came into A.A., I had no understanding of why it was important for me to look at my life and how I had caused hurt & harm to those around me. I had no idea why inventory was a serious thing. …

Recently at my home group in a literature discussion meeting, the chair chose to read from page 95 in the chapter, Working With Others, and started with the first paragraph… “PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as ­intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail.” They …