Sometimes seeing the whole program makes it easier to understand the parts. I’m going to begin with a disclaimer because I can already hear somebody somewhere reaching for their Big Book. This is not an attempt to rewrite the Big Book. It isn’t a replacement for the Big Book. It isn’t a “new and improved” …
I was sitting in home group tonight in a literature discussion meeting and I heard two things that I needed to hear from one of our members, she said, “Experience requires action. And it’s more than just information acquisition.” We were having this conversation in regards to the spiritual awakening. I don’t think most alcoholics …
God didn’t clean you up so you could pretend you were never messy. Your story is someone else’s hope. There is something about that sentence that makes me uncomfortable. And I think it should. Because after we have been sober for a while, it is surprisingly easy to become embarrassed by the person who first …
Tradition One—Short Form: “Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.” Tradition One—Long Form: “Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close …
The Chapter Alcoholics May Be Missing I’ve heard it more times than I can count. “I hate To Wives.” “I skip that chapter.” “It’s outdated.” “Bill had no business writing it.” And I understand some of the criticism. The language belongs to another era. The assumptions about marriage, gender, and family life reflect 1939, not 2026. And there is an …
There may be no prayer more closely associated with Alcoholics Anonymous than the Serenity Prayer. We say it at meetings. We say it before difficult conversations. We say it when life isn’t going our way. We say it when we’re afraid, angry, confused, or simply trying to get through the next five minutes without making …
Sometimes a single word can shut down an entire conversation. Powerless. Surrender. God. Inventory. Amends. Say one of those words in an A.A. meeting and almost everybody in the room already has an idea about what it means. We don’t wait for the rest of the sentence. We hear the word, reach into our mental …
Bill’s famous milestone message published in the March 1960 issue of the AA Grapevine is striking because it is not really an anniversary piece. It is a warning against complacency disguised as a celebration. What caught me most is how many of the dangers he names, money, power, personality, publicity, governance, fear, and distraction from …
Every Fall (or every other Fall), a familiar ritual unfolds throughout Alcoholics Anonymous. Groups elect GSRs. Districts elect DCMs. Areas elect officers, committee chairs, delegates, and other trusted servants. Most elections are conducted respectfully and prayerfully. Yet if we’re honest, we’ve all heard reasons for electing someone that have very little to do with leadership. …
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“A.A.’s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole.”
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“A.A.’s Twelve Traditions apply to the life of the Fellowship itself. They outline the means by which A.A. maintains its unity and relates itself to the world about it, the way it lives and grows.” - from the Foreword of the 12&12
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The Twelve Concepts for World Service were written by A.A.’s co-founder Bill W., and are an interpretation of A.A.’s world service structure as it emerged through A.A.’s early history and experience.
Get StartedThe primary purpose of this site is to share with those who have a desire to stop drinking, one individual A.A. member’s journey & experience (sober since November 17, 1987) of taking the 12 Steps, studying the 12 Traditions and 12 Concepts for World Service.
(DISCLAIMER: This site is not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous, nor does it speak for A.A. as a whole - just one member's experience.)
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I’m blessed by those who have shared how this site has helped them on their journey of recovery.
