One sentence in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions has probably caused more discussion, disagreement, confusion, and self-examination than almost any other: “It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us.” — Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Step Ten The first time …
There is an old saying that history often turns not on miles, but on inches. One phone call. One introduction. One conversation. One decision. When we study the history of Alcoholics Anonymous, we naturally focus on names like Bill W. and Dr. Bob. And rightly so. But if we only study the men whose names …
Sobriety Didn’t Just Change What I Said, It Changed How I Communicate. How Recovery Rewired the Way I Speak, Listen, and Think One of the most overlooked miracles of recovery has very little to do with alcohol. Most of us came to Alcoholics Anonymous because drinking had become unmanageable. We stayed because we discovered something …
One of the more interesting writing assignments I’ve ever suggested to a sponsee had nothing to do with Step Four, amends lists, or character defects. It was simply this: Write about your expectations. At first glance, that may not seem like a particularly “A.A.” topic. Expectations don’t appear in the Twelve Steps. The Big Book doesn’t …
Few topics in Alcoholics Anonymous seem capable of creating as much discussion, and sometimes as much tension, as the question of how members identify themselves in meetings. Most of us have heard the phrase “and a…” at some point. A member introduces themselves as an alcoholic and something else. For some, this feels natural, honest …
Three Years Later Exactly three years TODAY, I created a blog post called Inside the Mind of an Overthinker. To this day, it remains the most-read article on this website by a wide margin. Apparently, there are a lot of us living inside our own heads. LOL! As I revisited that post, I found myself smiling. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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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.)
Let me share some background on how this site came to be.
And check out our gallery of recovery images to brighten
your day (or at the very least put a smile on your face).
I’m blessed by those who have shared how this site has helped them on their journey of recovery.
