ALL OR NOTHING? (0)
Posted 29 January, 2008 in As Bill See's It
Acceptance and faith are capable of producing 100 per cent sobriety. In fact, they usually do; and they must, else we could have no life at all. But the moment we carry these attitudes into our emotional problems, we find that only relative results are possible. Nobody can, for example become completely free from fear, anger and pride.
Hence, in this life we shall attain nothing like perfect humility and love. So we shall have to settle respecting most of our problems, for a very gradual progress, punctuated sometimes by heavy setbacks. Our oldtime attitude of “all or nothing” will have to be abandoned.
GRAPEVINE, MARCH 1962
MAINTENANCE AND GROWTH (0)
Posted 10 December, 2007 in As Bill See's It
It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worthwhile. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the mainenance and growth of a spiritual expereience, this business of harboring resentment is infinitely grave. For then we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die.
If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the sudden rage were not for us. Anger is the dubious luxury of normal men, but for us alcoholics it is poison.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS P. 66
CAN WE CHOOSE? (0)
Posted 10 December, 2007 in As Bill See's It
We must never be blinded by the futile philosophy that we are just the hapless victims of our inheritance, of our life experience, and of our surroundings - that these are the sole forces that make our decisions for us. This is not the road to freedom. We have to believe that we can really choose.
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“As active alcoholics, we lost our ability to choose whether we would drink. We were the victims of a compulsion which seemed to seemed that we must go on with our own destruction.
”Yet we finally did make choices that brought about our recovery. We came to believe that alone we were powerless over alcohol. This was surely a choice, and a most difficult one. We came to believe that a Higher Power could restore us to sanity when we became willing to practice AA’s Twelve Steps.
“in short, we chose to ‘become willing’, and no better choice did we ever make”.
1. GRAPEVINE, NOVEMBER 1960
2. LETTER, 1966
PAIN AND PROGRESS (0)
Posted 10 December, 2007 in As Bill See's It
“Years ago I used to commiserate with all people who suffered. No I commiserate only with those who suffer in ignorance, who do not understand the purpose and ultimate utility of pain”
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Someone once remarked that pain is the touchstone of spiritual progress. How heartily we A.A.’s can agree with him for we know that the pains of alcoholism had to come before sobriety, and emotional turmoil before serenity.
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”Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the Light, even though for the moment you do not see.”
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1. LETTER, 1950
2. TWELVE AND TWELVE PP 93-94
3. LETTER, 1950
IN GOD’S HANDS (0)
Posted 13 November, 2007 in As Bill See's It, Meetings
When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God’s hands were better than anything we could have planned
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My depression deepened unbearably, & finally it seemed to me as though I were at the very bottom of the pit. For the moment, the last vestige of my proud obstinacy was crushed. All at once I found myself crying out, “If there is a God, let Him show Himself! I am ready to do anything, anything!”
Suddenly the room lit up with a great white light. It seemed to me, in the minds eye, that I was on a mountain & that a wind not of air but of spirit was blowing. & then it burst upon me that I was a free man. Slowly the ecstasy subsided. I lay on the bed, but now for a time I was in another world, a new world of consciousness. All about me & through me there was a wonderful feeling Presence, & I thought to myself, “So this is the God of the preachers!”
1 Alcoholics Anonymous p-100
2 A.A. Comes of Age p-63
PERSONALITY CHANGE (0)
Posted 30 October, 2007 in As Bill See's It, Meetings
It has often been said of A.A. that we are interested only in
alcoholism. That is not true. We have to get over drinking in order to stay alive. But anyone who knows the alcoholic personality by firsthand contact knows that no true alky ever stops drinking permanently without undergoing a profound personality change.
We thought “conditions” drove us to drink, & when we tried to correct
these conditions & found that we couldn’t do so to our entire satisfaction,
our drinking went out of hand & we needed to change ourselves to meet
conditions, whatever they were.
1. Letter, 1940
2. 12×12, p. 47
© 1967 by A.A. World Services, Inc.
First Meeting (5)
Posted 23 October, 2007 in As Bill See's It, Meetings
The first meeting of the new group was held today.
Here is the reading from “As Bill Sees It”
We admitted we could not lick alcohol with our own remaining resources, & so we accepted the further fact that dependence upon a Higher Power (if only our A.A. group) could do this hitherto impossible job. The moment we were able to accept these facts fully, our release from the alcohol compulsion had begun.
For most of us, this pair of acceptances had required a lot of exertion to achieve. Our whole treasured philosophy of self sufficiency had to be cast aside. This had not been done with sheer will power; it came instead as the result of developing the willingness to accept these new facts of living.
We neither ran nor fought. But accept we did. And then we began to be free.
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