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Hope was not part of my original vocabulary. Especially when I came into this amazing program of AA. I would laugh. BUT it was probably at the expense of someone else. My intro was when my 1st wife was being 12th Stepped. She was introduced to the program at our kitchen table in NW Detroit.… Continue reading Spirituality and How To be able to laugh again

Thanksgiving Day approaches quickly. For this one day, we think of our blessings. Our loved ones are in the forefront of our minds, even if they are physically elsewhere. Our good fortunes seem to be multiplying every year. This is a beautiful day to be celebrated every year. It has affected me positively so much… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Be Happy with Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

We have discussed before the good regards or gratitude that we had when we entered this amazing program. I had none and didn’t see any good in much of anything. I didn’t dare hope for too much. I was afraid of the results that seemed to always appear. There was something that I did notice… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Sustain Good Regards or Gratitude

I have said many times that the way that I live my life is to work my program 24/7/365. To the best of my ability. The barrier to even trying this when new into the program, then even later upon occasion, was wondering how I could carry on with life. With my wife. Children. Neighbors.… Continue reading Spirituality and How To Use These Simple Tools To Handle the Balance of Life During Recovery

“The roof is leaking.” “The toilet is running.” “My child is crying.” “The back hurts.” “My boss fired me.” Admittedly, some days are just better than others. What can we do when it seems like all the stars are aligned against us? The stars do NOT line up in a row. Let alone to “get”… Continue reading Spirituality and How To Change the Problems That Seem To Fill My Days Into Great Solutions

Step 2 of the amazing Program of AA states: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. “Yeah, but I don’t wish death to people who disagree with me anymore. Serious injury maybe but not death. So what’s the problem?” The problem is that thoughts are THE most powerful… Continue reading Spirituality And How To Deal With The Return Of The Insane Thinking From The Days Of Madness

“Easy does it” is a slogan that I have seen since coming into the program. It is now one of my favorites.  After all, this is a very simple program for very complicated folks. I would try to complicate issues. Many times, not even without knowing it. I would try to figure out how everything… Continue reading Spirituality and Easy Does It

Kübler-Ross originally developed stages to describe the process that patients with terminal illnesses go through as they come to terms with their own death. It was later applied to grieving friends and family as well as divorcees. For instance, all seemed to undergo a similar process. Losing the bottle to an alcoholic fits very well… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Deal With Significant Loss

Divine Inspiration is what pretty much defines my day, any more. Webster defines inspiration as a divine influence or action on a person believed to qualify him or her to receive and communicate sacred revelation. The action or power of moving the intellect or emotions. Or the act of influencing or suggesting opinions. I have… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Actually Obtain Divine Inspiration

Conflicts and problems with others have been around since God created the 2nd human being and placed them together. “Mine!” I’m right and you’re wrong!” “You’ve got to be kidding!” “My…(fill in the blank) is bigger than yours!” In this way it starts on the personal level. From this, it grows to tribal or national… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Handle The Problems that Seem to be Swarming All Over Me.

Step 4 states “Made a searching and fear less moral inventory of ourselves.” I have attended AA meetings seating with from 75-100 people to much smaller numbers. At many of these meetings they would concentrate on the Steps. Complete with signs on the tables signifying the number of the Step to be discussed there. Most… Continue reading Spirituality and How to work Step 4 Without Fear

Just what can I do to handle the ideas of World Peace, Covid19, and someone else’s sobriety? Am I concerned because I regularly pay close attention to the often conflicting news accounts and social media? Especially since the airwaves and electronic media are filled with interviews of experts. These experts include political insiders, Hollywood stars,… Continue reading Spirituality and How To Handle World Peace, Covid19, and Anyone Else’s Sobriety?

I have heard many times “You gotta do this.” “You gotta do that.” “You have to do this or that.” Even in AA. “You have to do this or that or you will get drunk.” When I hear that I GOTs to do something, I instinctively pull back. I probably also rebel. I am one… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Gets to Not Gots to

We talked recently about the ripple effect and how it applies to our everyday thoughts and actions. Every particle in the Universe is in vibration and constant motion. We learned this in high school science. Think of the smallest particle of all, the Atom, and how it is in a state of motion in its… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Profit From the Laws of Vibration and Attraction

I have been in and working this remarkable program of AA for many 24 hours’ now. Then, Since entering and working my program in AA, I have rejoiced, cried, loved, fought, been proper, been politically incorrect, laughed with and at, held hands both physically and emotionally, been loved, repulsed, seen people close to me transition,… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Use This Newly Learned Spiritual Knowledge

What was, and upon occasion still is, my first response to being startled, surprised, or in any way taken out of my immediate comfort zone? Anger! Sometimes, it may be just the simple act of being asked something and not immediately able to have the answer. In any list that AA puts forth listing Character… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Deal With Arising Anger

The Law of Attraction is a spiritual law every bit as real as The Law of Gravity. A simple analogy is, whenever one faces into a mirror, for instance in a bathroom, he gets an exact return image. This image is a non judgmental, non altering exact reproduction of what faced it. The Law of… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Apply The Law of Attraction

Prayer was not even part of my thinking when I was introduced to the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Neither was meditation. Meditation was what “those people” and mystics did. They used snakes coming out of baskets and a flute playing in the background. In AA, I was quickly advised that this was not a religious… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Know if We Are Praying

This is not brain surgery, folks. To feel better than we do right now we ONLY must rid ourselves of the negatives. Probably the most powerful ingredient of our makeup is our thoughts. Our thoughts precipitate EVERYTHING! Everything, including physical ailments, begins with a thought.   Go back to when we were young. Back to… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Feel Better Right Now

Step 2 states: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. “Hey, I’m not insane!” “Yah, but I don’t wish death to people who disagree with me any more. Serious injury maybe but not death.” So what’s the problem? The problem is that the insane thoughts are THE most… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Recover When the Insanity Returns

Sobriety is not something that came easily for many of us. Spiritual growth was not even a part of my thoughts. Once we started to work our program, we wanted more growth. Much more! Then we hoped that this was not just another “quick fix” that would disappear just as quickly as it appeared. I… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Continue My Growth in AA

Until September 20, 1976, I never really could enjoy life. How things have changed since I found the program of Alcoholics Anonymous! First, this is where I first heard of Spirituality. I soon changed. I had been a very self absorbed, very large, very angry, very violent, well armed, well trained man. There were no… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Finally Really Enjoy Life

I was always very guarded with my true feelings. Thus, I bottled up a lot of frustrations, anger, and fear. These came out in other self destructive ways. Then I took the advice of my early AA sponsors and started faking it until I made it. I discovered that thoughts and intellectual knowledge could be… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Simply Use Your Feelings as Your Guide

We have discussed this before. We can never think about gratitude too much. What does gratitude give to us? The ability to show genuine appreciation, Happiness, Joy, and Freedom! It allows us to gain appreciation for everything. Everything! What does not having gratitude give to us? Agony, anger, resentments, fear, mental and physical pain and… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Attain Appreciation

Step 3 states: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Turning over sounds a lot like surrender to me. Surrender was never a part of my vocabulary before entering AA. Then, I discovered in Step 3 that I must turn my will… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Surrender Using Step 3

The ideas for the daily topics for our meetings could come from anywhere. Many times they are taken from incidents or ideas or discussions right here at our meetings. Such is today’s topic, The Power of our Thought process. The study of Spirituality shows us that our powerful thoughts are the most dynamic part of… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Use Our Powerful Thought Process

Step 4 states: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. These are 9 words that stopped many who were trying to work the program dead in their tracks. Why? FEAR enters the equation. So, many thought “If they knew the real me no one would want to be near me.” The thing about… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Work The Moral Inventory

Step 1 states: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable. When I was introduced to this remarkable program, I had to reverse these admissions because, at that time, I did not really know what part alcohol had in my physical, emotional, and mental downspin. I knew that my… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Learn if You’re Really Alcoholic

I do not believe that we could ever think too much about true gratitude. When I am counting my blessings, I do not have time to moan and groan. At one time, I thought that I could count all of my blessings on the fingers of one hand and have most fingers not used. When… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Attain True Gratitude

Faith is not only thought of in a religious way. One of Webster’s definitions for faith is firm belief in something for which there is no proof. For instance “clinging to the faith that her missing son would one day return.” In my mind of minds, I know the truth that there has to be a… Continue reading Spirituality and How to Realize the Truth about Faith