Your Daily Reprieve 01.01.2020

Your Daily Reprieve for Wednesday January 1, 2020

From Jacksonville, FL

Happy New Year!!!

2020

“As the old year retires and a new one is born, we commit into the hands of our Creator the happenings of the past year and ask for direction and guidance in the new one. May He grant us His grace, His tranquility and His wisdom!” – Peggy Toney Horton

“Any new beginning is forged from the shards of the past, not from the abandonment of the past.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something. So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever.” – Neil Gaiman

“Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you have always wanted to do but could not find the time. Call up a forgotten friend. Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories. Vow not to make a promise you do not think you can keep. Walk tall, and smile more. You will look 10 years younger. Do not be afraid to say, I love you. Say it again. They are the sweetest words in the world.” – Ann Landers

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

11^th Step Holiday Meditation

http://www.11thstepmeditation.org/

Big Book Quote

"I had always believed in a Power greater that myself. I had often
pondered these things. I was not an atheist. Few people really are, for
that means blind faith in the strange proposition that this universe
originated in a cipher and aimlessly rushes no where."

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Bill's Story, pg. 10~

Daily Share!

AA Speaker of the Day

Ken Devaney

Humor in Recovery

Phoenix, AZ

http://bit.ly/2S1r5Wk

Wee Willie’s

Sobriety First Media

AA CD’s Literature and tapes

https://www.mediafire.com/sobrietyfirst

Celebrate Your Anniversary Here

SHOW NEWCOMERS HOW IT WORKS!!

Send your sober date to txm1@comcast.net

SOBER DATE	YOUR NAME	YOUR LOCATION	YEARS SOBER
6/10 (mo/day)	Bob S	Akron, OH	83

It will look like this :

6/10 Bob S. (Akron, OH).....84

January 2020 Miracles

1/1 Bob V. (Bernardsville, NJ)…..36

1/1 Severine W. (Sacramento, CA)…..3

1/1 Elena C. (NYC, NY)…..3

1/1 Nancy W. (Port Charlotte, FL)…..32

1/1 Joan B. (Port Charlotte, FL)…..31

1/1 Jessica C. (NYC, NY)…..6

1/1 Deirdre K. (Madison, NJ)…..15

1/1 John C. (Los Alamitos, CA)…..15

1/1 Ray A. (Surrey, BC, Canda)…..2

1/2 Joe B. (Jacksonville, FL)…..6

1/2 Robbie H. (White Rock, BC)…..7

1/2 Brian C. (Port Washington, NY)…..4

1/2 Mercedes G. (Tampa. FL)…..1

1/3 Billy M. (Louisville, KY)…..41

1/3 Johnyr (Stuart, FL)…..42

1/4 Nicola H. (Hertfordshire, UK)…..1

1/4 Kevin J. (RI)…..29

1/5 Donna M. (Port St Lucie, FL)…..46

1/5 Gwen F. (Key West, FL)…..12

1/6 Mary B. (Key Largo, FL)…..14

1/7 Leo D. (Warren, NJ)…..22

1/7 Luke T. (Nantucket, MA)…..1

1/12 David F. (Windermere, BC, CA)…..7

1/13 Tara M. (Larchmont, NY)…..7

1/13 Robbie H. (FL/VA)…..38

1/14 Maria H. (New York, NY)…..26

1/14 Dot C. (Acton, MA)…..7

1/14 Nick M. (Asheville, NC/Denver.CO)…..26

1/15 Bob W. (Punta Gorda, FL)…..37

1/15 Sue J. (Palm Coast, FL)…..10

1/15 Mike R. (Englewood, NJ)…..29

1/19 Rob W. (St Mary’s . GA) …..3

1/21 Levi S. (London, UK)…..5

1/21 Shane S. (Methuen, MA)…..1

1/22 Stacey C. (Austin, TX)…..13

1/25 PJ C. (Bel Air,MD)…..5

1/28 Karen Ann B. (Stuart, FL)…..1

1/29 Sandra C. (Port St Lucie, FL)…..44

1/31 Bob P. (Jacksonville, NC)…..35

0618 Total Years of Sobriety

12&12

Step Four - "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."

We thought "conditions" drove us to drink, and when we tried to correct these conditions and found that we couldn't to our entire satisfaction, our drinking went out of hand and we became alcoholics. It never occurred to us that we needed to change ourselves to meet conditions, whatever they were.

p. 47

Twenty-Four Hours

A.A. Thought For The Day

When I came into A.A., was I a desperate person? Did I have a
soul-sickness? Was I so sick of myself and my way of living that I
couldn't stand looking at myself in a mirror? Was I ready for A.A.?
Was I ready to try anything that would help me to get sober and to get
over my soul-sickness? Should I ever forget the condition I was in?

Meditation For The Day

In the new year, I will live one day at a time. I will make each day one
of preparation for better things ahead. I will not dwell on the past or
the future, only on the present. I will bury every fear of the future, all
thoughts of unkindness and bitterness, all my dislikes, my resentments,
my sense of failure, my disappointments in others and in myself, my
gloom and my despondency. I will leave all these things buried and go
forward, in this new year, into a new life.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that God will guide me one day at a time in the new year. I pray
that for each day, God will supply the wisdom and the strength that I
need.

Daily Thought

^*^*^*^*^
(\ ~~ /)
( \(AA)/ )
(_ /AA\ _)
/AA\
^*^*^*^*^
Cordial Welcome

But life among Alcoholics Anonymous is more than attending gatherings and visiting hospitals. Cleaning up old scrapes, helping to settle family differences, explaining the disinherited son to his irate parents, lending money and securing jobs for each other, when justified - these are everyday occurrences. No one is too discredited or has sunk too low to be welcomed cordially - if he means business.
c. 2001 AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 161

Thought to Consider . . .

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears.

*~*AACRONYMS*~*

H E A R T
Healing, Enjoying, And Recovering, Together

Daily Reflection

"I AM A MIRACLE"

The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty

that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a

way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to

accomplish those things for us which we could never do by

ourselves.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 25

This truly is a fact in my life today, and a real miracle. I

always believed in God, but could never put that belief

meaningfully into my life. Today, because of Alcoholics

Anonymous, I now trust and rely on God, as I understand

Him; I am sober today because of that! Learning to trust

and rely on God was something I could never have done

alone. I now believe in miracles because I am one!

Pot Luck

The Winner's Guide to Boring Meetings

AA Grapevine May 1984
(thanks Cheryl T.)

FOR A BRIEF period during my fifth year of continuous sobriety, I was going through a rough patch in my attendance at AA meetings. Somehow, the drinking stories and the tales of the early days of AA were rubbing me the wrong way. If I wasn't bored, I was angry. What to do?

Leave the Fellowship altogether? I had heard enough people say that they came to meetings to find out what happens to alcoholics who don't come to meetings. It wouldn't be quitting--I'd be allowing others to drive me out!

Change my patterns of attendance? I tried attending different groups and different types of meetings. That did help somewhat, but a complete change of groups made me feel that I was a beginner again, trying to break into new friendship circles. The loneliness I felt when I cut myself off from my familiar AA associates was not helping my mental health. I was still bored with "identification meetings" full of drunk stories, and there weren't enough Step, Big Book study, or discussion groups near enough to where I live and work.

Trying to solve my own problem by running from the Fellowship or my regular meetings was a dry-drunk manifestation of my alcoholic pattern of running from my problems. Resentments were building up inside me, and I was keeping it all inside. If I didn't want to relapse into the active form of our disease of alcoholism, what should I do?

The answer, of course, was to talk about my feelings. My first opportunity came at a "problem-study group," which I went to with the specific intent of letting it all out. It wasn't hard to do. I almost exploded as my anguish, pain, frustration, hostility, and confusion poured forth, complete with table-banging and language that would make a strip-joint bouncer blush.

The assembled members listened patiently to my distress, then offered some opinions on what they had done in similar circumstances. Here was a definition of our Fellowship in action. By sharing their experience, strength, and hope with me, they saved me, so I have been able to pass these ideas on to others trying to work the program.

Some of their suggestions included ways to occupy my mind during boring or repetitive drunkalogs. One urged me to count the words on the Steps or Traditions banner or, better yet, to examine how each Step has been accomplished in my life. Another suggestion was to use the time to take my daily or weekly inventory, making a mental list of those to whom I must promptly admit my errors. Still another bit of advice was to use the time to meditate on the word "one" or the word "unity" until I could see how I and the person speaking were similar.

The suggestion I liked best, however, and the one I subsequently practiced for six months with great, lasting benefit, was to carry a little notebook to meetings and write down any pieces of AA folk wisdom that might be lurking in the midst of otherwise uninteresting stories. At first, I was self-conscious about jotting down those pithy gems, but no one seemed to mind, and my collection grew rapidly. It was like finding gold nuggets amid rocks in the stream of consciousness.

The first saying I noted started me off in the right frame of mind: "What I don't know about this program may kill me." That was followed closely by "The clenched fist never receives" and "It's AA or 'amen' for me." After a while, I heard statements like "I don't live for AA--I use AA to live," "If you want sobriety, you must go among those who have it," and "If you want what we have, then do what we do."

Soon, my notebook was overflowing with those statements that we pass on to each other as part of the message of recovery. I learned to look at people and the way that they are handling this program of living. I learned that it is the simple, easily remembered statements that are our most eloquent contributions to one another.

To be teachable, I had to be reachable. I can see now that my stinking thinking was leading to drinking. Since the door swings both ways in AA, I had come to a turning point where I had to hang on and let go. My confidence today is gained from my humility of yesterday. Now, I go to meetings not to be entertained but to be healed, and I continue to stay around to witness the naturally occurring miracles as we love each other into well-being.

Today, I know that notes in the same key resonate together. I'm at meetings to give as well as to receive. No matter how much continuous sobriety I have to my and AA's credit, I am still only one drink away from a drunk, just like everybody else in these meeting rooms. If there's any message in all of this problem-turned-project, it can perhaps be summed up in these words heard at an otherwise dreary meeting: "I never let the seeds stop me from eating the watermelon."

C. F.
Wollstonecraft,
Australia, AA Grapevine May 1984

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