Your Daily Reprieve 04.30.26

 

Your Daily Reprieve for Thursday April 30, 2026   From Boston, MA

Beware of ambition!  It's one of the true double-edged swords. . . . depending upon how we define it, it may be one of our great motivators that helps us to grow and learn and become who we're meant to be, or one of our great destroyers that holds us down and turns us into something we never imagined, in our worst nightmares, that we ever would become as human beings.       -Tom Walsh     “When I can identify my own shortcomings in another, the battleground between us is removed.” ~ Bowling Green, Kentucky, October 1986     One has to abandon altogether the search for security, and reach out to the risk of living with both arms.  One has to embrace the world like a lover.  One has to accept pain as a condition of existence.  One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing.  One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.    -Morris L. West     We need to help people to discover the true meaning of love. Love is generally confused with dependence. Those of us who have grown in true love know that we can love only in proportion to our capacity for independence.    ~Fred Rogers

BIG BOOK QUOTE   I had always believed in a Power greater than myself. I had often pondered these things.   P10

Daily Share!     AA Speaker of the Day   JOHN C. ST Petersburg, FL Monday Night Speaker 04.13.2009   https://bit.ly/489n4p1   There are over 30000 thousand speaker recordings here. And they are FREE! https://www.mediafire.com/sobrietyfirst       ZOOM Loose Garment Group https://us02web.zoom.us/j/238977518 Saturday & Sunday 9AM EST ID: 238 977 518 PW: 004 394

Celebrate Your Anniversary Here SHOW NEWCOMERS HOW IT WORKS!!   MARCH 2026 Miracles       4/1 Ron F. (Cincinnati, OH)…..49 4/1 Gregory D. (Water Mill, NY)…..9 4/1 Joyce G. (Bradford, Ma)…..38 4/1 Grady S. (Sunnyvale, CA)…..35 4/1 John B. (Greenwich, CT/Stuart, FL)…..45 4/1 Julian G. (Salt Lake City, UT)…..11 4/1 Cary W. (Palm City, FL)…..19 4/1 Michael C. (Los Angeles, CA)…..45 4/1 Brinda L. (Stuart, FL)…..23 4/1 Steve W. (Middletown, CT)…..13 4/2 Mark B. (Haiku, HI)…..5 4/3 Leigh A. (Bethesda, MD)…..28 4/4 Tim D. (Seaforth, Ontario)…..15 4/4 Mark S. (Washington, DC)…..21 4/5 Alison I. (Edinburgh, Scotland) …..32 4/5 Elizabeth B. …..21 4/6 Eugene R. (Barcelona, Spain)…..12 4/6 Vige B. (Clinton, NY)…..49 4/6 Nick E. (Devon,UK)…..27 4/7 Madeleine M. (Groveland, MA)…..43 4/7 Louis D. …..1 4/7 Jane T. (Vancouver, BC, Canada)…..40 4/8 John M. (Mendham TWP, NJ)…..35 4/8 Paul K. (Canton, OH)…..22 4/8 Maureen K. (Morristown, NJ)…..16 4/8 Ashley G. (Miami, FL)…..14 4/8 Demetria B. (Memphis, TN)…..1 4/9 Dayton H. (New York, NY)…..36 4/10 Chas T. (Johnston, SC)…..14 4/10 Kevin L. (Cherry Hill, NJ)…..43 4/11 Diane M. (Waynesville, NC)…..18 4/11 Steve O. (Travelers Rest, SC)…..2 4/11 Christine M. (Dingman’s Ferry, PA/Vero Beach)…..17 4/11 Jeremy S. (Austin, TX)…..14 4/12 Lisa S. (Port St. Lucie, FL)…..24 4/12 Kathleen M. (Naples, FL)…..38 4/12 Kelly R. (Nantucket, MA)…..2 4/13 Lauren E. (NYC)…..13 4/13 Catherine G.(Austin, TX)…..31 4/13 Wendy (Puerto Vallarta, MX)…..4 4/14 Sue B. (Waynesville, NC)…..16 4/14 Rachel K. (Springfield, MA)…..1 4/14 Mark M. (Pinellas Park, FL)…..41 4/15 Erin S. (Nantucket, MA)…..21 4/15 Dorcas C. (Fairfax, CA)…..12 4/17 Jay M. (Pepper Pike, OH)…..12 4/17 Vince K. (Palm City, FL)…..44 4/17 Jennifer E. (Palm Harbor, FL)…..37 4/17 Rich W. (Evanston, IL)…..9 4/18 Liz A. (Westfield, NJ)…..15 4/18 Brad G. (St Louis, MO)……25 4/19 Joanna J. (Port St. Lucie, FL)…..45 4/19 Brent A. (New Rochelle, NY)…..3 4/20 Frank M. (Kingsland, GA)…..5 4/21 Jackie Z. (Palm Coast, FL)…..45 4/22 Mary D. (Evansville, IN)…..41 4/22 Jeannie C. (Nantucket, MA)…..34 4/23 Steve W. (Syracuse/Indialantic, FL)…..21 4/23 Brian L. (Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia)…..37 4/24 Scott G. (Chicago)…..2 4/25 Lesley Anne S. (Las Lunas, NM).….41 4/25 Melissa S. (NYC)…..17 4/25 Trevor Q. (Westchester, NY)…..15 4/26 Sean H. (Greenville, SC)…..2 4/26 Debbie S. (Yulee, FL)…..11 4/27 Norma D. (Bradford, MA)…..15 4/27 Angela L. (Boiling Springs, SC)…..7 4/28 Julie T. (Morristown, NJ)…..13 4/28 Laurie M. (Midcoast, ME)…..41 4/29 Judy F. (Sarasota, FL)…..48 4/30 Mike V. (Puerto Vallarta/Ottawa, IL)…..28   1617 Total Years of Sobriety           Drop a Buck in the Basket? PayPal paypal.me/TomMurphy Venmo @Tom-Murphy-160

12&12   Foreword Alcoholics Anonymous began in 1935 at Akron, Ohio, as the outcome of a meeting between a well-known surgeon and a New York broker. Both were severe cases of alcoholism and were destined to become co-founders of the A.A. Fellowship. p. 16

Twenty-Four Hours  A.A. Thought For The Day The A.A. program is one of faith because we find that we must have faith in a Power greater than ourselves if we are going to get sober. We're helpless before alcohol, but when we turn our drink problem over to God and have faith that He can give us all the strength we need, then we have the drink problem licked. Faith in that Divine Principle in the universe which we call God is the essential part of the A.A. program. Is faith still strong in me? Meditation For The Day Each one of us is a child of God, and as such, we are full of the promise of spiritual growth. A young person is like the springtime of the year. The full time of the fruit is not yet, but there is promise of the blossom. There is a spark of the Divine in every one of us. Each has some of God's spirit that can be developed by spiritual exercise. Know that your life is full of glad promise. Such blessings can be yours, such joys, such wonders, as long as you develop in the sunshine of God's love. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may develop the divine spark within me. I pray that by so doing I may fulfill the promise of a more abundant life.

Daily Thought ^*^*^*^*^ (\    ~~    /) (    \(AA)/    ) (_ /AA\ _) / AA \ ^*^*^*^*^ Ghosts A.A. experience has taught us we cannot live alone with our pressing problems and the character defects which cause or aggravate them. If we have swept the searchlight of Step Four back and forth over our careers, and it has revealed in stark relief those experiences we'd rather not remember, if we have come to know how wrong thinking and action have hurt us and others, then the need to quit living by ourselves with those tormenting ghosts of yesterday gets more urgent than ever. We have to talk to somebody about them.   c. 1952 AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,  p. 55 Thought to Consider . . . Trust God. Clean house. Help others. *~*AACRONYMS*~* Y A N A You Are Not Alone

DAILY REFLECTIONS   A GREAT PARADOX These legacies of suffering and of recovery are easily passed among alcoholics, one to the other. This is our gift from God, and its bestowal upon others like us is the one aim that today animates A.A.'s all around the globe. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 151   The great paradox of A.A. is that I know I cannot keep the precious gift of sobriety unless I give it away. My primary purpose is to stay sober. In A.A. I have no other goal, and the importance of this is a matter of life or death for me. If I veer from this purpose I lose. But A.A. is not only for me; it is for the alcoholic who still suffers. The legions of recovering alcoholics stay sober by sharing with fellow alcoholics. The way to my recovery is to show others in A.A. that when I share with them, we both grow in the grace of the Higher Power, and both of us are on the road to a happy destiny.

POT LUCK   "Drinking gave me the feeling of a job well done without having done a thing."   I remember a restaurant/bar in the rich neighborhood of Brentwood, California, I used to go to after work. I’d saddle up to the long, swank bar and order cocktails while I watched the successful people with money come in to have $200 dinners. I was struggling financially at the time and in the beginning I felt out of place, but after a few drinks I had goal-planned my first million and was soon feeling as if I belonged. Years later in recovery while working on my Eighth Step, making a list of all the people I had harmed, I was surprised when my sponsor told me to put my name on it. When I asked why, he told me to list all the things I had wanted to do and what I had wanted to make out of my life, and then write about how alcohol and drugs had taken them away. I thought about that bar in Brentwood, and many more like it, and of all the plans and goals I had drank and used away. When they say that alcohol is cunning, baffling, and powerful, they mean it in so many insidious ways. When I think of the potential, the future, the life I drank away, I’m sorry to my core. It’s hard to forgive myself sometimes. But when I think of all I have accomplished since I got sober, and of the lifetime of dreams still ahead, I’m filled with hope and gratitude. Today, I live in and appreciate the miracle of my recovery.

**NEW** Excellent Resource Blogs, Audio and Video Articles   https://takethe12.org/   *****   "AA Recovery Interviews" Podcast https://aarecoveryinterviews.com   Blog http://todaysreprieve.blogspot.com/     Wee Willie’s Sobriety First Media AA CD’s Literature and tapes https://www.mediafire.com/sobrietyfirst     AA Membership Survey 2022 Alcoholics Anonymous 2022 Membership Survey | Alcoholics Anonymous     Committee Consideration from the 73rd General Service Conference In response to a Committee Consideration from the 73rd General Service Conference regarding any possible future changes to literature written by A.A.’s founders,  that committee agreed it would be beneficial to gather shared experience from the Fellowship regarding this topic. Questionaire   How Should We Treat A.A. Founders' Writings?  https://bit.ly/3uhEPBK       DR. PAUL O. There is More to Quitting Drinking Than Quitting Drinking (Audio Book) Introduction http://bit.ly/1IlFBbp Part I http://bit.ly/1MPV5Za Part II http://bit.ly/1Ksd9eA Part III http://bit.ly/1GQCGGE Part IV http://bit.ly/1Ip0hn8 AA CDs Literature and tapes https://www.mediafire.com/sobrietyfirst       ZOOM MEETINGS   Loose Garment Group https://us02web.zoom.us/j/238977518 Saturday & Sunday….Pot Luck…0900 ID: 238 977 518 PW: 004 394       ARCHIVES     AA World Service Board Meeting Highlights October 2023  https://bit.ly/3GlcOvE       A New Pair of Glasses in PDF (download) is available at: https://bit.ly/4bUr0Js     Bill Schaberg Writing The Big Book Video Readings https://www.youtube.com/@billschaberg8911/videos   BIG BOOK for DUMMIES https://bigbookfordummies.com/       *Angel Force USA www.AngelForceUSA.com   Angel Force USA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. OUR MISSION STOP SUISILENCE The avoidance of discussion about suicide Our goal is to raise awareness of the military suicide epidemic.       RICHMOND WALKER & THE TWENTY-FOUR HOUR BOOK Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) Talk given at the 8th Annual National A.A. Archives Workshop, Fort Lauderdale, Florida Sept. 27, 2003 https://www.prestongroup.org/aa_docs/24_hours_a_day.txt       MEDITATIONS http://www.11thstepmeditation.org/   Loving Kindness Meditations   With Music   http://www.excelatlife.com/mp3/direct_download.php?file=lovingkindnessmusic.mp3     Voice only http://www.excelatlife.com/mp3/direct_download.php?file=lovingkindness.mp3   ***** Free Guided Meditations http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22 Resources   Great Minds Quotes https://twitter.com/GreatestQuotes       MOOJI GUIDED Meditation http://bit.ly/2Ogwe9v     **Podcasts** https://boiledowlaa.org/ https://www.aagrapevine.org/podcast     12 Step Meditations  www.stepmeditation.com   These are 12 meditations, each about 12 minutes long and the content (other than the meditation instructions) are straight from the text of the big book and 12 & 12 (created by Matt H.)     Speaker Recordings   Wee Willie’s Sobriety First Media AA CD’s Literature and tapes https://www.mediafire.com/sobrietyfirst *****   The Lights are On http://xa-speakers.org/     Recovery Speakers http://recoveryspeakers.com/   Miscellaneous Sources Living Life Fully http://www.livinglifefully.com/     Twenty Four Hours a Day Since 1954, Twenty-Four Hours a Day has become a stable force in the recovery of many alcoholics throughout the world. With over nine million copies in print (the original text has been revised), this "little black book" offers daily thoughts, meditations, and prayers for living a clean and sober life. A spiritual resource with practical applications to fit our daily lives. Copyright 1975 Hazeleden Foundation   Tammy’s recovery links http://www.bluidkiti.com/forums/   AA Photo Archives http://www.rewritables.net/cybriety/aa_photos.htm   Heard at A Meeting https://twitter.com/heardinameeting   Breast Cancer Site Take a minute and click to provide free mammograms https://thebreastcancersite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/bcs/home   MEN FIGHTING CANCER TOGETHER America’s largest volunteer men’s cancer support group and advocacy national nonprofit organization. http://malecare.org/     Prayables http://prayables.org/     Daily Thought http://groups.google.com/group/TransitionsDaily   Speaker Recordings Stories of Recovery - A 12-Step Collection https://storiesofrecovery.org/index.html