Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 12
"THE ROOT OF OUR TROUBLES"
Selfishness—self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root
of our troubles.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 62
How amazing the revelation that the world, and everyone
in it, can get along just fine with or without me. What a
relief to know that people, places and things will be
perfectly okay without my control and direction. And how
wordlessly wonderful to come to believe that a power
greater than me exists separate and apart from myself. I
believe that the feeling of separation I experience between
me and God will one day vanish. In the meantime, faith
must serve as the pathway to the center of my life.

Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 11
THE LIMITS OF SELF-RELIANCE
We asked ourselves why we had them [fears]. Wasn't it
because self-reliance failed us?
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 68
All of my character defects separate me from God's will.
When I ignore my association with Him I face the world
and my alcoholism alone and must depend on self-reliance.
I have never found security and happiness through self-will
and the only result is a life of fear and discontent. God
provides the path back to Him and to His gift of serenity
and comfort. First, however, I must be willing to acknowledge
my fears and understand their source and power
over me. I frequently ask God to help me understand how I
separate myself from Him.

Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 10
I DON'T RUN THE SHOW
When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed
crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly
face the proposition that either God is everything or else
He is nothing. God either is, or He isn't What was our
choice to be?
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 53
Today my choice is God. He is everything. For this I am
truly grateful. When I think I am running the show I am
blocking God from my life. I pray I can remember this
when I allow myself to get caught up into self. The most
important thing is that today I am willing to grow along
spiritual lines, and that God is everything. When I was
trying to quit drinking on my own, it never worked; with
God and A.A., it is working. This seems to be a simple
thought for a complicated alcoholic.

Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 9
GETTING THE "SPIRITUAL ANGLE"
How often do we sit in AA meetings and hear the speaker
declare, "But I haven't yet got the spiritual angle." Prior to
this statement, he had described a miracle of
transformation which had occurred in him—not only his
release from alcohol, but a complete change in his whole
attitude toward life and the living of it It is apparent to
nearly everyone else present that he has received a great
gift; " . . . except that he doesn't seem to know it yet!"
We well know that this questioning individual will tell us six
months or a year hence that he has found faith in God.
LANGUAGE OF THE HEART, p. 275
A spiritual experience can be the realization that a life
which once seemed empty and devoid of meaning is now
joyous and full. In my life today, daily prayer and
meditation, coupled with living the Twelve Steps, has
brought about an inner peace and feeling of belonging
which was missing when I was drinking.

Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 8
CONVINCING "MR. HYDE"
Even then, as we hew away, peace and joy will still elude
us. That's the place so many of us A. A. oldsters have come
to. And it's a hell of a spot, literally. How shall our
unconscious—from which so many of our fears,
compulsions and phony aspirations still stream —be
brought into line with what we actually believe, know and
want! How to convince our dumb, raging and hidden "Mr.
Hyde" becomes our main task.
THE BEST OF BILL, pp. 42-43
Regular attendance at meetings, serving and helping others
is the recipe that many have tried and found to be
successful. Whenever I stray from these basic principles,
my old habits resurface and my old self also comes back
with all its fears and defects. The ultimate goal of each A.A.
member is permanent sobriety, achieved One Day at a
Time.

Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 7
A PATH TO FAITH
True humility and an open mind can lead us to faith, and
every A.A. meeting is an assurance that God will restore us
to sanity if we rightly relate ourselves to Him.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 33
My last drunk had landed me in the hospital, totally broken.
It was then that I was able to see my past float in front of
me. I realized that, through drinking, I had lived every
nightmare I had ever had. My own self-will and obsession
to drink had driven me into a dark pit of hallucinations,
blackouts and despair. Finally beaten, I asked for God's
help. His presence told me to believe. My obsession for
alcohol was taken away and my paranoia has since been
lifted. I am no longer afraid. I know my life is healthy and
sane.

Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 6
A RALLYING POINT
Therefore, Step Two is the rallying point for all of us.
Whether agnostic, atheist, or former believer, we can stand
together on this Step.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 33
I feel that A.A. is a God-inspired program and that God is
at every A.A. meeting. I see, believe, and have come to
know that A.A. works, because I have stayed sober today. I
am turning my life over to A.A. and to God by going to an
A.A. meeting. If God is in my heart and everyone else's,
then I am a small part of a whole and I am not unique. If
God is in my heart and He speaks to me through other
people, then I must be a channel of God to other people. I
should seek to do His will by living spiritual principles and
my reward will be sanity and emotional sobriety.

Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 5
A GLORIOUS RELEASE
"The minute I stopped arguing, I could begin to see and
feel Right there, Step Two gently and very gradually began
to infiltrate my life. I can't say upon what occasion or upon
what day I came to believe in a Power greater than myself,
but I certainly have that belief now. To acquire it, I had
only to stop fighting and practice the rest of A.A. 's program
as enthusiastically as I could."
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 27
After years of indulging in a "self-will run riot," Step Two
became for me a glorious release from being all alone.
Nothing is so painful or insurmountable in my journey
now. Someone is always there to share life's burdens with
me. Step Two became a reinforcement with God, and I
now realize that my insanity and ego were curiously linked.
To rid myself of the former, I must give up the latter to one
with far broader shoulders than my own.

Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 4
WHEN FAITH IS MISSING
Sometimes A.A. comes harder to those who have lost or
rejected faith than to those who never had any faith at all,
for they think they have tried faith and found it wanting.
They have tried the way of faith and the way of no faith.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 28
I was so sure God had failed me that I became ultimately
defiant, though I knew better, and plunged into a final
drinking binge. My faith turned bitter and that was no
coincidence. Those who once had great faith hit bottom
harder. It took time to rekindle my faith, though I came to
A.A. I was grateful intellectually to have survived such a
great fall, but my heart felt callous. Still, I stuck with the
A.A. program; the alternatives were too bleak! I kept
coming back and gradually my faith was resurrected.

Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 3
FILLING THE VOID
We needed to ask ourselves but one short question. "Do I
now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a
Power greater than myself?" As soon as a man can say that
he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically
assure him that he is on his way.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 47
I was always fascinated with the study of scientific
principles. I was emotionally and physically distant from
people while I pursued Absolute Knowledge. God and
spirituality were meaningless academic exercises. I was a
modern man of science, knowledge was my Higher Power.
Given the right set of equations, life was merely another
problem to solve. Yet my inner self was dying from my
outer man's solution to life's problems and the solution was
alcohol. In spite of my intelligence, alcohol became my
Higher Power. It was through the unconditional love which
emanated from A.A. people and meetings that I was able to
discard alcohol as my Higher Power. The great void was
filled. I was no longer lonely and apart from life. I had
found a true power greater than myself, I had found God's
love. There is only one equation which really matters to me
now: God is in A.A.

Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 2
RESCUED BY SURRENDERING
Characteristic of the so-called typical alcoholic is a
narcissistic egocentric core, dominated by feelings of
omnipotence, intent on maintaining at all costs its inner
integrity. . . . Inwardly the alcoholic brooks no control from
man or God He, the alcoholic, is and must be the master of
his destiny. He will fight to the end to preserve that
position.
A.A. COMES OF AGE, p. 311
The great mystery is: "Why do some of us die alcoholic
deaths, fighting to preserve the 'independence' of our ego,
while others seem to sober up effortlessly in A.A.?" Help
from a Higher Power, the gift of sobriety, came to me when
an otherwise unexplained desire to stop drinking coincided
with my willingness to accept the suggestions of the men
and women of A.A. I had to surrender, for only by reaching
out to God and my fellows could I be rescued.

Daily Reflection

FEBRUARY 1
GOAL: SANITY
". . . Step Two gently and very gradually began to infiltrate
my life. I can't say upon what occasion or upon what day I
came to believe in a Power greater than myself, but I
certainly have that belief now."
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 27
"Came to believe!" I gave lip service to my belief when I
felt like it or when I thought it would look good. I didn't
really trust God. I didn't believe He cared for me. I kept
trying to change things I couldn't change. Gradually, in
disgust, I began to turn it all over, saying: "You're so
omnipotent, you take care of it." He did. I began to receive
answers to my deepest problems, sometimes at the most
unusual times: driving to work, eating lunch, or when I was
sound asleep. I realized that I hadn't thought of those
solutions—a Power greater than myself had given them to
me. I came to believe.