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| 1. | What's On Your Mind? "The meeting after the meeting" used to be a regular part of my evenings in early sobriety, but the practice seems to have died out in my area. I sometimes go out to breakfast after the Saturday morning Moss Bay Group's meeting but the evening groups I go to seem to have most folks showing up late and leaving early to make up for it. My sponsor told me that meetings weren't necessary to sobriety. There's a ton of folks who stay sober without them, but contact with another alcoholic is vital. "Meetings," he said, "introduce you to the folks who'll keep you sober. The real work of AA happens one-on-one." Well, there's a restaurant not far from my ... | September 2000 | |
| 2. | Going Backwards I have been sober for six years, but lately I have been feeling like I did when I first sobered up. I have been behaving as I did earlier in my recovery. I react before thinking. Please advise. I hate being this way. | October 2000 | |
| 3. | Complacency When I was sober @ three years, I noticed I had a second, concurrent disease, i.e., "halo-itus." It's a condition that tends to peak in the third or fourth year of sobriety. Complacency literally means "pleasing to oneself." That was a dominant feeling on those innumerable days I was getting drunk in the 1980s. When I start feeling self-satisfied today in sobriety, I try to identify that feeling and practice the opposite. The opposite is humility, a/k/a God-seeking. The God-seeking will inevitably drive out the self-seeking. I just need to try to help others--and not get caught! Carry the message at all times--if necessary, use words. | December 2000 | |
| 4. | How Do You Stay Teachable? When one of the guys I sponsor took his six-month chip, he asked me when I thought he'd be ready to work with someone else. I responded, "You see that guy over there? He came in sixty days after you. You have been (unwittingly) working with him by showing up here every week and sharing how sober principles have changed your life." The opportunities to give back what this program has given are present every minute of every day, whether we're dealing directly with another alcoholic or not. Of course, I need to go to the missions and hospitals and jails. That keeps me sober! But I try to remain conscious that my actions outside AA are watched by ... | April 2001 | |
| 5. | Traditions, Traditions! Through the Twelve Traditions, I have learned how to listen, when to speak up, and when to disagree in a quiet way. They have helped this quick-tempered person to slow down and get another day of sobriety. All of the Traditions are gifts for a good life. | September 2001 | |
| 6. | How it works I've been sober only a month and have gone to thirty-five meetings, and I suddenly feel trapped. When I say to my groups that I only want to stay sober and attend meetings, being unwilling as yet to make any further commitment, one or two old-timers who've been sober for a thousand years always approach me as if I were an out-of-control toddler and begin sternly preaching the Twelve Steps. I know that my reluctance to take advice and my resentment of such persons are typical of beginners like me, but that doesn't seem to help. I feel quite desperate and don't want to run away, because I doubt that I can remain sober without AA, and I cannot ... | January 2002 | |
| 7. | Heard at Meetings (by The i-Say forum (www.aagrapevine.or) The happiest moments in my life are those when I'm not thinking about myself. | March 2002 | |
| 8. | How I Got Hooked (by Robbie) When I was new to our Fellowship, I wasn't able to stay seated for an entire one-hour meeting. My solution was to make many trips to the bathroom. My sponsor's solution was, "Since you are going to be up anyway, why don't you pour coffee for the meeting?" I did. With still-shaking hands and a knack for spilling more than landed in the cup, I poured coffee for the Saturday Women's Meeting. No one said a word about the coffee on her shoes or her pants. Each lady simply said, "Thank you." They knew how much I needed that job and they supported me through their smiles and kind looks. It was my very first service job, and I ... | May 2002 | |
| 9. | The Nature Of Success A year ago today I posted a message about the problem of staying sober while working in a bar. Although other folks think that it's different from trying to get sober anyplace else, it's not. I had tried to get sober a bunch of times using all my willpower. Guess what? That willpower stuff didn't work a bit! It wasn't until I completely surrendered and asked a God I never knew existed to help me that I got sober. The obsession left me, and I discovered a life of such immense joy. | January 2003 | |
| 10. | AA Online Accessing the Digital Archive Starting July 1, 2004, subscribers to the Digital Archive will log in to access the archive. As registered subscribers, they will be able to get stories from the entire archive. During the month of June, however, the archive will be open to all, free. After June, non-subscribers to the archive will still be able to read or download Story of the Day and a joke in the Grab Bag, but they will no longer have access to the full archive. | June 2004 | |
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