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“We should question no one's transformation -- whether it be sudden or gradual. Nor should we demand anyone's special type for ourselves, because our own experience suggests that we are apt to receive whatever may be the most useful for our needs.”

“If I am truly going to grow along spiritual lines, I’m going to have to walk with the truest spirit of human compassion for others that I can muster in all of my affairs.”

“Sobriety for me was the complete life change that occurred after I fully invested myself in the AA program.”

Schaumburg, Ill., March 2006, “Living Large,”, AA Grapevine

“Change happens in sobriety and, big or small, I try to see where God wants me to fit in each day.”

“I don't know a whole lot about this sobriety thing. But what I do know is that I am deeply grateful. Grateful to Bill W. and Doctor Bob for beginning this thing and laying it all down for me in twelve, easy-to-follow Steps; grateful to the God of my understanding; grateful for my fellows with whom I share this journey; and grateful for my sponsor and my friends.”

“For the most part, situations requiring utter honesty are clear-cut, and readily recognizable. We simply have to face up to them, our fear and pride regardless. Failing to do this, we shall be sure to suffer those ever-mounting conflicts which can only be resolved by plain honesty.”

“Putting my ego aside to ask others for help still doesn’t come naturally, so I’ve made it a part of my Tenth Step inventory, asking, ‘Have I failed to ask for help when I needed it today?’”

“Nowhere in the AA literature does it say that this is a selfish program. It does, however, talk about becoming selfless.”

“Anger in all its forms is ugly. I see the absence of anger as one form of grace.”

“Our personal ambitions will have to be set aside every time they conflict with the safety or the effectiveness of our Fellowship ... We must sometimes love our Society more than ourselves.”

“I recalled the part of chapter five that says ‘no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.’ And that God could and would, if he were sought. This became my answer.

“I sent God into those dark places within my subconscious. It was there I seemed to store painful memories, those of my childhood in an alcoholic home, and those of my own alcoholism and drug abuse ‘adventures.’ I asked my Higher Power to take his healing light into those painful areas of my subconscious that seemed to be carefully and deeply buried.”

“Trying to understand God's miracles and why he performs them, at least for this alcoholic, is something better left to God. I need only say ‘Thank you.’”

“Every sponsor is necessarily a leader. The stakes are huge. A human life, and usually the happiness of a whole family, hangs in the balance. What the sponsor does and says, how well he estimates the reactions of his prospects, how well he times and makes his presentation, how well he handles criticisms and how well he leads his prospect on by personal spiritual example -- well, these attributes of leadership can make all the difference, often the difference between life and death.”

“A spiritual awakening is easy: any time any alcoholic anywhere understands any part of the truth, that’s a spiritual awakening.”