Daily Reflections reading April
30th
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.
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My thoughts on
April 30th Reading
“The Legacy of Recovery”
The steps are a set of principles spiritual in their nature, if practiced as a way of life can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole. The use of AA principles to changing circumstances in peoples live, made them send letters to Bill W asking for his last word on AA policy on all kinds of matters
In answering Bill would fall back upon the basic principles of AA 's three Legacies, Unity, Service, and recovery, tempered by wisdom humor, perspective, and regard for the feelings of others in1968 when a well-meaning AA wrote to Bill
With deep concern, about an influx of youthful hippies, or flower children to local AA groups along with their distinctive manner of dress, Sexual behaviors, and other unorthodox behavior, including the use of drugs
The writer feared this particular invasion might be a very real threat to our wonderful God-given program, Bill's reply was typical of his use of AA principles to meet new challenges, he wrote back about the hippie problem, so-called, was very interesting to him
But he doubt that we need to be alarmed about this situation, because there have been in the past precedents all sorts of outfits, who have tried to move in on us, including communists and heroin addicts
Prohibitionists and do-gooders of other persuasions, nearly all of these people who happened to have an individual problem with alcohol, not only failed to change AA but in the long run AA changed them
Bill said I have a number of them among my closest friends today, they are some of the best AA 's, I know you may also have some people who are not alcoholics but are just addicts, great many AA ‘s have taken pity on these people
Some have actually tried to make them full-fledged AA 's, of course their identification with alcoholics is no good at all, AA ‘s however encourage these sponsors to bring addicts to open meetings just as they would any other interested people, in the end these addicts usually gravitate to other forms of therapy
They are not received on the platform, in open meetings, unless they have an alcohol problem and closed meetings are of course denied them, unfortunately many groups still deny them in closed and open meetings even when they are also alcoholics, whose only requirement is to have a desire to stop drinking
This is a major break down in our Unity to serve other alcoholics, in their quest for recovery where are they to go, would NA say they don't belong because of the alcohol catch 22, Unity and service means we refuse nobody the chance to have the same benefits of recover as we had
When we came into the halls of AA we need to always be here for them, Bill went on to say there has occurred lately a new development centering upon hippies, who have LSD or marijuana troubles, not so much stronger stuff, LSD was found to be stronger stuff
Many of these kids appear to be alcoholics also, they are flocking into AA often with excellent results, four of these kids visited Bills office, he saw one young gal prancing down the hall hair flying, in a mini-skirt, wearing love beads, and the works, he thought Holy smokes what now
She told him she was the oldest member of the young people's group in her area, age twenty-two they had kids as young as sixteen, Bill was curious and took the whole party out to lunch, well they were absolutely wonderful, they talked just about as good a kind of AA as I've seen anywhere
I think all of them said they had had some kind of drug problem, but had kicked that too when they first came around, they had insisted on their own ideas of AA but in the end, they found AA good enough as it was, they needed changing not the program
Bill said as younger people come into AA we shall have to put up with some unconventional nonsense, with patience and good humor, let's hope, but it should be well worth the attempt and if
various hippie addicts want to form their own sort of fellowship along AA lines
By all means let us encourage them, we need deny them only the AA name and assure them that the rest of our program is theirs for the taking, using any part or all of it, Bill ended by saying for these reasons I feel hopeful, not a bit scared by this trend, of course I'm no prophet, I may be mistaken, so please keep me posted
Bill said this is a highly interesting and perhaps significant development, I certainly do not think it ought to be fought, it ought to be encouraged, in what we already know to be workable channels to those now in its fold AA has made the difference between misery and sobriety
Often the difference between life and death, AA can mean just as much to uncounted alcoholics not yet reached, no society of men and women ever had a more urgent need for continuous effective unity, the hand of AA should always be there to insure our own recovery
We alcoholics see that we must work together and hang together, else most of us will finally die alone, this is how AA can best function and how we in AA best stay whole so we do survive as individuals and as a fellowship
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