Heart Beat Daily Reflections reading October 25th
A.A.’s Heartbeat
Without
unity, the heart of A.A. would cease to beat; . . .. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 125
Without
unity I would be unable to recover in A.A. on a daily basis. By practicing unity
within my group, with other A.A. members and at all levels of this great
Fellowship, I receive a pronounced feeling of knowing that I am a part of a
miracle that was divinely inspired. The ability of Bill W. and Dr. Bob, working
together and passing it on to other members, tells me that to give it away is
to keep it. Unity is oneness and yet the whole Fellowship is for all of us.
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My thoughts on October 25th Reading
The Three Legacy of Recovery, Unity, Service, Recovery, they
are like the legs of a three legged stool tank anyone away and the stool will
tip over we need all three to survive in our program
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 lives made them send letters to Bill W asking for his last word on a
matter of AA policy on all kinds of matters, in answering Bill would fall back
upon the basic principles of AA 's Three Legacies of Unity, Service, and
Recovery
Tempered by wisdom, humor, perspective, and regard for the
feelings of others, in 1968 when a well-meaning AA wrote to Bill in 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 precedents out of the past all sorts of
outfits 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 had changed them
Bill said I have a number of them among my closest friends
today, they are among the best AA 's I know you, may also have some people who
are not alcoholics but are just addicts, a great many AA‘s have taken pity on
these people and 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 and 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 smoke 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
change 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
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 and
not a bit scared by this, 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 effectiveness and permanent unity the hand of AA should always be
there to insure our own recovery, we alcoholics see that we must work together,
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
God Bless you Al M
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suggestions or comments
