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   It's Christmas Day. Thank God I haven't missed it.

In homes across the world today people are gathered around brightly lit bejeweled trees to give and receive gifts and to feast on holiday delights, all to celebrate the birth of the God of Love into the world. 

In other homes the Menorah candles are lit (also in surrounding days) for the Festival of Lights -  Hanukkah - offering celebrants many traditional games, gifts and wonderful foods.

Pagans light bonfires this week to celebrate the turn of the year back toward longer sunlit days, a return to the light.

December is a month of numerous religious and cultural ceremonies for many faiths and people. Christians celebrate several other days this month honoring various saints; Buddhists meditate for enlightenment on Rohatsu (Bodhi Day); Zoroastrians honor the death of the Prophet Zarathustra; people of African ancestry celebrate their heritage and identity during Kwanzaa - and these are only a few.

The theme of the majority of these winter celebrations is birth, rebirth, light in the darkness, cultural and religious identity, enlightenment and love.

                                 Always love.

It's good to remember today that all over the world people are celebrating the return of light to the world. 

AA's theme today - and every day - is also one of  love, and in the new birth found in our rediscovered compassion and service to others. 

There are meetings around the world today, in person and on zoom, and in them there will be joy, celebration, laughter - and love. There will also be enlightenment, words of wisdom, and hope shared to keep the darkness at bay.

We remember our darkest days, too. Our December celebrations that were once filled with drunken behavior, guilt, anger, frustration, cynicism, self-loathing and regret. AA set us free by giving us a blueprint for sober living that allows us to feel and share the actual joys of this season.

AA gave us fellow travelers on our spiritual journey to encourage us, laugh with us, cry with us, and share their strength with us when we most need it.

How blessed are we???

I know of people in recovery on this holiday enjoying the company of once bitterly-estranged family members. And I know of one young man sitting right now at the side of his mother's Hospice bed, able to be there and be present for her today. 

Gifts come in many different kinds of packages.

Look around? Are we sober today? Blessed with a roof over our head? Food on the table? Family and friends nearby? If so, we are blessed indeed. So many in our world have none of these things. 

Are we able to reach out today to share our story of recovery? Will we help another suffering alcoholic find the life we have found in AA? If so, our blessings are without number.

 Love is a power, a gift from our Higher Power. But there are many in the world not feeling much love today. We who do are called to share that love with our troubled world. We in AA are blessed to be able to witness the power of Love at work in saving the lives - and more importantly, the souls - of others. We get to see dull eyes brighten, sad faces smile again, hope lift and straighten shoulders as people are restored to lives of fulfillment and true purpose.

We welcome our newcomers with that kind of power and then get to watch one more miracle unfold - moment by moment, day by day, year by year - right before our very eyes.

Some of us may be struggling today under the stress that also accompanies society this month. If so, please scroll down to Blog Number 83 for some tips on getting through the holidays sober. Most of us will. All of us can. The prayer is that all of us do.

I wish you every possible joy of this season of joy.

And I encourage you to dig even deeper in 2023 to find much more of what the program of Alcoholics Anonymous has to offer. And also to feel the love surrounding all of us today.

Pass it on.

 

 

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                         What a Healthy AA Group looks Like

A healthy, thriving, productive, supportive AA group is a beautiful thing. It is made up of an eclectic mix of people having long-middle-and-new lengths of sobriety who stand ready to welcome and help the brand-newcomer by sharing their collective experience in staying sober.

Members of a healthy AA group sponsor and have sponsors; participate in service work for their group and AA as a whole; offer educational programs about AA for themselves and for the public; know the 12 steps and 12 traditions of AA; share when asked to share, chair when asked to chair; and hang out with one another socially outside of meetings.

They also step aside without resentment when it's time for younger members to more fully participate in service positions inside the group. 

Google says there are currently more than 123,000 AA groups around the world, that AA literature has been translated into more than 100 languages, and there are more than two million people in AA recovery today. 

AA depends on each and every one of those members to do his or her fair share, because the work inside AA groups is 100 percent voluntary. 

Newcomers, of course, have to find their feet and are allowed to sit on the sidelines soaking up recovery for a bit, but once they are over their initial fears and confusion they're encouraged to do their share and to participate in 12-step work. Once they do so they become a vital part of AA.

(Note: I wasn't "encouraged" by my all-male first AA group. I was told to do a variety of service jobs in ways that left no escape hatch.) 

Being an active sober member of an active healthy AA group is exhilarating. We can't wait to get to our meetings where we participate fully. In our supportive group's atmosphere we learn by doing how to live a life of "right actions," and from them we soon start to feel good about ourselves.

As Seamus, my dear Irish friend in recovery, once told me: "Learning and teaching are players in the same game. If either one stops, everything becomes heavy and ceases to be fun. Learning is the reward for respecting life and teaching is the fruit of experiencing life."

Healthy AA groups offer a mixture of meeting programs, from personal sharing from one speaker; to topic meetings where steps, traditions, gratitude, service, sponsorship, and other related AA topics are opened for group discussion; "study meetings," where AA's literature is read and hashed over; and general discussion meetings about what's going on in each of our lives and how we're applying our program of recovery to our life situations.

Healthy AA groups offer special workshops, too, to further educate its members - and even the public - about what AA has to offer. Members invite people in the legal, teaching and medical professions to attend their "open" meetings (open to all, not just alcoholics) to learn what AA is all about and what it has to offer.

    (Note: I'd personally like to see a lot more of this done.)

A healthy group doesn't skip over the basics. The AA Preamble, How it Works, the 12 Traditions and very often The Big Book Promises are read aloud at every meeting. A favorite prayer brings  the meeting to a close.

While AA members do network among themselves and often employ one another's legal, artistic, building, plumbing, or other skills outside of meetings, we don't focus on such activities inside 

our meetings. We are not an employment agency. 

Nor are we treatment centers, social service practitioners, religious institutions, or medical advisors.

We are one-time drunks who have escaped the ravages of alcoholism who meet to share our knowledge of AA recovery with one another and to help newcomers find sobriety. 

We - each of us - have all the qualifications necessary to share our own story of suffering and escape from our disease in a manner newcomers can identify with. 

Protecting AA's primary purpose is an enormous responsibility and a healthy AA group recognizes that fact. Its members know there are millions of suffering alcoholics in need of what AA has to offer. Carrying that message to the still-suffering alcoholic remains its priority. 

Are there unhealthy AA groups?

Sure. Fortunately they are fairly uncommon. But even though they usually don't last long, they can do plenty of damage while still in operation. 

These are those groups made up of one, or sometimes a small clique, of "bleeding deacons," old-timers who offer "my way or the highway" advice to newcomers, then talk (and talk, and talk) at length when it's their turn to share, and discount (or don't even know) AA's written traditions. 

My best advice, once you're sure a group is unhealthy for you, is to go find yourself a healthy one - even if that means having to start a group yourself.

Because, as is said in the "Big, Big Book" .... "Where two or three are banded together, I will be there in the midst of them." 

And when our Higher Power has a healthy AA group of people banded together with the single purpose of helping others and themselves, miracles can - and do - happen. 

. 

 

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                                  Under the Lash of Alcoholism

We sober alcoholics can be quite amusing in our smugness. Cocky in our sobriety, overconfident of our virtues, proud, vain, arrogant and patronizing in our superiority, especially over "normal" people having no wonderful program of recovery like ours for getting the most out of life.

Don't think so? 

 Then stop thinking about what YOU are going to say when it's your turn in a meeting and listen more to what others are saying. 

You'll hear a lot of people who laugh when they say, "We are not saints," but their subtext is they think they're pretty damned close.

That wonderful book Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age has this to say about it:

We of A.A. sometimes brag of the virtues of our Fellowship. Let us remember that few of these are actually earned virtues. We were forced into them, to begin with, by the cruel lash of alcoholism. We finally adopted them, not because we wished to, but because we had to. 
Then, as time confirmed the seeming rightness of our basic principles, we began to conform because it was right to do so. Some of us, notably myself, conformed even then with reluctance. 

It takes most of us a very long time in recovery before we get to the place about which that same book states:

But at last we came to a point where we stood willing to conform gladly to the principles which experience, under the grace of God, had taught us.

Yes, we should all celebrate that AA is a wonderful program, but we need to remember we didn't rush to join it. 

And, as long as it took for any of us to arrive here, it also takes a while to not only stay sober, but to manage achieving a modicum of emotional sobriety. 

Many of us talk-the-talk wonderfully in meetings, but once we leave we don't make it a city block without flipping off someone in traffic. We continue to try to dominate others, yell at our children, mentally attack (sometimes more openly) those who don't agree with us - and otherwise act out our sainthood. 

Believe it or not, all of this is OK, at least in the beginning. As long as we stay sober, better behavior will follow as we learn to use the tools for living AA teaches us. 

It takes time, thought, prayer, meditation, desire and work for our Higher Power to excavate the person we created and turn us into the person we were designed to be.

SLOW-briety!!!

Those of us who have earned our seat in AA had to first live through some pretty painful life experiences. Our drinking years were the stuff of nightmares, a time filled with fear, worry, guilt, failure, loneliness, struggle and finally hopelessness. 

Life was a frightening maze where there seemed to be no way out other than unconsciousness - or death.

We remember that time as we celebrate our daily surrender to a Higher Power who then arrives to make us - and all things - new for us. Each new sober day is a gift, given to us so that we may enjoy our lives and help others to find joy in their lives, too.

But none of us escapes occasional temptation to give in to bad behavior, up to and including the temptation to give up and pick up our drug(s) of choice. Sometimes we even dream about giving into it. So we are wise to expect and be ready for it - in all its forms - when it arrives.

We defend against temptation by paying attention to our thoughts, correcting them when necessary (especially when we don't want to!), and asking our Higher Power to assist us in that. 

And when it comes to drinking we can never, ever, entertain the thought of it for more than the split second it occurs to us. The ethanol (drug) in booze of any kind, in beer, wine, hard liquor, in any pretty bottle or attractive fruity drink, is all poison for us. 

Conquering temptation requires that we see it clearly and turn our backs on it. 

We must also guard against dwelling upon the faults of others, which is merely a perverse form of self-satisfaction. That's because when it's "their fault," it can hardly be "our fault," can it? Our Higher Power stands ready to help us with that kind of twisted thinking, too.

 When we find ourselves struggling with any reappearing character defect(s) we can have a look at Steps Six and Seven again. Not the short form, the long form, as found in the Big Book and the 12 & 12. 

Acceptance is the key. It is always the key. Accepting who we are, how we live, and the behavior of the people around us - at home, work and in meetings - allows us to achieve a realistic humility about our lives. And a by-product of humility is contentment.

Acceptance doesn't happen overnight, either. We will have to return to it over and over again during our sober journey as we encounter new situations that call for it. But serenity - its other by-product - is soooooo worth it!

We keep on trudg'n and can relax once we know for sure that we are safe in AA and embarked on a lifetime journey of joyful discovery. There's no hurry. No one is keeping score. 

We can learn and grow at our own pace and accept that this process of building back better is going to take awhile. 

 SLOW-briety!!! 

 

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                               Merry Meet(ings) and Season Sober

Some are already tired of the current topic de jour being "How to stay sober through the holidays," but listen up anyway. All these same-topic meetings are being held for a 

reason. It's more the ice in the glass and not on the pavement that causes "slips" this 

time of year.

Holiday parties and family gatherings plus seasonal stress loom like minefields for a 

sober alcoholic - especially for those in recovery facing their first sober holiday season.

 It can feel pretty overwhelming when every other ad on TV seems filled with people hoisting glasses of "cheer" in their perfect homes with their perfect families and lovely friends all happily toasting the season.

Spoiler alert: There are NO families like that. 

Nor is the alcoholic world celebrated in those ads. None show the family drunk knocking

 over the Christmas tree, spilling the Hanukkah wine all over the spotless white tablecloth, telling inappropriate stories, snogging in a closet with another drunken guest, puking 

beside the toilet, or burning the Christmas dinner to a crisp.

Those of us who have done those things - and worse - rightfully fear doing them again. 

That's when we need to haul ass to our safe place, our meetings. They become our refuge -

 and sometimes even hiding place - until all the seasonal madness is over.

I should note there are also a small number of A.A. members who will go into the holiday season with perhaps a bit more confidence than is warranted. Confidence is a good thing, 

but it's always a good idea to be on guard against the cunning, baffling and powerful nature

 of our disease.

As it points out in the book, Living Sober, regarding the biochemical, unchangeable nature

 of our ailment:

"Alcoholism respects no ifs. It does not go away, not for a week, for a day, or even for an

 hour, leaving us nonalcoholic and able to drink again on some special occasion or for 

some extraordinary reason - not even if it is a once-in-a-lifetime celebration, or if a big

 sorrow hits us, or if it rains in Spain or the stars fall on Alabama. Alcoholism is for us unconditional, with no dispensations available at any price."

We need to remember to thank our Higher Power for Zoom meetings 24/7 around the 

world, for our local in-person meetings, our own home group, and our AA network of 

friends - all ready, willing and able to help us get through the holidays sober.

Back-to-back marathon meetings in AA clubhouses offer a warm welcome for those alone when it feels like anything but "the most wonderful time of the year." 

 AA holiday celebrations are held in big cities, small towns and even in very rural areas worldwide. The sharing and celebrations are there for any of us if we're in need - or even

 if we just want to hang out with those people who most understand us.

A lot of AA groups offer us sober fellowship of all kinds this month. There are AA dances, holiday parties, potluck dinners and other special gatherings. I've personally brought in 

many a brand new year in my local AA clubhouse and would do it again this year were

there an AA clubhouse nearby.

 We can head for a meeting anytime we need to escape from the seeming non-stop round 

of family gatherings, shopping marathons, office parties, and other places where we fear hearing those incredulous faces saying - "Surely you can have just one at CHRISTMAS?!!" 

Making our sober plan is more important than sending out cards, buying candles, or 

wrapping presents. Sober planning requires many meetings, remembering to H.A.L.T 

when we are feeling hungry, angry, lonely or tired, and for planning beforehand a way

 out of situations when we start feeling stressed. 

First and foremost, get in touch with your own personal brand of Higher Power before 

you head out to a holiday event. It's the way to renew your courage and to know, with that

 kind of backing, you will be victorious over any situation you may encounter.

If single and invited to a plus-one party, we can take along a friend in recovery. Decide 

with them on a signal and excuse for leaving beforehand should one of you start to get uncomfortable.

Family gatherings can be more tricky. One or two people there may be supportive of our sobriety, but others - especially those who drink like we did - may feel threatened by it 

and continually push us to have "just one glass."

The key here is to let people know on arrival that you have another holiday party to go to 

after this one. (No one needs to know your other gathering is an AA meeting). Then get 

the basic must-do part of the visit out of the way (exchanging gifts, eating dinners, lighting candles, whatever) before heading out as soon as possible to your "next holiday party."

Everyone knows there are many parties around the holidays, some of them on the same afternoons or evenings, so the "next holiday party" ploy works equally well for quickly escaping the often dreaded office party.

The good news is we have our A.A. family to validate, support, encourage and get us safely through the holiday season (and all other life events). With them we don't have to explain

 our discomfort at being surrounded by people drinking, with trays full of more drinks on offer. 

All the meetings about holiday hazards help get us centered for the tinsel-strewn days ahead. There will be people in them who have stayed sober through all the dangers of holidays past. They assure us, if they could do it, we can do it. 

                                      And they're right!

 

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                                           Letting God In

I arrived in AA with all my insanity intact. I had no idea who I was or what my life was supposed to look like. Recovery has been all about my staying sober while being given the tools to get those answers.

I was told right away to turn my life over to "the God of my understanding." I was so miserable and so desperate I was willing to do that, but what did that mean? It took a long old time for me to even have a concept of God take root in my head.

In earlier blogs I have outlined my search for God having taken me down many paths - from Goddess worship to Christianity and to many other concepts in between. I went to various places of worship.  I read a lot of stuff. I prayed a lot. And I tried hard to meditate, even though I was pretty crap at it for a very long time.

Alcoholics in general, and I am no exception, tend to want to know what life is all about. We want to know if there is a system of cosmic justice, and, if there really is a God, does that God truly care about us? All the spiritual books assure us of that truth. Even so, we want to KNOW for sure!

Getting that assurance is up to us. We have to do the seeking and the finding. We have to reach our own conclusions based on the results we find in our own prayers and meditative times. And we have to find it by giving AA our service to help other alcoholics find and keep sobriety.

As our Big Book states:

We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of the nations, nor do we carry the world's troubles on our shoulders. When we see a man sinking into the mire that is alcoholism, we give him first aid and place what we have at his disposal.

I've come to the conclusion I needed every bit of that exploration to find a God of my understanding, one I can hang out with, believe in, and trust that He/She is looking out for me. I have absolute faith in that God of mine today, but it sure didn't happen overnight.

What did happen was I stayed sober and I believe my willingness to keep looking for my personal God had a hand in that. That's my story and I sticking to it, but it's not everyone's story. Some in AA never find a personal God, yet they stay sober by living the principles of our program.

I take no one's inventory about these things. The winners we're supposed to hang out with in AA are those we see living lives that are joyous, happy and free. They're the ones who smile a lot and I enjoy their company. I don't care if they have a personal God or not, or if they do what their God looks like. It's none of my business anyway. Besides, I stay busy enough trying to decipher my own God's guidance for me.

Here's what prayer alone can do for us, according to an article in the AA Grapevine,

As the doubter tries the process of prayer, he should begin to add up the results. If he persists, he will almost surely find more serenity, more tolerance, less fear, and less anger.

He will acquire a quiet courage, the kind that isn't tension-ridden. He can look at "failure" and "success" for what these really are. Problems and calamity will begin to mean his instruction, instead of his destruction.

 He will feel freer and saner. The idea that he may have been hypnotizing himself by auto-suggestion will become laughable.

 His sense of purpose and of direction will increase. His anxieties will commence to fade. His physical health will be likely to improve.

Wonderful and unaccountable things will start to happen. Twisted relations in his family and on the outside will improve surprisingly.


One of the things I had to learn first was about my dark side. When we do that, when we start to see ourselves more clearly, we are then able to stop our darker impulses before they get us into trouble - again!

(As my first sponsor often advised me, "When in doubt - don't.")

My learning to be honest has been a help, too. The more honest we are with others, and with ourselves, the healthier we become.

When we first start our walk along the spiritual path we often want to just stay there, up in the spiritual treetops, where it feels safe and protected. Over time we learn, that while we can get a pink cloud ride anytime we really need one, our proper place is right here at ground zero helping other suffering alcoholics. 

As long as we keep on doing-that-doing God will be right there with us. 

I've come to believe our trying to carry out God's guidance as best we can is the secret of personal power. We do our best to follow the directions and then we leave the results to Him.

I spend a lot more time these days thinking about my Higher Power maybe because I expect to meet Him in person in the not too distant future. I'm trying to think, act and live (to the best of my very limited ability) as if we were already in one another's presence.

Today I know for sure that the God of my understanding knows my circumstances better than I do and always comes up with far more creative solutions to my problems than I can. My God often appears disguised in amazing "gifts," or as "luck" or "happenstance" or "coincidence." He knows all my needs, wants, strengths and weaknesses and, when I let Him, always takes me along a smoother path to a better outcome.

We have to remember the God who calls us into the unknown is right there traveling with us to make the way easier. Getting to know Him is our job, all the rest is up to Him. The key - as we learn in AA - is to pray for guidance, look for its arrival, and then to just keep it simple.

Can I get an Amen?

    

 

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               Carrying the message is our job! 

What does it mean to carry the message?

It means a lot more than just showing up at a meeting from time to time.

It means being ready to help the still suffering alcoholic at every opportunity - even when it's inconvenient for us. 

We accept this responsibility for three reasons:

(1) It keeps us sober. (2) It is the basic service the AA Fellowship offers others.

 (3) It will bring us joy beyond anything we have ever known.

AA is more than a bunch of principles learned from dusty books. We are a society of

action. We carry the message so that we may ourselves grow and change - and we

carry the message so that others might live.

We do what it takes - whatever it takes - to help those still suffering from our cunning,

baffling and powerful disease.

. We go with more seasoned members on 12-Step Calls; 

. We work the steps and share the steps with others in sponsorship;

. We meet our AA friends for coffee when they need us; 

. We make our financial contributions at meetings or online; 

. We have a home group and we're then whenever they meet; 

. We do service in our home group - from making the tea or coffee to holding office;

 . We help with group workshops and local AA conventions; 

. We Do-the-Doing!

All the above - and much more - make up AA's Third Legacy of Service. 

On page 77 in our Big Book is states: 

Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us.

And, of course, our primary purpose is to stay sober

and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

Those of us who are business or social minded can serve at AA's highest levels, including in our

intergroup offices; doing phone service to connect troubled drinkers with information

about AA; carrying our message into schools and prisons; working on AA committees;

and serving as delegates and trustees.

Our opportunities to be of service to AA  are limitless.

We can invite our doctor and nurses to our open meetings so they can see AA in action

first hand; we can leave AA brochures at our local clinic;

we can tell our medical friends we are a resource and will be happy to share our

experience, strength and hope with any of their patients having a problem with alcohol.

We can talk with our children about addiction. What it is and how it often shows up in

families. We can let them know there will be strong societal pressure from their peers

to drink, but they don't have to drink if they choose not to. We can let them know that

alcohol is one of the five leading causes of death in young people. 

And we can accept that all our information might not make a damned bit of difference in the choices our children later make regarding drinking. But at least they will have good

information and they will know that AA is in place for anyone who needs it at any time.

At AA's International Convention in St. Louis, Missouri in 1955 the members saw a banner overhead carrying a new symbol for AA - a circle enclosed in a triangle.

The circle represented AA as a worldwide fellowship and the three sides of the triangle represented Recovery, Unity, and Service - our three legacies.

(It is also interesting to know our symbol has elsewhere been used since antiquity as a

means of warding off evil spirits.)

My journey in AA has been one of service because, like it or not, I was put to work at my very first meeting when asked to put AA brochures and ashtrays (usual in those days) on all

the tables in the room.

Much later in my recovery I amused my Higher Power by asking to be shown my real

purpose in life. The reply was: "Help the still suffering alcoholic."

My ongoing response to that was, "Yeah, yeah, I get all that, but what is my real purpose

in life?"

 

HP's reply remained the same until finally the fog lifted and I realized my primary purpose

in life is truly to help others suffering from alcoholism. To do so requires me to live a life

based on AA's principles (to the best of my ability) in order to be fit for purpose for that task.

Alcoholics have been carrying our message to still suffering alcoholics for almost 90 years.

I'm nearly 80 years old myself and know first hand that older members of my own family

died of our disease because there was no AA around to help them recover. 

I'm fairly certain that was probably also true within your own family around the time of your grandparents, great-grandparents or great-great grandparents. 

I share that thought because in the great scheme of things in world history, AA hasn't been

with us all that long.

 Consider where YOU would be right now without it! 

Now consider what you can do for AA right now - TODAY. 

 

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    "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps ... "

The Spiritual Experience, or Spiritual Awakening, is said in our literature to be critical to our ongoing sobriety. So how do I know if my spiritual experience is real? The short answer is: Are you sober today? It's real.

A spiritual Experience is basically a radical change in our life direction via a connection to a power greater than ourselves. It can be sudden - (1) as was the case with AA's co-founder Bill W. - or (2) it can take place over time, one day at a time, as we put spiritual ideas into practice. 

Most spiritual experiences in AA (and probably elsewhere) are of the type 2 variety, a combination of a slow awakening, but one having clear guidepost experiences along the way.

We see it in newcomers when they suddenly start to see the wonders of nature all around them and when they take real delight in helping a fellow member of the fellowship. We often don't immediately see spiritual growth happening in ourselves, but we can see it happening in others around us in the program.

 
One Big Book story illustrates that perfectly:

     Yet I had a spiritual experience the night I called A.A., though I didn't realize it until later. Two angels came, carrying a real message of hope, and told me about A.A. My sponsor laughed when I denied that I had prayed for help. I told him that the only time I had mentioned God was when, in my despair at being unable to get either drunk or sober, I had cried out, 'God! What am I going to do?'
    He replied, 'I believe that prayer was a pretty good one for a first one from an atheist. It got an answer, too . . .

A few of the signs someone is experiencing spiritual growth is they start having an increased empathy with others, while becomes more intuitive about themselves and the events happening around them. 

("We will intuitively know.")

They feel a stronger connection with nature and realize that all life is sacred, not just human life. 

They are uncomfortable around negative people or those behaving badly. 

Spirit-guided people live in the moment and generally bring peace to those around them.

The effects of a spiritual experience are long-lasting and ever-evolving. Critics of Bill W.'s immediate life-changing awakening suggested he had hallucinated God's presence, but the results of his experience were both long-lasting and world-changing. Those who hallucinate simply don't reap those kinds of lasting benefits!

Dr. Bob, on the other hand, suffered strong cravings for alcohol for a long time in his recovery. He only found relief through helping others which probably helped with that rapid growth of Akron's AA Group Number One.

In an early letter between AA's founders, one wrote: 

Though it may seem a paradox, we must believe in spiritual forces which we cannot see more than in material things which we can see, if we are going to truly live. In the last analysis, the universe consists more of thought or mathematical formulas than it does of matter as we understand it. Between one human being and another only spiritual forces will suffice to keep them in harmony. These spiritual forces we know, because we can see their results although we cannot see them. A changed life - a new personality - results from the power of unseen spiritual forces working in us and through us.

I once heard a speaker give four reasons that people change for the better, but he was talking about non-alcoholics so only one of his reasons applied to us -

 "People change when they hurt enough and they have to."

Even then many AA members seem content to achieve sobriety while essentially not seeking the true spiritual experience that changes them into entirely different people. We've all met them in the rooms, old timers who share the same story every time. They talk a lot about their drinking days, but not a lot about how they've stayed sober or what's going on in their life right now. One is always left wondering who they really are. What I know for sure is I don't want what they have. 

I was once envious of Bill W.'s immediate spiritual transformation, but the Big Book promised me I could have one of my own no matter how long it took, as long as I stayed sober and kept trying. 

I stayed sober and I kept trying, but I will admit it took a long old time before I understood even the basics of God's will for me. ("Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.")

We - WE - are God's worker bees, both in AA and in society.  Any spiritual power we may manifest is God in action. We don't change others, but God working through us can bring change in the lives of others. 

AA gives us a tool kit for living so that we can become God's "tool kit." 

Our founders understood this, and they understood their (our) limitations. As Bill W. wrote in a letter in 1967: 

Day by day, we try to move a little toward God's perfection. So we need not be consumed by maudlin guilt for failure to achieve His likeness and image by Thursday next. Progress is our aim, and His perfection is the beacon, light-years away, that draws us on. 

Well all this might sound very uplifting, but where's the fun in it? Is there any?

Look around you in the rooms. Look for the people working a good program and reaping its rewards. Have you noticed they smile a lot? That they seem to find the fun in everything they do? Spiritual people tend to be joyful people.

As the Rabbi Rebbe Nachman noted, Joy is the highest expression of love. Joy is not incidental to the spiritual quest. It is vital.

And the spiritual guru whose writings inspired AA's founders (and AA members ever since), Emmet Fox, wrote this about smiling: 

A smile affects your whole body from the skin right in to the skeleton, including all blood vessels, nerves, and muscles. It affects the functioning of every organ. It influences every gland. Even one smile often relaxes a number of muscles, and when the thing becomes a habit you can easily see how the effect will mount up. Last year's smiles are paying you dividends today.

The effect of a smile on other people is no less remarkable. It disarms suspicion, melts away fear and anger and brings forth the best in the other person - which best he immediately proceeds to give back to you. A smile is to personal contacts what oil is to machinery, and no intelligent engineer ever neglects lubrication.

Spiritual seekers also tend to have a lot of gratitude for their lives and their life lessons. They pray for others and they meditate to discover the will of their Higher Power for themselves. When we pray it changes our attitude toward God. When we meditate we feel God's presence and know that all is well. 

When we stop being grateful our negativity stops the flow of good into our lives. 

AA's 12 & 12 book has a lot to say about the benefits of prayer and meditation, including this: 

Meditation is something which can always be further developed. It has no boundaries, either of width or height. Aided by such instruction and example as we can find, it is essentially an individual adventure, something which each one of us works out in his own way. 

Daily prayer and meditation, laughter, friendship, meetings and all the other things that make up our doing-the-doing of AA bring us to the discovery of our own true wonderful inner self. From them we gain strength and experience a sense of well-being. We become open to all that life has to offer and we become filled with gratitude at knowing God is doing for us all those things which we would otherwise be unable to do for ourselves.

My first waking thought before becoming an active and contributing member of Alcoholics Anonymous was not I arise, O God, to do Thy will. My thoughts then were frantic with worry about just getting through another day of a life on a toboggan to hell. 

But one sober day at a time, using the tools of recovery, that morning prayer has become my mantra to a happy fulfilled life where laughter and miracles are the soundtrack. 

If AA could do that for me, a one time fear-filled miserable drunk woman, it can do it for you, too. Just follow the instructions. AA is your shortcut to your spiritual awakening.

And don't forget to smile.