Any Format

In Any Format.

I work a long-commute, swing-shift job. This doesn't provide me with as many meetings as I want (and sometimes need), but God has given me what I need -- other AA members on the Internet. Through online meetings, I've met and talked with some fantastic people. They've been there when I needed them, and I hope I've done the same for them.

Modem-to-modem or face-to-face, AA's speak the language of the heart.
AA=Allways Alive

Test your sixth sense (ESP)

Test your sixth sense (ESP)

Passing It On

Carrying the message is a gift to myself, no matter how many years of sobriety I may have accumulated. My dreams can become reality. I solidify my sobriety be sharing what I have received freely.

- Daily Reflections, p. 362

Faith

 

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
The men and women who practice these instructions will certainly get rich; and the riches they receive will be in exact proportion to the definiteness of their vision, the fixity of their purpose, the steadiness of their faith, and the depth of their gratitude.
This impotence, however, is not irreversible, since it is based mainly on our belief that we are impotent; we are a little like someone who has inherited a pair of crutches from their ancestors, and hence loses faith in their own legs. The point is to have faith in our own consciousness--it has not only legs, but hundreds of eyes and arms, and even wings." That which is impenetrable to us really exists. Behind the secrets of nature remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.
Truth is the discipline of the ascetic, the quest of the mystic, the faith of the simple, the ransom of the weak, the standard of the righteous, the doctrine of the meek, and the challenge of Nature. Together, all these constitute the Law of the universe. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
Everybody's path is basically the same. We all must learn certain attitudes while we're in the physical state. Some are quicker to accept them than others. Charity, hope, faith, love. We must all know these things & know them well. It's not just one hope and one faith and one love-so many things feed into each one of these. There are many ways to demonstrate them. Yet we've only tapped into a little!
"Prayer is all-powerful on account of the all-powerful God who acts in it. It is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Prayer by its nature is communion and union of man with God; by its action it is the reconciliation of man with God, the mother and daughter of tears, a bridge for crossing temptations, a wall of protection from afflictions, a crushing of conflicts, boundless activity, the spring of virtues, the source of spiritual gifts, invisible progress, food of the soul, the enlightening of the mind, an axe for despair, a demonstration of hope, release from sorrow, the wealth of monks."
Recipe for greatness — To bear up under loss, to fight the bitterness of defeat and the weakness of grief, to be victor over anger, to smile when tears are close, to resist evil men and base instincts, to hate hate and to love love, to go on when it would seem good to die, to seek ever after the glory and the dream, to look up with unquenchable faith in something evermore about to be, that is what any man can do, and so be great.
There is not a flower that opens, not a seed that falls into the ground, and not an ear of wheat that nods on the end of its stalk in the wind that does not preach and proclaim the greatness and the mercy of God to the whole world. If a blade of grass can grow in a concrete walk and a fig tree in the side of a mountain cliff, a human being empowered with an invincible faith can survive all odds the world can throw against his tortured soul.
Faith is not knowledge of what the mystery of the universe is, but the conviction that there is a mystery, and that it is greater than us. Faith is our direct link to universal wisdom, reminding us that we know more than we have heard or read or studied that we have only to look, listen, and trust the love and wisdom of the Universal Spirit working through us all.
Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.
There is no destination on this Road.
It is constant awakening, and re-awakening, discovery after discovery. Awakening is like waking up after a long nap and feeling like you have been sleeping your life away; caught in the mundane rituals of living. The learning process on this road is never finished.
There is no Master degree, there is no certification. There is only the point where we Cross over to the Blue Road of Spirit and look upon this life and see the beauty and magnificence of it in the Great Web; Of the lessons learned, and the Lives touched.
Sometimes don't you find things don't happen exactly as we expected but they come around anyway.... and often in better ways than we had even EVER dreamed? I think that's the power of the Great Spirit/God working in our lives. God always does seem to have a plan in our very best interest... It's not the getting there, but the journey that counts as so often is said... and the Journey is filled with the Joyful and the Sorrowful, the Glorious and the Bittersweet and the Longing
I find the notion of faith as a protection from suffering or pain particularly interesting. Faith is beyond pain & suffering. People often look at faith from their own point of view instead of The Lord's. People often pray for things that they want with some expectation of wish fulfillment. The Lord is not your fairy godmother. True faith does not depend on wish fulfillment or miracles to sustain itself.
A first grader should understand that her or his culture isn’t a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society...Cultural relativity is defensible, attractive. It’s a source of hope. It means we don’t have to continue this way if we don’t like it.
Are we not witnessing a situation where children are consciously rejecting their parents' value despite love and devotion given to them? The present situation has arisen because parents have failed to transmit a sustaining faith to their children. The basic reason for this failure is that the parents themselves lacked faith. Without faith, their love was an image not a reality, a statement of words not an expression of feelings
"A person with faith does not question its roots, for he knows that if he subjected it to the critical examination of his intellect, he would end up without faith. The same thing can be said of any feeling. You can analyze any feeling to death, but when you do that, you end up without feeling and without a meaningful life."
"The greatest attribute of God is Love. The Tree of Life is located in the very depth of our soul. The most perfect and abundant fruit that grows and ripens is Life giving Love; it is the great healing force in the world. Love never fails to meet every demand of the human heart. The principal of Love may be used to eliminate every sorrow, infirmity, in-harmony, ignorance and all mistakes of mankind. Love is; eternal, limitless, changeless, infinite. It is the pulse of the world, the heartbeat of the Universe."
When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.

Memories

Memories

My memories no longer fill me with shame and remorse. On the contrary, they fill me with gratitude and joy. My whole story is a sort of divine mystery to me. I don't know how an intelligent human being could have got into such a mess, and the more firmly established in sanity I become, the more amazed I am that I ever got out of the mess.

- Came To Believe . . ., pp. 98-99.

There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.