right in.”
From Spiritual Awakenings
JANUARY 2
“Slow Learner”
MIAMI, FLORIDA, MARCH 1962
“All I had to do was ask myself a simple question: ‘Am I or am I not powerless over alcohol?’ I didn’t have to compare myself or my experience with anyone, just answer a simple question.”
From Step By Step
JANUARY 3
“The Spiritual Angle of AA”
REV. SAMUEL M. SHOEMAKER
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, OCTOBER 1955
“It is when you let truth go into action, and hurl your life after your held conception of truth, that things start to happen.”
From AA Grapevine
JANUARY 4
“A Candle of Hope”
CLEVELAND, OHIO, APRIL 1991
“The road to spiritual and emotional recovery ... has taken diverse routes—lots of meetings, readings, talks with AA members, discussion groups, psychotherapy, and the beginning of sharing. The keys seemed to be listening and sharing—the spirit at work.”
From Spiritual Awakenings
JANUARY 5
“What a Spiritual Awakening Means to Me”
JACKSON HEIGHTS, NEW YORK, APRIL 1956
“Ever fresh in my heart is a song of thanksgiving for my expanding sobriety, as the opening door to timeless truth.”
From Spiritual Awakenings
JANUARY 6
“Eye of the Hurricane”
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA, DECEMBER 1992
“AA is spiritual, is the eye of the hurricane, is my refuge and my comfort. ... Thanks to AA for making a place for broken hearts and wounded souls.”
From Spiritual Awakenings
JANUARY 7
“Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous”
AA CO-FOUNDER, BILL W., JANUARY 1955
“We now fully realize that 100 percent personal anonymity before the public is just as vital to the life of AA as 100 percent sobriety is to the life of each and every member.”
From The Language of the Heart
JANUARY 8
“Attitude Adjustment”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, JANUARY 2006
“Not picking up a drink creates infinite possibilities for me. ... Who knows? This could be the greatest day of my life.”
From Beginners’ Book
JANUARY 9
“Turning On the Power”
RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS, AUGUST 1977
“The Steps will speak to my condition wherever I am in sobriety.”
From Spiritual Awakenings
JANUARY 10
“AA and the Religious Turnoff”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 1977
“I realized that it is possible to believe in a Higher Power, in the efficacy of prayer and meditation, in making a conscious contact with a Higher Power as those concepts, privately understood—or not understood—are suggested in AA, without the loss of one iota of my precious identity.”
From Spiritual Awakenings
JANUARY 11
“Let’s Keep It Simple—But How?”
AA CO-FOUNDER, BILL W., JULY 1960
“We organize our principles merely so that they can be better understood, and we continue so to organize our services that AA’s life-blood can be transfused into those who must otherwise die. That is the all-in-all of AA’s ‘organization.’ There can never be any more than this.”
From The Language of the Heart
JANUARY 12
“The Spiritual Kind of Thirst”
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, AUGUST 1965
“I don’t believe I drank to get drunk, but always to seek in the next drink that peace for which a sick soul seems to thirst.”
From Spiritual Awakenings
JANUARY 13
“Unity Seldom Means That We All Agree”
SPRINGVILLE, UTAH, JANUARY 1998