5
“A Lifetime Supply”
KATHMANDU, JULY 1995
“If I simply let go of a character defect—release it—my Higher Power will replace it with a character asset. As I release anger, I find that I am friendlier. As I release hate, I become more loving. As I release fear, I become more secure.”
From Beginners’ Book
FEBRUARY 6
“AA Communication Can Cross All Boundaries”
AA CO-FOUNDER, BILL W., OCTOBER 1959
“Everyone must agree that we AAs are unbelievably fortunate people; fortunate that we have suffered so much; fortunate that we can know, understand and love each other so supremely well. ... Indeed most of us are well aware that these are rare gifts which have their true origin in our kinship born of a common suffering and a common deliverance by the Grace of God.”
From The Language of the Heart
FEBRUARY 7
“AA’s Steps Lead to—Spiritual Awakening”
HANKINS, NEW YORK, MAY 1967
“I am learning, when looking for signs of spiritual awakening in myself, to look, not for bright lights or emotional upheavals ... but for sobriety, stability, responsibility, meaning, satisfaction, joy. These are the marks of the beginning of spiritual awakening.”
From Spiritual Awakenings
FEBRUARY 8
“Circles of Sobriety”
CHESTERTOWN, NEW YORK, JANUARY 2006
“It’s important to monitor my thinking, to be conscious of what thoughts I’m hugging to my heart, inviting to stay in my mind, encouraging to hang around my head.”
From Beginners’ Book
FEBRUARY 9
“Toward Reality”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, APRIL 1980
“The beginning of maturing for me was becoming willing to try to face the realities of my own life, a day at a time, and letting go of my childhood fantasies of living happily ever after in a perfect world made up of perfect people.”
From Spiritual Awakenings
FEBRUARY 10
“Patience”
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, JUNE 1980
“Not until I became aware that God’s delay is not necessarily God’s denial of prayer, was I willing to let a Power greater than myself determine how and when I was to receive the things I truly needed, rather than the things for which I howled.”
From Spiritual Awakenings
FEBRUARY 11
“Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous”
AA CO-FOUNDER, BILL W., JANUARY 1955
“The temporary or seeming good can often be the deadly enemy of the permanent best.”
From The Language of the Heart
FEBRUARY 12
“The Hoper”
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, APRIL 1990
“Hope is tremendous progress for someone who once was ‘hopeless.’”
From AA Grapevine
FEBRUARY 13
“How Is My Now?”
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, AUGUST 2001
“I borrowed others’ faith for a long time, and now I’m beginning to get a bit of my own.”
From Beginners’ Book
FEBRUARY 14
“The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety”
AA CO-FOUNDER, BILL W., JANUARY 1958
“My stability came out of trying to give, not out of demanding that I receive.”
From The Language of the Heart
FEBRUARY 15
“Tolerance Is Important”
TUSCOLA, ILLINOIS, MAY 1950
“Through our failures and trials we get the opportunity to soundly test our merits and virtues.”
From AA Grapevine
FEBRUARY 16
“Stepping into the Sunlight”
LA CANADA, CALIFORNIA, NOVEMBER 1989
“Whereas I used to function at two speeds—fast and stopped—a daily fix of meditation averages those two extremes out to a more gentle and efficient cruise rate.”