Just For Today

[caressa]

From: "Yesterday’s Baggage"

For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching becomes a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong.

Twelve and Twelve, page 88



I have more than enough to handle today, without dragging
along yesterday's baggage too. I must balance today's books, if I am to have a chance tomorrow. So I ask myself if I have erred and how I can avoid repeating that particular behavior. Did I hurt anyone, did I help anyone, and why? Some of today is bound to spill over into tomorrow, but most of it need not if I make an honest daily inventory.

Daily Reflections, page 287

Had lots of baggage when I got here and took a long time to let it go. It helped when I was told that I didn't get sick overnight so I couldn't expect a quick fix and get better in a few months. Since I was have been using people, places and things for over 66 years, it only stands to reason that having only been in recovery for 17 years, I still have a lot of learning and healing to do.

[caressa]

From: "Getting our of the ‘if’ trap"
But then, after a sober while, for some of us there comes
a time when - plop! - a new discovery slaps us in the face.
That same old “iffy” thinking habit of our tippling days has,
without our seeing it, attached itself to not drinking.
Unconsciously, we have placed conditions on our sobriety.
We have begun to think sobriety is just fine - if everything
goes well, or if nothing goes askew.

In effect, we are ignoring 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.

Living Sober, page 63

As they say, "If" is the biggest word in the dictionary. I had a very magic, magnifying mind that blew everythng out of proportion and then compounded it with the if only and the worst case senarios which only compounded more interest. The brain drain was amazing! How good it is not to have to carry it around in today.

[caressa]

From: "Me An Alcoholic?"

Here I found an ingredient that had been lacking in any
other effort I had made to save myself. Here was - power!
Here was power to live to the end of any given day, power
to have the courage to face the next day, power to have
friends, power to help people, power to be sane, power to
stay sober. That was seven years ago - and many AA
meetings ago - and I haven't had a drink during those seven
years. Moreover, I am deeply convinced that so long as I
continue to strive, in my bumbling way, toward the principles
I first encountered in the earlier chapters of this book, this
remarkable power will continue to flow through me. What is
this power? With my AA friends, all I can say is that it's a
Power greater than myself. If pressed, all I can do is follow
the psalmist who said it long before me: "Be still, and know
that I am God."

Alcoholics Anonymous, pages 386-387

For me, my way didn't work. I tried many times to quit. I could stop, but couldn't stay stopped. When I surrendered and asked for help, I was empowered to stay clean and sober one day at a time. The power of one addict helping another kept me coming back. I lost the desire to go back out there and do more research to find out if I was an alcoholic or not. Alcohol is a drug. Prescription drugs were dried up alcohol for me.

For many years I use to ask, "Am I an alcoholic because I am an addict." or "Am I an addict because I am an alcoholic." The final solution was: Don't pick up no matter what. The substance was but a symptom of my disease (dis-ease).

I already had the thinking before the drinking. That is why I like Al-Anon and ACoA. As I told a friend many years ago, "Al-Anon is why I drank in the first place." If I change the thinking, I won't have a desire to do the drinking.

[caressa]

From: "Stars Don’t Fall"
AA taught me how not to drink. And also, on the
twenty-four hour plan, it taught me how to live. I
know I do not have to be “queen of them all” to
salve a frightened ego. Through going to meetings
and listening, and occasionally speaking, through
doing Twelve Step work, whereby in helping others
you are both the teacher and the student, by making
many wonderful AA friends, I have been taught all the
things in life that are worth having. I am no longer
interested in living in a palace, because palace living
was not the answer for me. Nor were those impossible
dreams I used to have the things I really wanted.

Experience, Strength & Hope, pages 362-363

I call it the 'wanna bees' which are on Romper Room. Having a childish tantrum and saying, "But I wanta ...." and we all know that they say anything that follows but is supposedly bullsh*t.

For me it is generally a pity party and I need to get off the pot.

[caressa]

The "Just For Today!" daily email service has been available
five days each week since September 1995. To date, volunteers
have sent out over 31 million emails to subscribers like you
located all over the world.

Unexpectedly, we were given notice on Wednesday by AA World
Services, Inc. that we must stop using AAWS-copyrighted material, effective today. Therefore, we will change the format of the daily emails in the following ways:

Three days a week you'll receive excerpts from the first 164 pages of the first edition big book now in the public domain.

Two days a week you will receive an item of AA related history or
trivia that we think you will find interesting.

Although we would prefer not to lose the opportunity to be of
maximum service to any of our current subscribers, if you find
that this new format is not useful in your program of recovery,
you can opt out following the instructions at the bottom of this
email or any of the daily messages.

If you agree that this new trial format sounds interesting and
potentially helpful, you need do nothing but sit back and enjoy
the service that has been provided, uninterrupted, for the last
691 weeks.

Thank you for letting us be of service to you...and, as always,
JFT! remains absolutely 100% free of charge and without advertising.

Sincerely,

"Just for Today" volunteers
Bob B, Bob M, Carl J, Jennifer M, Scott B, Terry H, and Doug B.

[caressa]

From: "Foreword"
We are not an organization in the conventional sense of
the word. There are no fees or dues whatsoever. The only
requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop
drinking. We are not allied with any particular faith, sect or
denomination, nor do we oppose anyone. We simply wish
to be helpful to those who are afflicted.

We shall be interested to hear from those who are getting
results from this book, particularly from those who have
commenced work with other alcoholics. We should like to
be helpful to such cases.

Inquiry by scientific, medical, and religious societies
will be welcomed.

© 1989, Carry the Message, Inc., Alcoholics Anonymous,
[First Edition facsimile], pages vii-viii

I didn't think I was an alcoholic but I did have the desire to quit drinking. I didn't want to go through the detoxing again. I didn't want to go back to the hell I had come from, so picking up and using was just no longer an option and I was willing to do anything it took not to go back to that state of body, mind and spirit.

I didn't think I was an alcoholic but I knew I was an addict. That is why I went to AA and NA. I used alcohol just like I did with pills, food, work, relationships, etc.

[majestyjo]

Don't think these are available any more. They were a blessing and a great recovery tool back then, wish I could reformat them.

[caressa222]

They are no more. I had a lot posted on my old sites that are no more. This made me think of the old posts.

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

When do you begin helping a newcomer? When you see a newcomer. Don't sweat it; just do it.

When I work with a drunk, the drunk I'm working on is me.

[majestyjo]

Again a lot of reading and a lot of recovery.