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For Crystal
(Preview)
You replied to my "Marijuana Maintenance" message and you were sooooooo right on about how crappy it is of me to get help and spend the little money I do get on drugs and alchol. I am very ashamed of that. And funny thing I got a taste of the other side of this qoin today. This girl I know from AA bu...
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nique
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Interesting Historic alcohol factoid: "Old Ironsides" Statistical Information Seldom Shared
(Preview)
LITTLE KNOWN NAVAL HISTORY The USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) as a combat vessel carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no evaporators (fresh water distillers). However, let it...
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TLH
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Daily Reflections ~ Problem Solving
(Preview)
Quite as important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all my problems. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 42 Through the recovery process described in the Big Book, I have come to realize that the same instructions that work on my alcoholism, work on much more. Whenever I am angry or frus...
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24 Hrs a Day ~ 27th Dec 08
(Preview)
A.A. Thought for the Day I need the A.A. principles for the development of the buried life within me, that good life, which I had misplaced, but which I found again in this fellowship. This life within me is developing slowly but surely, with many setbacks, many mistakes, many failures, but still deve...
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Sobrietyspell
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Daily Reflections ~ Accepting Success or Failure
(Preview)
Furthermore, how shall we come to terms with seeming failure or success? Can we now accept and adjust to either without despair or pride? Can we accept poverty, sickness, loneliness, and bereavement with courage and serenity? Can we steadfastly content ourselves with the humbler, yet sometimes m...
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Sobrietyspell
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Happy Holidays!!!!
(Preview)
Merry christmas to all of my wonderful friends here on MIP!! What a blessing for me to have met such incredible people who share the same love of sobriety that I do!!! We are sooo lucky!!!! Thank you to all of you that have made a huge difference in my life!! Quick share.... My kids really out did themselve...
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lani
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Merry Christmas everyone from Bermuda !
(Preview)
I know I'm a little late but the journey here has been so indicative of the journey I have been on for the last 11 months. I think it is absolutely amazing that I have not even come close to having the urge to have a drink since getting down here. Alcohol is widely consumed and my friends down here respe...
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mstrmsn66
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Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
(Preview)
Merry Christmas to all of my wonderful friends!!!
I wish everyone here on MIP a truly wonderful, peaceful and sober Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
And, 'thank you' for making this board such a very special place throughout the whole year.
With love,
Carol
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Quetzal
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24 Hrs a Day ~ 26th Dec 08
(Preview)
A.A. Thought for the Day I am glad to be a part of A.A., of that great fellowship that is spreading over the United States and all over the world. I am only one of the many A.A.s, but I am one. I am grateful to be living at this time, when I can help A.A. to grow, when it needs me to put my shoulder to the wheel and he...
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Sobrietyspell
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24 Hrs a Day ~ 25th Dec 08
(Preview)
A.A. Thought for the Day Many alcoholics will be saying today: "This is a good Christmas for me." They will be looking back over past Christmases, which were not like this one. They will be thanking God for their sobriety and their newfound life. They will be thinking about how their lives w...
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Sobrietyspell
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Happy Holidays Everyone!!!
(Preview)
Haven't been on in a while, new job has me swamped---actually, I was used to making my own hours, so now a normal 9-5 feels like an 18 hour day! I lost track of how long it's been but I had it written down weeks ago-so that makes 145 days! The urge is still there, but fleeting more and more. Even when my comp...
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TysonMike
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Have a Safe and Sober Christmas Season ehh
(Preview)
'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the house, A drunkard was getting the word from his spouse. His skull was like fractured, his nerves were in shreds, And visions like sledgehammers danced in his head. Shaking and sweating and down in the dumps, Old Rudolph, the red nose, was getting hi...
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Phil
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The Holidays
(Preview)
Sometimes, the holidays are filled with the joy we associate with that time of year. The season flows. Magic is in the air.
Sometimes, the holidays can be difficult and lonely.
Here are some ideas I've learned through personal experience, and practice, to help us get through difficult holidays...
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Quetzal
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Daily Reflections ~ At Peace With Life
(Preview)
Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of Gods will into all of our activities. How can I best serve Thee Thy will (not mine) be done. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85 I read this passage each morning, to start off my day, because it is a continual reminder to practice these principles in all my affairs...
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Sobrietyspell
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Spiritual Experience
(Preview)
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE The terms spiritual experience and spiritual awakening are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms. Yet it is true t...
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soberdrunk
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Getting Through the Holidays
(Preview)
For some, the sights, signs, and smells of the holidays bring joy and a warm feeling. But, while others are joyously diving into the season, some of us are dipping into conflict, guilt, and a sense of loss.
We read articles on how to enjoy the holidays, we read about the Christmas blues, but many of us s...
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Quetzal
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347
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Facing Family and Myself at Christmas
(Preview)
I went to a family Christmas lunch yesterday. I had been looking forward to it because we haven't gotten together as a family since 2004. The day arrived and a weird thing happened, I started to feel anxious, I did not expect that. I wasn't even sure what I was anxious about, maybe just the unknown. M...
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FindingFreedom
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Daily Reflections ~ Recovery, Unity, Service
(Preview)
Our Twelfth Step carrying the message is the basic service that AAs Fellowship gives; this is our principal aim and the main reason for our existence. THE LANGUAGE OF THE HEART, P. 160 I thank God for those who came before me, those who told me not to forget the Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity and Servic...
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Sobrietyspell
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24 Hrs a Day ~ 23rd Dec 08
(Preview)
A.A. Thought for the Day We have definitely left that dream world behind. It was only a sham. It was a world of our making and it was not the real world. We are sorry for the past, yes, but we learned a lot from it. We can put it down to experience, valuable experience, as we see it now, because it has given us th...
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Happy Holidays!
(Preview)
Glory to God in the highest. And on earth peace, goodwill toward men! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone! Love, Allison
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nique
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Christmas
(Preview)
Just wanted to drop in and wish everyone a special Merry Christmas and A Sober New Year. From my family to yours Have a safe Holiday while traveling. Thanks to all and Hugs. Tina
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Tina
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Holiday Triggers
(Preview)
One year, when I was a child, my father got drunk and violent at Christmas. I had just unwrapped a present, a bottle of hand lotion, when he exploded in an alcoholic rage. Our Christmas was disrupted. It was terrible. It was frightening for the whole family. Now, thirty-five years later, whenever I sme...
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Quetzal
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Daily Reflections ~ Principles, Not Personalities
(Preview)
The way our worthy alcoholics have sometimes tried to judge the less worthy is, as we look back on it, rather comical. Imagine, if you can, one alcoholic judging another! THE LANGUAGE OF THE HEART, p. 37 Who am I to judge anyone? When I first entered the Fellowship I found that I liked everyone. After all...
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Sobrietyspell
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24 Hrs a Day ~ 22nd Dec 08
(Preview)
A.A. Thought for the Day As we look back over our drinking careers, we must realize that our lives were a mess because we were a mess inside. The trouble was in us, not in life itself. Life itself was good enough, but we were looking at it the wrong way. We were looking at life through the bottom of a whiskey g...
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Sobrietyspell
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snowbound
(Preview)
just thinking about how nice it has been to be snowbound for 2 days...in my drinking days, I would have "alcoholed" my way thru....but I have been shoveling snow, cleaning things only a mother would care about, listening to music, playing online scrabble with friends, cooking, reading....
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beachgirl
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A 12-STEP VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS
(Preview)
Twas the night before Christmas when I went on a bender, Not a creature was stirring, not even a bartender. The empties were stacked by the chimney just fine, In hopes that St. Nick would fill them with wine. With Mama in her kerchief and I with my booze, We'd just settled down for a long winter's snooze....
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Phil
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24 Hrs a Day ~ 21st Dec 08
(Preview)
A.A. Thought for the Day Have I ceased being inwardly defeated, at war with myself? Have I given myself freely to A.A. and to the Higher Power? Have I got over being sick inside? Am I still wandering mentally or am I "on the beam"? I can face anything if I am sure I am on the way. When I am sure, I sho...
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Sobrietyspell
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Good Things Coming
(Preview)
Do not worry about how the good that has been planned for you will come.
It will come.
Do not worry, obsess, and think you have to control it, go out hunting for it, or tangle your mind trying to figure out how and when it will find you.
It will find you.
Surrender to your Higher Power each day. Trust...
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Quetzal
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Daily Reflections ~ Listen, Share & Pray
(Preview)
When working with a man and his family, you should take care not to participate in their quarrels. You may spoil your chance of being helpful if you do. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 100 When trying to help a fellow alcoholic, Ive given in to an impulse to give advice, and perhaps thats inevitable. But allow...
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Sobrietyspell
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Balance
(Preview)
Strive for balanced expectations of others. Strive for healthy tolerance.
In the past, we may have tolerated too much or too little. We may have expected too much or too little.
We may swing from tolerating abuse, mistreatment, and deception to refusing to tolerate normal, human, imperfect be...
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Quetzal
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Daily Reflections ~ The Rewards of Giving
(Preview)
This is indeed the kind of giving that actually demands nothing. He does not expect his brother sufferer to pay him, or even to love him. And then he discovers that by the divine paradox of this kind of giving he has found his own reward, whether his brother has yet received anything or not. TWELVE STEPS A...
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Sobrietyspell
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24 Hrs a Day ~ 20th Dec 08
(Preview)
A.A. Thought for the Day Our faith should control the whole of our life. We alcoholics were living a divided life. We had to find a way to make it whole. When we were drinking, our lives were made up of a lot of scattered and unrelated pieces. We must pick up our lives and put them together again. We do it by re...
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Sobrietyspell
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Two weeks.
(Preview)
Well, 14 days ago today was the last time I had a sip of any liquor. I have to say, I feel pretty good. I know the road ahead will be hard, but this is the longest i've gone without drinking since...I started drinking. I've even been in situations where before I normally would have gotten absolutely shitfa...
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paul86
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60 days!
(Preview)
Well, here I am. Feeling so much better about life. Finished my first pass through the steps and sponsoring others and have a chair commitment at one of my meetings. I don't know if I updated after the Thanksgiving holiday but it went very well. My family asked a couple of times if I wanted to drink - I ca...
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tlcate
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The rewards of Riding The Storm Out
(Preview)
I am so thankful to be sober this morning. I feel great, because my head is clear, I feel peaceful and calm. I went through a rough depression for 2 weeks in the middle of November but I made it through and things have turned around. In late October, I launched a new business, taking visitors on walking t...
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FindingFreedom
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Nurturing Ourselves
(Preview)
Many of us have been so deprived of nurturing that we think it's silly or self-indulgent. Nurturing is neither silly nor self-indulgent; it's how we show love for ourselves. That's what we're striving for in recovery - a loving relationship with ourselves that works, so we can have loving relations...
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Quetzal
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90 days
(Preview)
Well, I've hit and passed 90 days. It's a bit of a milestone for me because my first attempt at sobriety ended around the time I hit 90 dyas. Of course I was like "poof, I'm not an alcoholic, I haven't drank in 3 months." Then went out and drank. Funny how that works. Anyway, with the help of...
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cramcj01
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IF You Want What We Have . . .
(Preview)
Reading some of the posts on the board lately from some who may not understand what A.A. offers to those of us who have the disease of alcoholism, I'm struck by these words from Chapter Five of the book Alcoholics Anonymous (our textbook): "If you want what we have, and are willing to go to any leng...
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BGG
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Work Roles
(Preview)
How easy it is to dive into roles at work. How easy it is to place other people in roles. Sometimes, this is necessary, appropriate, and expedient.
But we can also let our self-shine through our role.
There is joy in giving our gift of skill at work, at giving ourselves to the task at hand so thoroughl...
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Quetzal
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journalling
(Preview)
Been journalling lately, ever since I hit a rough patch and realized I need to face the feelings and difficulties I was having. This has turned into a journal where I can continue to find things that pop up to give to my Higher Power. It seems so much more real to me to go through the motions of writing it out...
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jonijoni1
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Daily Reflections ~ A Priceless Reward
(Preview)
. . . . work with other alcoholics. . . . It works when other activities fail. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 89 Life will take on a new meaning, as the Big Book says (p. 89) This promise has helped me to avoid self-seeking and self-pity. To watch others grow in this wonderful program, to see them improve the qua...
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Sobrietyspell
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24 Hrs a Day ~ 17th Dec 08
(Preview)
A.A. Thought for the Day The way of faith is, of course, not confined to A.A. It is for everybody who really wants to live. But many people can go through life without much of it. Many are doing so, to their own sorrow. The world is full of lack of faith. Many people have lost confidence in any meaning in the u...
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Sobrietyspell
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24 Hrs a Day ~ 16th Dec 08
(Preview)
A.A. Thought for the Day The way of A.A. is the way of faith. We don't get the full benefit of the program until we surrender our lives to some Power greater than ourselves and trust that Power to give us the strength we need. There is no better way for us. We can get sober without it. We can stay sober for some...
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Sobrietyspell
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Taking Care of Ourselves Emotionally
(Preview)
What does it mean to take care of myself emotionally? I recognize when I'm feeling angry, and I accept that feeling without shame or blame.
I recognize when I'm feeling hurt, and I accept those feelings without attempting to punish the source of my pain. I recognize and feel fear when that emotion pr...
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Quetzal
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Daily Reflections ~ Partners in Recovery
(Preview)
. . . nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics . . . Both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress. . . . Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your presen...
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Sobrietyspell
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Daily Reflections ~ Doing Anything To Help
(Preview)
Offer him [the alcoholic] friendship and fellowship. Tell him that if he wants to get well you will do anything to help. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, P. 95 I remember how attracted I was to the two men from A.A. who Twelfth-Stepped me. They said I could have what they had, with no conditions attached, that all...
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Sobrietyspell
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24 Hrs a Day ~ 15th Dec 08
(Preview)
A.A. Thought for the Day Service to others makes the world a good place. Civilization would cease if all of us were always and only for ourselves. We alcoholics have a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the well-being of the world. We have a common problem. We find a common answer. We are uniquely e...
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Sobrietyspell
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299
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How do you have fun if you don't drink?
(Preview)
An amazing thing happened, a few nights ago I was at an annual Christmas party that involved a fair amount of drinking, I wasnt drinking, but I was having a lot of fun. As the evening was drawing to a close, and most people were buzzed up, someone asked me something at the bar and I said, I havent had a drink...
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FindingFreedom
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2348
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Willful?
(Preview)
Well folks, at 74 days I did go out on a date tonight despite it being told to me that I am not to enter into any dating or relationships for a year. It is something that sort of presented itself and the other person has like 5 really cool things in common with me. They hardly ever drink and are not into bars...
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pinkchip
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530
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Daily Reflections ~ Reaching Out
(Preview)
Never talk down to an alcoholic from any moral or spiritual hilltop; simply lay out the kit of spiritual tools for his inspection. Show him how they worked with you. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 95 When I come into contact with a newcomer, do I have a tendency to look at him from my perceived angle of success...
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Sobrietyspell
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