Alcoholics Anonymous

The Eye Opener November 10 We are all subjects to the habit of imagining a lot of needs and desires that we would not actually want if we stopped and gave the matter some thought. List those needs sometime and then think them over carefully. A yacht would be mighty nice in the summer, but it's a pest in the...

The Eye Opener November 11 You are born at every sunrise and die at every sunset. Sleep is temporary death, which fortifies you for your rebirth in a new tomorrow. Every day is an entire life in itself and all human experiences can take place within its span. You, yourself, are not the same man you were ye...

November 12 No one ever became noble simply by being moral. The great characters who have had their ennobling influence pass down through the ages are those who lived, labored and died for others. Nothing endures that fails to serve a useful purpose and man, individually or collectively, is no excep...

You not only pass through this world but once but you live this day but once. The opportunities this day presented to do good are lost opportunities tomorrow unless you grasped them in passing. Your greatest personal loss in your drinking days was not material but rather it was the loss of m...

It is one of the peculiar characteristics of the alcoholic that he almost invariably shows the worst side of his disposition to those people for whom he has the highest love and respect. Many of us were Jolly Good Fellows in the bootleg joint but Hell on wheels at home and in our relationship wi...

November 15 We alcoholics were accustomed to look at the world through the whiskey glasses and consequently what we saw of the world made it appear as one big case of D.T.'s. Sobriety corrected our vision and the world took on a more ordered appearance. The world hadn't changed--our viewpo...

We become too easily discouraged when a new man fails to make the grade. What we fail to keep before us is the fact that we are not accountable for the results of our efforts. we are only charged with the responsibility of carrying the message to other alcoholics. Just go about your end of the j...

November 18 Money is a medium of exchange and is as good as the things you can get with it. If you have enough money in your pocket when you fall overboard it can drown you. Love of money can make you the most despised of men, but love of mankind can make your money a blessing to you and them.

November 19 A large segment of humanity, stumbling in alcoholic darkness, resigned to a belief that nothing can possibly be done about the situation, has at long last caught a gleam of light and presses on to that beacon of Hope. Alcoholics Anonymous is that light shining forth in the night of...

November 21 If a reasonable estimate could be made of the fatalities resulting from excessive drinking, the figures would be appalling. This loss, however, is only a small part of the price that Bacchus extracts. The wasted man-hours of work, the homes broken up, the wealth of talent tha...

November 23 Isn't is strange to note the absence of a lot of old pre-AA friends over the week-end? We have not offended them, surely, and we are just as good friends as we used to be, but somehow they don't call on us with the same regularity. The answer is simple--the bar is closed. Now home is w...

November 24 Every practicing alcoholic is firmly convinced that the Devil has all the good tunes. It was the music we had wanted and the tunes to which we had attuned our ears. His music was louder, more catchy and, and to our thinking, was prettier. We suspected, however, that it did not have...

November 26 In our drinking days, fear of everything and everybody was our constant companion. These fears continued until we finally, in desperate necessity, found the courage to surrender - to quit unconditionally. Then we found AA and a ray of Hope. Hope became desire, desire became determinat...

Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010 Sorrow and happiness are mental states, but the effect they have upon our nervous system and our blood pressure is a recognized fact. The "Atmosphere" of a hospital and its staff can lengthen or shorten the duration of an illness. We alcoholics spent years driving...

November 28 Knowledge is of great value, and nothing of value is acquired without price. Wisdom is even more to be desired than knowledge, which can be but an accumulation of facts. Humility is greater than wisdom for there is no real wisdom without humility. The wise are humbled by the knowledge of t...

November 29 We find in life exactly what we are looking for. In your drinking days, you courted trouble constantly and you probably found more than your share of it. Today we are looking for a better way of life and this, too, we find at every turn. We get what we want if we put forth sufficient effort to loo...

November 30 Many who are active in AA work come to feel they just can't carry on any longer. There is so much to do; so little time that can be spared to do it; so few to do the work. There is a limit to their endurance. After all a guy has just so much strength health, and patience. When burdens get too heav...

December 1 There will always be a difference of opinion as long as people have different interests, different prejudices and different mental capacities. To expect people to disagree with you is only sensible and reasonable. If everybody agreed with you, everybody would be as smart as you and you w...

December 2 Fires, floods and epidemics are nobody's business - they are everybody's business. Alcoholism is equally devastating and just as much a community catastrophe. We in AA are unique in that we are trained veterans in the art of combating this disease. Its prevalence demands the complete co...

December 3 I feel good today and I ought to. I slept like a baby last night, had a fine breakfast that I relished, the wife and kids kissed me as I left the house, I arrived at the office whistling and didn't give a damn whether the boss was in a good humor or not. The work, too, seemed so much easier to do and the...

December 5 A man once ridiculed me in front of a large class in school, and I have hated his guts ever since. That was 35 years ago and I do not know whether he is dead or alive. If he was aware of my intense dislike, it certainly never bothered him. But it certainly bothers me even now. His face springs up in my...

December 6 If you are satisfied with your progress in AA, you are not only an exception but you may be headed for trouble. Remember One Day at a Time, and Easy Does It. Before you measure your advancement, be sure you have an accurate yardstick. Nature is always slow in its development of good things...

December 7 Every person at some time in life has a spiritual experience of some kind. It may have been no more than a soul-stimulating experience after hearing a beautiful hymn, beautifully sung. Perhaps it is only an undefined hunger within when viewing alone a star-studded sky, or an awe-inspiris...

December 8 Have you ever noticed those old expressions: "Sit down and cry;" "Prostrate with grief;" "Wallowing in pity;" "Bowed down with troubles," etc? Truly troubles in all their forms get us "down," so the only antidote would appear to...

December 9 Remember when they used to tell us, "If you don't stop drinking, you'll go straight to Hell?" What a laugh that is - trying to tell us about Hell when we had been living in it for years! If we had told them about the Hell we knew, it would probably have scared them into drinking.

December 10 It is hard for us at times to understand the misfortunes that befall us when we are doing the very best we know how, to live right by both God and man. It is only in times that try men's souls that the soul develops and grows stronger. Like a muscle, it develops with hard work. If you would produce...

December 11 Every man is both human and divine, both good and evil, strong and weak, wise and foolish. The body, soul and mind are the battleground of our conflicting natures, and while these conflicts rage, we can have no peace. It is only when we bring our conflicting emotions under control that vict...

December 12 If our God, as we understand Him, is a personal God, then it is reasonable to assume that He is so close to us that He is residing in us. He is then part of us and we are part of Him. As we cannot have two different personalities at the same time, we can assume we are either wordly or Godlike, dependi...

December 14 Our greatest enemy was alcohol and we have learned to how protect ourselves against it. But we are in constant danger from some of our well-meaning friends. They constantly tell us how wonderful we are in that we have cut out our drinking and, unfortunately, we sometimes believe them to th...

December 15 Faith is a fundamental requisite of success in retaining our sobriety - faith in God, faith in the Program, and faith in ourselves. It can be likened to swimming: every normal person can swim, if he has faith in the laws of buoyancy and allows himself to be submerged enough. Those people who...

Daily Reading from The Eye Opener: December 16 Every alcoholic has at one time or another had such a load of troubles that there was surely no prospect of his ever being happy again. On the other hand, there were moments of ectasy that were so great that our lives seemed completely filled and no cloud cou...

The Eye Opener Daily Reading for December 17 The world is a looking glass; it returns to you what you give to it. All the world and everything in it are but reflections of yourself, and if the world doesn't look good to you, rest assured, you don't look good to the world. The words of every person you meet ar...

The Eye Opener Daily Reading December 19 It is very difficult for an alcoholic to remain sober in continued idleness, and this lesson has been learned the hard way by too many who have tried it. It is also possible to overwork to the point where we think we need a stimulant to keep going. There is a big diff...

The Eye Opener Daily Reading December 29 Is someone happier, better or braver because of some act of yours today? If you can answer yes to any or all of them, then you can feel rather confident that you are progressing in the AA way of living. If you can't - then you are not giving it the old College try and yo...

	Forum	Replies	Views	Last Post
The Eye Opener Needful Things (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	2	2210	Nov 11, 2010 by Aquaman
The Eye Opener November 10 We are all subjects to the habit of imagining a lot of needs and desires that we would not actually want if we stopped and gave the matter some thought. List those needs sometime and then think them over carefully. A yacht would be mighty nice in the summer, but it's a pest in the...
The Eye Opener New Day (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	1	4585	Nov 15, 2010 by david b
The Eye Opener November 11 You are born at every sunrise and die at every sunset. Sleep is temporary death, which fortifies you for your rebirth in a new tomorrow. Every day is an entire life in itself and all human experiences can take place within its span. You, yourself, are not the same man you were ye...
The Eye Opener Service (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	9	4967	Nov 14, 2010 by juliej71
November 12 No one ever became noble simply by being moral. The great characters who have had their ennobling influence pass down through the ages are those who lived, labored and died for others. Nothing endures that fails to serve a useful purpose and man, individually or collectively, is no excep...
The Eye Opener Today (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	4	4652	Nov 14, 2010 by SteveP
You not only pass through this world but once but you live this day but once. The opportunities this day presented to do good are lost opportunities tomorrow unless you grasped them in passing. Your greatest personal loss in your drinking days was not material but rather it was the loss of m...
The Eye Opener ...and Mr. Hyde (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	5	5903	Nov 18, 2010 by jj
It is one of the peculiar characteristics of the alcoholic that he almost invariably shows the worst side of his disposition to those people for whom he has the highest love and respect. Many of us were Jolly Good Fellows in the bootleg joint but Hell on wheels at home and in our relationship wi...
The Eye Opener Room with a View (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	2	5402	Nov 17, 2010 by pinkchip
November 15 We alcoholics were accustomed to look at the world through the whiskey glasses and consequently what we saw of the world made it appear as one big case of D.T.'s. Sobriety corrected our vision and the world took on a more ordered appearance. The world hadn't changed--our viewpo...
The Eye Opener Our Part...and His (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	2091	Nov 17, 2010 by Rainspa
We become too easily discouraged when a new man fails to make the grade. What we fail to keep before us is the fact that we are not accountable for the results of our efforts. we are only charged with the responsibility of carrying the message to other alcoholics. Just go about your end of the j...
The Eye Opener Money (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	2	5095	Nov 18, 2010 by Rainspa
November 18 Money is a medium of exchange and is as good as the things you can get with it. If you have enough money in your pocket when you fall overboard it can drown you. Love of money can make you the most despised of men, but love of mankind can make your money a blessing to you and them.
The Eye Opener Illumination (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	2233	Nov 19, 2010 by Rainspa
November 19 A large segment of humanity, stumbling in alcoholic darkness, resigned to a belief that nothing can possibly be done about the situation, has at long last caught a gleam of light and presses on to that beacon of Hope. Alcoholics Anonymous is that light shining forth in the night of...
The Eye Opener Cost and Price (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	1	4464	Nov 21, 2010 by Jerry F
November 21 If a reasonable estimate could be made of the fatalities resulting from excessive drinking, the figures would be appalling. This loss, however, is only a small part of the price that Bacchus extracts. The wasted man-hours of work, the homes broken up, the wealth of talent tha...
The Eye Opener Friends (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	4	2753	Nov 28, 2010 by TwelveSteps
November 23 Isn't is strange to note the absence of a lot of old pre-AA friends over the week-end? We have not offended them, surely, and we are just as good friends as we used to be, but somehow they don't call on us with the same regularity. The answer is simple--the bar is closed. Now home is w...
The Eye Opener Ah One, and Ah Two.. (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	3	2272	Dec 2, 2010 by attilio
November 24 Every practicing alcoholic is firmly convinced that the Devil has all the good tunes. It was the music we had wanted and the tunes to which we had attuned our ears. His music was louder, more catchy and, and to our thinking, was prettier. We suspected, however, that it did not have...
The Eye Opener Fear to Surrender to Hope (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	6	4792	Nov 27, 2010 by Rainspa
November 26 In our drinking days, fear of everything and everybody was our constant companion. These fears continued until we finally, in desperate necessity, found the courage to surrender - to quit unconditionally. Then we found AA and a ray of Hope. Hope became desire, desire became determinat...
The Eye Opener come on, get happy (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	4898	Nov 27, 2010 by Rainspa
Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010 Sorrow and happiness are mental states, but the effect they have upon our nervous system and our blood pressure is a recognized fact. The "Atmosphere" of a hospital and its staff can lengthen or shorten the duration of an illness. We alcoholics spent years driving...
The Eye Opener Info Earned (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	4470	Nov 28, 2010 by Rainspa
November 28 Knowledge is of great value, and nothing of value is acquired without price. Wisdom is even more to be desired than knowledge, which can be but an accumulation of facts. Humility is greater than wisdom for there is no real wisdom without humility. The wise are humbled by the knowledge of t...
The Eye Opener Seek, and.... (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	5399	Nov 29, 2010 by Rainspa
November 29 We find in life exactly what we are looking for. In your drinking days, you courted trouble constantly and you probably found more than your share of it. Today we are looking for a better way of life and this, too, we find at every turn. We get what we want if we put forth sufficient effort to loo...
The Eye Opener Solution to Busy (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	2	5202	Nov 30, 2010 by jj
November 30 Many who are active in AA work come to feel they just can't carry on any longer. There is so much to do; so little time that can be spared to do it; so few to do the work. There is a limit to their endurance. After all a guy has just so much strength health, and patience. When burdens get too heav...
The Eye Opener Right You Are (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	1	2251	Dec 1, 2010 by Mike B.
December 1 There will always be a difference of opinion as long as people have different interests, different prejudices and different mental capacities. To expect people to disagree with you is only sensible and reasonable. If everybody agreed with you, everybody would be as smart as you and you w...
The Eye Opener To Your Posts, Everybody! (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	5	5711	Dec 3, 2010 by Dan B 76
December 2 Fires, floods and epidemics are nobody's business - they are everybody's business. Alcoholism is equally devastating and just as much a community catastrophe. We in AA are unique in that we are trained veterans in the art of combating this disease. Its prevalence demands the complete co...
The Eye Opener Gifts (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	2	5362	Dec 3, 2010 by zzworldontheweb
December 3 I feel good today and I ought to. I slept like a baby last night, had a fine breakfast that I relished, the wife and kids kissed me as I left the house, I arrived at the office whistling and didn't give a damn whether the boss was in a good humor or not. The work, too, seemed so much easier to do and the...
The Eye Opener pub. Hazelden Resentments = Dumb (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	3	5211	Dec 5, 2010 by zzworldontheweb
December 5 A man once ridiculed me in front of a large class in school, and I have hated his guts ever since. That was 35 years ago and I do not know whether he is dead or alive. If he was aware of my intense dislike, it certainly never bothered him. But it certainly bothers me even now. His face springs up in my...
The Eye Opener pub. Hazeldon Satisfaction: I can't get no... (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	5	5688	Dec 6, 2010 by zzworldontheweb
December 6 If you are satisfied with your progress in AA, you are not only an exception but you may be headed for trouble. Remember One Day at a Time, and Easy Does It. Before you measure your advancement, be sure you have an accurate yardstick. Nature is always slow in its development of good things...
The Eye Opener Beauty and Power (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	1	4656	Dec 7, 2010 by Mike B.
December 7 Every person at some time in life has a spiritual experience of some kind. It may have been no more than a soul-stimulating experience after hearing a beautiful hymn, beautifully sung. Perhaps it is only an undefined hunger within when viewing alone a star-studded sky, or an awe-inspiris...
The Eye Opener The Other Directions (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	1	3571	Dec 9, 2010 by jj
December 8 Have you ever noticed those old expressions: "Sit down and cry;" "Prostrate with grief;" "Wallowing in pity;" "Bowed down with troubles," etc? Truly troubles in all their forms get us "down," so the only antidote would appear to...
The Eye Opener The House Where I Live (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	4317	Dec 9, 2010 by Rainspa
December 9 Remember when they used to tell us, "If you don't stop drinking, you'll go straight to Hell?" What a laugh that is - trying to tell us about Hell when we had been living in it for years! If we had told them about the Hell we knew, it would probably have scared them into drinking.
The Eye Opener Growth (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	4085	Dec 10, 2010 by Rainspa
December 10 It is hard for us at times to understand the misfortunes that befall us when we are doing the very best we know how, to live right by both God and man. It is only in times that try men's souls that the soul develops and grows stronger. Like a muscle, it develops with hard work. If you would produce...
The Eye Opener Help that Works (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	1	4637	Dec 11, 2010 by LinBaba
December 11 Every man is both human and divine, both good and evil, strong and weak, wise and foolish. The body, soul and mind are the battleground of our conflicting natures, and while these conflicts rage, we can have no peace. It is only when we bring our conflicting emotions under control that vict...
The Eye Opener Location, Location, Location (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	4498	Dec 12, 2010 by Rainspa
December 12 If our God, as we understand Him, is a personal God, then it is reasonable to assume that He is so close to us that He is residing in us. He is then part of us and we are part of Him. As we cannot have two different personalities at the same time, we can assume we are either wordly or Godlike, dependi...
The Eye Opener I Rock! (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	4	5652	Dec 14, 2010 by barisax
December 14 Our greatest enemy was alcohol and we have learned to how protect ourselves against it. But we are in constant danger from some of our well-meaning friends. They constantly tell us how wonderful we are in that we have cut out our drinking and, unfortunately, we sometimes believe them to th...
The Eye Opener Daily Reading Faith (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	2	4955	Dec 15, 2010 by SteveP
December 15 Faith is a fundamental requisite of success in retaining our sobriety - faith in God, faith in the Program, and faith in ourselves. It can be likened to swimming: every normal person can swim, if he has faith in the laws of buoyancy and allows himself to be submerged enough. Those people who...
The Eye Opener What to Plant (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	5124	Dec 16, 2010 by Rainspa
Daily Reading from The Eye Opener: December 16 Every alcoholic has at one time or another had such a load of troubles that there was surely no prospect of his ever being happy again. On the other hand, there were moments of ectasy that were so great that our lives seemed completely filled and no cloud cou...
The Eye Opener Mirror, Mirror (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	4613	Dec 17, 2010 by Rainspa
The Eye Opener Daily Reading for December 17 The world is a looking glass; it returns to you what you give to it. All the world and everything in it are but reflections of yourself, and if the world doesn't look good to you, rest assured, you don't look good to the world. The words of every person you meet ar...
The Eye Opener Daily Reading Respite (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	5580	Dec 19, 2010 by Rainspa
The Eye Opener Daily Reading December 19 It is very difficult for an alcoholic to remain sober in continued idleness, and this lesson has been learned the hard way by too many who have tried it. It is also possible to overwork to the point where we think we need a stimulant to keep going. There is a big diff...
The Eye Opener To Do (Preview)	Alcoholics Anonymous	0	5035	Dec 29, 2010 by Rainspa
The Eye Opener Daily Reading December 29 Is someone happier, better or braver because of some act of yours today? If you can answer yes to any or all of them, then you can feel rather confident that you are progressing in the AA way of living. If you can't - then you are not giving it the old College try and yo...