Why all this insistence that every A.A. must hit bottom
first? The answer is that few people will sincerely try
to practice the A.A. program unless they have hit
bottom. For practicing A.A.'s remaining eleven Steps
means the adoption of attitudes and actions that almost
no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 24

Hitting bottom opened my mind and I became willing to
try something different. What I tried was A.A. My new
life in the Fellowship was a little like learning how
to ride a bike for the first time: A.A. became my
training wheels and my supporting hand. It's not that
I wanted the help so much at the time; I simply did
not want to hurt like that again. My desire to avoid
hitting bottom again was more powerful than my desire
to drink. In the beginning that was what kept me sober.
But after a while I found myself working the Steps to
the best of my ability. I soon realized that my
attitudes and actions were changing - if ever so
slightly. One Day at a Time, I became comfortable with
myself, and others, and my hurting started to heal.
Thank God for the training wheels and supporting hand
that I choose to call Alcoholics Anonymous.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

The A.A. program is more a way of building a new life
than just a way of getting over drinking, because in A.A.
we don't just stop drinking. We did that plenty of times
in the old days when we went "on the wagon." And, of
course, we always started to drink again, because we were
only waiting for the time when we could fall off. Once
we've gotten sober through the A.A. program, we start
going uphill. In our drinking days, we were going downhill,
getting worse and worse. We either go down or up. Am I
going uphill, getting better and better?

Meditation For The Day

I will try to obey God's will day in and day out, in the
wilderness plains as well as on the mountaintops of
experience. It is in the daily strivings that perseverance
counts. I believe that God is Lord of little things, the
Divine Controller of little happenings. I will persevere
in this new way of life. I know that nothing in the day
is too small to be a part of God's scheme.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that the little stones which I put into the mosaic
of my life may make a worthwhile pattern. I pray that I
may persevere and so find harmony and beauty.

Hazelden

(Let it be a God or Higher Power of your own understanding)