Book & Step Study

Fragments of AA History – Origin of the Twelve Steps I well remember the evening on which the Twelve Steps were written. I was lying in bed quite dejected and suffering from one of my imaginary ulcer attacks. Four chapters of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, had been roughed out and read in meetings in Akron …

On New Year's Eve, an e-mail arrived from my older sister, addressed to the whole family, announcing that she would no longer communicate with me about our mother's recent diagnosis of cancer.

BY: GEORGE B. | ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA Tradition Twelve When I first found Alcoholics Anonymous, part of its appeal lay in the second word of its name. Anonymity about my own alcoholism was something that I certainly wanted. Even though my friends and co-workers had seen me drunk often enough, I didn’t want them to know …

One may say that anonymity is the spiritual base, the sure key to all the rest of our Traditions. It has come to stand for prudence and, most importantly, for self-effacement.

When I finished my Step work, I knew something was different, but I wasn’t sure if it was a spiritual awakening.

BY: TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS – August 1998 Service, gladly rendered, obligations squarely met, troubles well accepted or solved with God’s help, the knowledge that at home or in the world outside we are partners in a common effort, the well-understood fact that in God’s sight all human beings are important, the proof that …

BY: ART V. | JOHNS ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA – August 2002 Time for one more. . . Every morning as I pour water into my coffee maker, I’m filled with gratitude because I’m reminded of what it was like fourteen years ago. Every morning, I filled a glass with brandy just to get my day …

As I slowly made my own way through the Steps, I was aware that I had to understand them fully if I was to take them.

BY: T. J. | HOUSTON, TEXAS – July 1981 BEFORE I CAME into AA, I answered to about ten different nicknames. I had as many names as I had roles and masks. But I had no identity. I was whoever you wanted me to be, a sailboat out on a lake with no destination, blown …

I drank for fifteen years, and for the last of those years, there was no question about whether or not I would drink. Today, the AA program and the grace of God have restored my choice. There’s no possibility of my staying sober on my own will or strength. I can’t do it alone. I …

BY: A. D. | GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALBERTA From the November 1957 Grapevine In my opinion, the minute we come down the stairs on meeting night we shed the cloak of the worries for the week to gather here for one purpose–to help one another. For a whole week, as individuals, we have had to make …

A rocky relationship in recovery I know what it is like to be a total failure as a father. On a cool November evening, I sat on a bench in a park near my house, trying to decide whether I wanted to live or die. My sixteen-year-old daughter rode up on her bicycle. “Dad, please …

FEBRUARY 2020 | TOUGH TIMES BY: CHUCK H. | LAGUNA WOODS, CALIF. The December 2006 issue of Grapevine included an article I wrote about my recovery and my marriage. In my story, I told of how I learned to apply the Steps of AA to my marriage and to my everyday life. Upon the suggestion …

The doctor said two ounces of alcohol, and this gin was only eighty proof--just forty percent alcohol--so I was shortchanging myself. I did the math. To get two ounces of real alcohol, I'd have to drink five ounces of gin!

The change has been a day-by-day change, one step at a time; but it all began with Step One and Step Two.

As a recovering alcoholic I see my recovery in similar terms. I stay sober because I enjoy my life sober much more than I enjoyed getting drunk, but that alone cannot satisfy me. I want to win--to grow in joy, serenity, and personal freedom.