Step 2 Men's Group
Spirituality is essential to our sobriety.
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 …
OCTOBER 1947 Do You Yearn for Fellowship? Fellowship Alcoholics long for fellowship. As humiliations and misbehavior add up, they withdraw from society–from life itself. The cold fog of loneliness closes down. Even then they are pursued by the Four Horsemen: Terror, Bewilderment, Frustration and Despair. Perhaps you–even though you are not an alcoholic and never …
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 …
BY: J. E. | GUILFORD, CONNECTICUT – June 1962 (abridged) Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. THERE’S a spicy bit of folklore around called “The Hell-Bound Train,” in which the devil taunts a trainload of alcoholic wraiths as follows: “You’ve mocked at God …
BY: M. U. | BRIGHTON, COLORADO Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings FOR ME, at first glance Step Seven seemed a cinch, especially in comparison to some of the preceding Steps. As is often the case, on closer examination the seemingly simple proved to be anything but! I thought this Step was only a kind …
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!
Because this program did not dictate the name, size, shape, or color of the power that works here, I was forced to find my own.
The change has been a day-by-day change, one step at a time; but it all began with Step One and Step Two.
Well, that's exactly what this book is about. Its main objective is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem.
At 27 years, he was getting close to a drink. Would he tell someone or keep it to himself? About a month before my 27th AA anniversary, I found myself thinking about a drink. Since I had that much time in the program, I rationalized that I should be able to have a drink at …
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.
Take a look at this if you like, we will be reading this for our Thursday Step Study this week, April, 23. Of all the Twelve Steps, it seems the one most commonly rationalized and postponed is the Fourth. I had a bookful of “reasons” for not involving myself with it. After all, it was …
“When thus out of joint, man’s natural desires cause him great trouble, practically all the trouble there is. . . . We want to find exactly how, when, and where our natural desires have warped us.” Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions DURING ELEVEN years in AA, I have become more and more aware of the difficulty …
