Page 13 - AA NEWS FEBRUARY 2020

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THINGS TO DO AND PLACES TO GO Third Weekenders Camping
Lake Morena County Park
Where: 2550 Lake Morena Drive, Campo 91906 When: March 20-22
Contact: Bill H: holmes.family.8925@gmail.com
20/20 Vision
San Diego Spring Round Up 2020
Where: Town and Country Resort Hotel
500 Hotel Circle North, Mission Valley 92108 When: April 9-12, 2020
Contact: Central Office 619-265-8762
2020 International Convention Where: Detroit, Michigan
When: July 2-5, 2020
Contact: Central Office 619-265-8762
Our Great Responsibility;
"The Group Conscience and The Trusted Servant" pages 63 -64
"Now we are living in a time of change, so as to almost have discredited the old French maxim that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Yet in a sense that maxim is true with us so far as our basic principles are concerned. Although A.A. has passed from infancy to adolescence and now stands on the threshold of full responsibility, the more A.A. has changed, the more in the sense of its principles it is just the same.
Now when you look back upon these changes in A.A., the most difficult have been the changes in function or the means of functioning. I remember a first, very critical change in A.A., though still an infant relative to the new people coming in the door in the first couple of years, Dr. Bob and I were parents in which literally "father knows best," for the good reason that the newly born kids didn't yet know anything. That was our claim to parenthood, and this was a natural and proper state of affairs. And my first notice that times were changing was that day when in our living room the group - even before it had a name - said to me, 'You can't take that job up at Charlie Towns as a professional therapist! That would kill the chances of everyone to come. You might do a certain amount of good, but in this case the good is the enemy of the best.'"
Reprinted with permission from A.A.W.S.
Big Book; "Fear of Fear" page 293
"We have only been in A.A. a few years, but now we're trying to make up for lost time. Twenty-seven years of confusion is what my early married life was. Now the picture has changed completely. We have faith in each other, and understanding. A.A. has given us that. It has taught me so many things. It has changed my thinking entirely, about everything I do. I can't afford resentments against anyone, because they are the build-up of another drunk. I must live and let live. And 'think' - that one important word means so much to me. My life was always act and react. I never stopped to think. I just didn't give a whoop about myself or anyone else.
I try to live our program as it has been outlined to me, one day at a time. I try to live today so that tomorrow I won't be ashamed when I wake up in the morning. In the old days I hated to wake up and look back at what last night had been like. I never could face it the next morning. And unless I had some rosy picture of what was going to happen that day, I wouldn't even feel like getting up in the morning at all. It really wasn't living. Now I feel so very grateful not only for my sobriety, which I try to maintain day by day, but I'm grateful also for the ability to help other people. I never thought I could be useful to anyone except my husband and my children and perhaps a few friends. But A.A. has shown me that I can help other alcoholics."
Reprinted with permission from A.A.W.S.
Big Book; Chapter 9 "The Family Afterwards" page 130
"Those of us who have spent much time in the
world of spiritual make-believe have eventually seen the childishness of it. This dream world has been replaced by a great sense of purpose, accompanied by a growing consciousness of the power of God in our lives. We have come to believe He would like us to keep our heads in the clouds with Him, but that our feet ought to be firmly planted on earth. That is where our fellow travelers are, and that is where our work must be done. These are the realities for us. We have found nothing incompatible between a powerful spiritual experience and a life of sane and happy usefulness."
Reprinted with permission from A.A.W.S.
Big Book page 30
"The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death."
Reprinted with permission from A.A.W.S.
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