readings

{
    "daily_reflections": [
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 1,
            "title": "'I AM A MIRACLE'",
            "quote": " The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.",
            "citation": " ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 25",
            "reading": " This truly is a fact in my life today, and a real miracle. I always believed in God, but could never put that belief meaningfully into my life. Today, because of Alcoholics Anonymous, I now trust and rely on God, as I understand Him; I am sober today because of that! Learning to trust and rely on God was something I could never have done alone. I now believe in miracles because I am one!  "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 2,
            "title": "FIRST, THE FOUNDATION",
            "quote": "Is sobriety all that we can expect of a spiritual awakening? No, sobriety is only a bare beginning.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 8",
            "reading": "Practicing the A.A. program is like building a house. First I had to pour a big, thick concrete slab on which to erect the house; that, to me, was the equivalent of stopping drinking. But it's pretty uncomfortable living on a concrete slab, unprotected and exposed to the heat, cold, wind and rain. So I built a room on the slab by starting to practice the program. The first room was rickety because I wasn't used to the work. But as time passed, as I practiced the program, I learned to build better rooms. The more I practiced, and the more I built, the more comfortable, and happy, was the home I now have to live in."
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 3,
            "title": "POWERLESS",
            "quote": "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 21",
            "reading": "It is no coincidence that the very first Step mentions powerlessness: An admission of personal powerlessness over alcohol is a cornerstone of the foundation of recovery. I've learned that I do not have the power and control I once thought I had. I am powerless over what people think about me. I am powerless over having just missed the bus. I am powerless over how other people work (or don't work) the Steps. But I've also learned I am not powerless over some things. I am not powerless over my attitudes. I am not powerless over negativity. I am not powerless over assuming responsibility for my own recovery. I have the power to exert a positive influence on myself, my loved ones, and the world in which I live. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 4,
            "title": "BEGIN WHERE YOU ARE",
            "quote": "We feel that elimination of our drinking is but a beginning. A much more important demonstration of our principles lies before us in our respective homes, occupations and affairs.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 19",
            "reading": "It's usually pretty easy for me to be pleasant to the people in an A.A. setting. While I'm working to stay sober, I'm celebrating with my fellow A.A.S our common release from the hell of drinking. It's often not so hard to spread glad tidings to my old and new friends in the program. At home or at work, though, it can be a different story. It is in situations arising in both of those areas that the little day-to-day frustrations are most evident, and where it can be tough to smile or reach out with a kind word or an attentive ear. It's outside of the A.A. rooms that I face the real test of the effectiveness of my walk through A.A.'s Twelve Steps. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 5,
            "title": "TOTAL ACCEPTANCE",
            "quote": "He cannot picture life without alcohol Some day he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it. Then he will know loneliness such as few do. He will be at the jumping-off place. He will wish for the end.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 152",
            "reading": "Only an alcoholic can understand the exact meaning of a statement like this one. The double standard that held me captive as an active alcoholic also filled me with terror and confusion: 'If I don't get a drink I'm going to die,' competed with 'If I continue drinking it's going to kill me'. Both compulsive thoughts pushed me ever closer to the bottom. That bottom produced a total acceptance of my alcoholism—with no reservations whatsoever—and one that was absolutely essential for my recovery. It was a dilemma unlike anything I had ever faced, but as I found out later on, a necessary one if I was to succeed in this program. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 6,
            "title": "THE VICTORY OF SURRENDER",
            "quote": "We perceive that only through utter defeat are we able to take our first steps toward liberation and strength. Our admissions of personal powerlessness finally turn out to be firm bedrock upon which happy and purposeful lives may be built",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 21",
            "reading": "When alcohol influenced every facet of my life, when bottles became the symbol of all my self-indulgence and permissiveness, when I came to realize that, by myself, I could do nothing to overcome the power of alcohol, I realized I had no recourse except surrender. In surrender I found victory—victory over my selfish self-indulgence, victory over my stubborn resistance to life as it was given to me. When I stopped fighting anybody or anything, I started on the path to sobriety, serenity and peace. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 7,
            "title": "AT THE TURNING POINT",
            "quote": "Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 59",
            "reading": "Every day I stand at turning points. My thoughts and actions can propel me toward growth or turn me down the road to old habits and to booze. Sometimes turning points are beginnings, as when I decide to start praising, instead of condemning someone. Or when I begin to ask for help instead of going it alone. At other times turning points are endings, such as when I see clearly the need to stop festering resentments or crippling self-seeking. Many shortcomings tempt me daily; therefore, I also have daily opportunities to become aware of them. In one form or another, many of my character defects appear daily: selfcondemnation, anger, running away, being prideful, wanting to get even, or acting out of grandiosity. Attempting half measures to eliminate these defects merely paralyzes my efforts to change. It is only when I ask God for help, with complete abandon, that I become willing—and able—to change. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 8,
            "title": "DO I HAVE A CHOICE?",
            "quote": "The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 24",
            "reading": "My powerlessness over alcohol does not cease when I quit drinking. In sobriety I still have no choice—I can't drink. The choice I do have is to pick up and use the 'kit of spiritual tools' (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 25). When I do that, my Higher Power relieves me of my lack of choice— and keeps me sober one more day. If I could choose not to pick up a drink today, where then would be my need for A.A. or a Higher Power? "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 9,
            "title": "AN ACT OF PROVIDENCE",
            "quote": "It is truly awful to admit that, glass in hand, we have warped our minds into such an obsession for destructive drinking that only an act of Providence can remove it from us.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 21",
            "reading": "My act of Providence, (a manifestation of divine care and direction), came as I experienced the total bankruptcy of active alcoholism—everything meaningful in my life was gone. I telephoned Alcoholics Anonymous and, from that instant, my life has never been the same. When I reflect on that very special moment, I know that God was working in my life long before I was able to acknowledge and accept spiritual concepts. The glass was put down through this one act of Providence and my journey into sobriety began. My life continues to unfold with divine care and direction. Step One, in which I admitted I was powerless over alcohol, that my life had become unmanageable, takes on more meaning for me—one day at a time—in the life-saving, life-giving Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 10,
            "title": "UNITED WE STAND",
            "quote": "We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 30",
            "reading": "I came to Alcoholics Anonymous because I was no longer able to control my drinking. It was either my wife's complaining about my drinking, or maybe the sheriff forced me to go to A.A. meetings, or perhaps I knew, deep down inside, that I couldn't drink like others, but I was unwilling to admit it because the alternative terrified me. Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women united against a common, fatal disease. Each one of our lives is linked to every other, much like the survivors on a life raft at sea. If we all work together, we can get safely to shore. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 11,
            "title": "THE 100% STEP",
            "quote": "Only Step One, where we made the 100 percent admission we were powerless over alcohol can be practiced with absolute perfection.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 68",
            "reading": "Long before I was able to obtain sobriety in A.A., I knew without a doubt that alcohol was killing me, yet even with this knowledge, I was unable to stop drinking. So, when faced with Step One, I found it easy to admit that I lacked the power to not drink. But was my life unmanageable? Never! Five months after coming into A.A., I was drinking again and wondered why. Later on, back in A.A. and smarting from my wounds, I learned that Step One is the only Step that can be taken 100%. And that the only way to take it 100% is to take 100% of the Step. That was many twenty-four hours ago and I haven't had to take Step One again. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 12,
            "title": "ACCEPTING OUR PRESENT",
            "quote": "CIRCUMSTANCES Our very first problem is to accept our present circumstances as they are, ourselves as we are, and the people about us as they are. This is to adopt a realistic humility without which no genuine advance can even begin. Again and again, we shall need to return to that unflattering point of departure. This is an exercise in acceptance that we can profitably practice every day of our lives. Provided we strenuously avoid turning these realistic surveys of the facts of life into unrealistic alibis for apathy or defeatism, they can be the sure foundation upon which increased emotional health and therefore spiritual progress can be built.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 44",
            "reading": "When I am having a difficult time accepting people, places or events, I turn to this passage and it relieves me of many an underlying fear regarding others, or situations life presents me. The thought allows me to be human and not perfect, and to regain my peace of mind. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 13,
            "title": "IT DOESN'T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT",
            "quote": "We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85",
            "reading": "The most common alcoholic fantasy seems to be: 'If I just don't drink, everything will be all right'. Once the fog cleared for me, I saw—for the first time—the mess my life had become. I had family, work, financial and legal problems; I was hung up on old religious ideas; there were sides of my character to which I was inclined to stay blind because they easily could have convinced me that I was hopeless and pushed me toward escape again. The Big Book guided me in resolving all of my problems. But it didn't happen overnight—and certainly not automatically— with no effort on my part. I need always to recognize God's mercy and blessings that shine through any problem I have to face. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 14,
            "title": "NO REGRETS",
            "quote": "We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 83",
            "reading": "Once I became sober, I began to see how wasteful my life had been and I experienced overwhelming guilt and feelings of regret. The program's Fourth and Fifth Steps assisted me enormously in healing those troubling regrets. I learned that my self-centeredness and dishonesty stemmed largely from my drinking and that I drank because I was an alcoholic. Now I see how even my most distasteful past experiences can turn to gold because, as a sober alcoholic, I can share them to help my fellow alcoholics, particularly newcomers. Sober for several years in A.A., I no longer regret the past; I am simply grateful to be conscious of God's love and of the help I can give to others in the Fellowship. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 15,
            "title": "AN UNSUSPECTED INNER RESOURCE",
            "quote": "With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pp. 569-70",
            "reading": "From my first days in A.A., as I struggled for sobriety, I found hope in these words from our founders. I often pondered the phrase: 'they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource.' How, I asked myself, can I find the Power within myself, since I am so powerless? In time, as the founders promised, it came to me: I have always had the choice between goodness and evil, between unselfishness and selfishness, between serenity and fear. That Power greater than myself is an original gift that I did not recognize until I achieved daily sobriety through living A.A.'s Twelve Steps. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 16,
            "title": "HITTING BOTTOM",
            "quote": "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.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 24",
            "reading": "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. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 17,
            "title": "HAPPINESS COMES QUIETLY",
            "quote": "'The trouble with us alcoholics was this: We demanded that the world give us happiness and peace of mind in just the particular order we wanted to get it—by the alcohol route. And we weren't successful. But when we take time to find out some of the spiritual laws, and familiarize ourselves with them, and put them into practice, then we do get happiness and peace of mind. . . . There seem to be some rules that we have to follow, but happiness and peace of mind are always here, open and free to anyone.'",
            "citation": "DR. BOB AND THE GOOD OLDTIMERS, p. 308",
            "reading": "The simplicity of the A. A. program teaches me that happiness isn't something I can 'demand.' It comes upon me quietly, while I serve others. In offering my hand to the newcomer or to someone who has relapsed, I find that my own sobriety has been recharged with indescribable gratitude and happiness. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 18,
            "title": "WOULD A DRINK HELP?",
            "quote": "By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 23",
            "reading": "When I was still drinking, I couldn't respond to any of life's situations the way other, more healthy, people could. The smallest incident triggered a state of mind that believed I had to have a drink to numb my feelings. But the numbing did not improve the situation, so I sought further escape in the bottle. Today I must be aware of my alcoholism. I cannot afford to believe that I have gained control of my drinking—or again I will think I have gained control of my life. Such a feeling of control is fatal to my recovery. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 19,
            "title": "ROUND-THE-CLOCK FAITH",
            "quote": "Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 16",
            "reading": "The essence of my spirituality, and my sobriety, rests on a round-the-clock faith in a Higher Power. I need to remember and rely on the God of my understanding as I pursue all of my daily activities. How comforting for me is the concept that God works in and through people. As I pause in my day, do I recall specific concrete examples of God's presence? Am I amazed and uplifted by the number of times this power is evident? I am overwhelmed with gratitude for my God's presence in my life of recovery. Without this omnipotent force in my every activity, I would again fall into the depths of my disease—and death. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 20,
            "title": "'WE PAUSE . . . AND ASK'",
            "quote": "As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 87",
            "reading": "Today I humbly ask my Higher Power for the grace to find the space between my impulse and my action; to let flow a cooling breeze when I would respond with heat; to interrupt fierceness with gentle peace; to accept the moment which allows judgment to become discernment; to defer to silence when my tongue would rush to attack or defend. I promise to watch for every opportunity to turn toward my Higher Power for guidance. I know where this power is: it resides within me, as clear as a mountain brook, hidden in the hills—it is the unsuspected Inner Resource. I thank my Higher Power for this world of light and truth I see when I allow it to direct my vision. I trust it today and hope it trusts me to make all effort to find the right thought or action today. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 21,
            "title": "SERVING MY BROTHER",
            "quote": "The member talks to the newcomer not in a spirit of power but in a spirit of humility and weakness.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS COMES OF AGE p. 279",
            "reading": "As the days pass in A.A., I ask God to guide my thoughts and the words that I speak. In this labor of continuous participation in the Fellowship, I have numerous opportunities to speak. So I frequently ask God to help me watch over my thoughts and my words, that they may be the true and proper reflections of our program; to focus my aspirations once again to seek His guidance; to help me be truly kind and loving, helpful and healing, yet always filled with humility, and free from any trace of arrogance. Today I may very well have to deal with disagreeable attitudes or utterances—the typical stock-in-trade attitude of the still-suffering alcoholic. If this should happen, I will take a moment to center myself in God, so that I will be able to respond from a perspective of composure, strength and sensibility. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 22,
            "title": "'LET'S KEEP IT SIMPLE'",
            "quote": "A few hours later I took my leave of Dr. Bob. . . . The wonderful, old, broad smile was on his face as he said almost jokingly, 'Remember, Bill, let's not louse this thing up. Let's keep it simple!'' I turned away, unable to say a word. That was the last time I ever saw him.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS COMES OF AGE, p. 214",
            "reading": "After years of sobriety I occasionally ask myself: 'Can it be this simple?' Then, at meetings, I see former cynics and skeptics who have walked the A. A. path out of hell by packaging their lives, without alcohol, into twenty-four hour segments, during which they practice a few principles to the best of their individual abilities. And then I know again that, while it isn't always easy, if I keep it simple, it works. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 23,
            "title": "HAVING FUN YET?",
            "quote": ". . . we aren't a glum lot. If newcomers could see no joy or fun in our existence, they wouldn't want it. We absolutely insist on enjoying life. We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of the nations, nor do we carry the world's troubles on our shoulders",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 132",
            "reading": "When my own house is in order, I find the different parts of my life are more manageable. Stripped from the guilt and remorse that cloaked my drinking years, I am free to assume my proper role in the universe, but this condition requires maintenance. I should stop and ask myself, Am I having fun yet? If I find answering that question difficult or painful, perhaps I'm taking myself too seriously—and finding it difficult to admit that I've strayed from my practice of working the program to keep my house in order. I think the pain I experience is one way my Higher Power has to get my attention, coaxing me to take stock of my performance. The slight time and effort it takes to work the program—a spot-check inventory, for example, or the making of amends, whatever is appropriate—are well worth the effort. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 24,
            "title": "GETTING INVOLVED",
            "quote": "There is action and more action. 'Faith without works is dead.' . . . To be helpful is our only aim.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pp. 88-89",
            "reading": "I understand that service is a vital part of recovery but I often wonder, 'What can I do?' Simply start with what I have today! I look around to see where there is a need. Are the ashtrays full? Do I have hands and feet to empty them? Suddenly I'm involved! The best speaker may make the worst coffee; the member who's best with newcomers may be unable to read; the one willing to clean up may make a mess of the bank account—yet every one of these people and jobs is essential to an active group. The miracle of service is this: when I use what I have, I find there is more available to me than I realized before. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 25,
            "title": "WHAT WE NEED—EACH OTHER",
            "quote": ". . . A.A. is really saying to every serious drinker, 'You are an A.A. member if you say so . . . nobody can keep you out.'",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 139",
            "reading": "For years, whenever I reflected on Tradition Three ('The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking'), I thought it valuable only to newcomers. It was their guarantee that no one could bar them from A.A. Today I feel enduring gratitude for the spiritual development the Tradition has brought me. I don't seek out people obviously different from myself. Tradition Three, concentrating on the one way I am similar to others, brought me to know and help every kind of alcoholic, just as they have helped me. Charlotte, the atheist, showed me higher standards of ethics and honor; Clay, of another race, taught me patience; Winslow, who is gay, led me by example into true compassion; Young Megan says that seeing me at meetings, sober thirty years, keeps her coming back. Tradition Three insured that we would get what we need—each other. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 26,
            "title": "RIGOROUS HONESTY",
            "quote": "Who wishes to be rigorously honest and tolerant? Who wants to confess his faults to another and make restitution for harm done? Who cares anything about a Higher Power, let alone meditation and prayer? Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry A.A. 's message to the next sufferer? No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn't care for this prospect—unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 24",
            "reading": "I am an alcoholic. If I drink I will die. My, what power, energy, and emotion this simple statement generates in me! But it's really all I need to know for today. Am I willing to stay alive today? Am I willing to stay sober today? Am I willing to ask for help and am I willing to be a help to another suffering alcoholic today? Have I discovered the fatal nature of my situation? What must I do, today, to stay sober? "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 27,
            "title": "FREEDOM FROM GUILT",
            "quote": "Where other people were concerned, we had to drop the word 'blame' from our speech and thought.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 47",
            "reading": "When I become willing to accept my own powerlessness, I begin to realize that blaming myself for all the trouble in my life can be an ego trip back into hopelessness. Asking for help and listening deeply to the messages inherent in the Steps and Traditions of the program make it possible to change those attitudes which delay my recovery. Before joining A.A., I had such a desire for approval from people in powerful positions that I was willing to sacrifice myself, and others, to gain a foothold in the world. I invariably came to grief. In the program I find true friends who love, understand, and care to help me learn the truth about myself. With the help of the Twelve Steps, I am able to build a better life, free of guilt and the need for selfjustification."
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 28,
            "title": "THE TREASURE OF THE PAST",
            "quote": "Showing others who suffer how we were given help is the very thing which makes life seem so worth while to us now. Cling to the thought that, in God's hands, the dark past is the greatest possession you have—the key to life and happiness for others. With it you can avert death and misery for them.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 124",
            "reading": "What a gift it is for me to realize that all those seemingly useless years were not wasted. The most degrading and humiliating experiences turn out to be the most powerful tools in helping others to recover. In knowing the depths of shame and despair, I can reach out with a loving and compassionate hand, and know that the grace of God is available to me. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 29,
            "title": "THE JOY OF SHARING",
            "quote": "Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends— this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 89",
            "reading": "To know that each newcomer with whom I share has the opportunity to experience the relief that I have found in this Fellowship fills me with joy and gratitude. I feel that all the things described in A.A. will come to pass for them, as they have for me, if they seize the opportunity and embrace the program fully. "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 30,
            "title": "FREEDOM FROM . . . FREEDOM TO",
            "quote": "We are going to know a new freedom. . . .",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 83",
            "reading": "Freedom for me is both freedom from and freedom to. The first freedom I enjoy is freedom from the slavery of alcohol. What a relief! Then I begin to experience freedom from fear—fear of people, of economic insecurity, of commitment, of failure, of rejection. Then I begin to enjoy freedom to—freedom to choose sobriety for today, freedom to be myself, freedom to express my opinion, to experience peace of mind, to love and be loved, and freedom to grow spiritually. But how can I achieve these freedoms? The Big Book clearly says that before I am halfway through making amends, I will begin to know a 'new' freedom; not the old freedom of doing what I pleased, without regard to others, but the new freedom that allows fulfillment of the promises in my life. What a joy to be free! "
        },
        {
            "month": "JANUARY",
            "day": 31,
            "title": "OUR COMMON WELFARE COMES FIRST",
            "quote": "The unity of Alcoholics Anonymous is the most cherished quality our Society has . . . We stay whole, or A. A. dies",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 129",
            "reading": "Our Traditions are key elements in the ego deflation process necessary to achieve and maintain sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous. The First Tradition reminds me not to take credit, or authority, for my recovery. Placing our common welfare first reminds me not to become a healer in this program; I am still one of the patients. Selfeffacing elders built the ward. Without it, I doubt I would be alive. Without the group, few alcoholics would recover. The active role in renewed surrender of will enables me to step aside from the need to dominate, the desire for recognition, both of which played so great a part in my active alcoholism. Deferring my personal desires for the greater good of group growth contributes toward A.A. unity that is central to all recovery. It helps me to remember that the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 1,
            "title": "GOAL: SANITY",
            "quote": "'. . . Step Two gently and very gradually began to infiltrate my life. I can't say upon what occasion or upon what day I came to believe in a Power greater than myself, but I certainly have that belief now.'",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 27",
            "reading": "'Came to believe!' I gave lip service to my belief when I felt like it or when I thought it would look good. I didn't really trust God. I didn't believe He cared for me. I kept trying to change things I couldn't change. Gradually, in disgust, I began to turn it all over, saying: 'You're so omnipotent, you take care of it.' He did. I began to receive answers to my deepest problems, sometimes at the most unusual times: driving to work, eating lunch, or when I was sound asleep. I realized that I hadn't thought of those solutions—a Power greater than myself had given them to me. I came to believe. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 2,
            "title": "RESCUED BY SURRENDERING",
            "quote": "Characteristic of the so-called typical alcoholic is a narcissistic egocentric core, dominated by feelings of omnipotence, intent on maintaining at all costs its inner integrity. . . . Inwardly the alcoholic brooks no control from man or God He, the alcoholic, is and must be the master of his destiny. He will fight to the end to preserve that position.",
            "citation": "A.A. COMES OF AGE, p. 311",
            "reading": "The great mystery is: 'Why do some of us die alcoholic deaths, fighting to preserve the 'independence' of our ego, while others seem to sober up effortlessly in A.A.?' Help from a Higher Power, the gift of sobriety, came to me when an otherwise unexplained desire to stop drinking coincided with my willingness to accept the suggestions of the men and women of A.A. I had to surrender, for only by reaching out to God and my fellows could I be rescued. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 3,
            "title": "FILLING THE VOID",
            "quote": "We needed to ask ourselves but one short question. 'Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?' As soon as a man can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 47",
            "reading": "I was always fascinated with the study of scientific principles. I was emotionally and physically distant from people while I pursued Absolute Knowledge. God and spirituality were meaningless academic exercises. I was a modern man of science, knowledge was my Higher Power. Given the right set of equations, life was merely another problem to solve. Yet my inner self was dying from my outer man's solution to life's problems and the solution was alcohol. In spite of my intelligence, alcohol became my Higher Power. It was through the unconditional love which emanated from A.A. people and meetings that I was able to discard alcohol as my Higher Power. The great void was filled. I was no longer lonely and apart from life. I had found a true power greater than myself, I had found God's love. There is only one equation which really matters to me now: God is in A.A. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 4,
            "title": "WHEN FAITH IS MISSING",
            "quote": "Sometimes A.A. comes harder to those who have lost or rejected faith than to those who never had any faith at all, for they think they have tried faith and found it wanting. They have tried the way of faith and the way of no faith.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 28",
            "reading": "I was so sure God had failed me that I became ultimately defiant, though I knew better, and plunged into a final drinking binge. My faith turned bitter and that was no coincidence. Those who once had great faith hit bottom harder. It took time to rekindle my faith, though I came to A.A. I was grateful intellectually to have survived such a great fall, but my heart felt callous. Still, I stuck with the A.A. program; the alternatives were too bleak! I kept coming back and gradually my faith was resurrected. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 5,
            "title": "A GLORIOUS RELEASE",
            "quote": "'The minute I stopped arguing, I could begin to see and feel Right there, Step Two gently and very gradually began to infiltrate my life. I can't say upon what occasion or upon what day I came to believe in a Power greater than myself, but I certainly have that belief now. To acquire it, I had only to stop fighting and practice the rest of A.A. 's program as enthusiastically as I could.'",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 27",
            "reading": "After years of indulging in a 'self-will run riot', Step Two became for me a glorious release from being all alone. Nothing is so painful or insurmountable in my journey now. Someone is always there to share life's burdens with me. Step Two became a reinforcement with God, and I now realize that my insanity and ego were curiously linked. To rid myself of the former, I must give up the latter to one with far broader shoulders than my own. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 6,
            "title": "A RALLYING POINT",
            "quote": "Therefore, Step Two is the rallying point for all of us. Whether agnostic, atheist, or former believer, we can stand together on this Step.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 33",
            "reading": "I feel that A.A. is a God-inspired program and that God is at every A.A. meeting. I see, believe, and have come to know that A.A. works, because I have stayed sober today. I am turning my life over to A.A. and to God by going to an A.A. meeting. If God is in my heart and everyone else's, then I am a small part of a whole and I am not unique. If God is in my heart and He speaks to me through other people, then I must be a channel of God to other people. I should seek to do His will by living spiritual principles and my reward will be sanity and emotional sobriety. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 7,
            "title": "A PATH TO FAITH",
            "quote": "True humility and an open mind can lead us to faith, and every A.A. meeting is an assurance that God will restore us to sanity if we rightly relate ourselves to Him.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 33",
            "reading": "My last drunk had landed me in the hospital, totally broken. It was then that I was able to see my past float in front of me. I realized that, through drinking, I had lived every nightmare I had ever had. My own self-will and obsession to drink had driven me into a dark pit of hallucinations, blackouts and despair. Finally beaten, I asked for God's help. His presence told me to believe. My obsession for alcohol was taken away and my paranoia has since been lifted. I am no longer afraid. I know my life is healthy and sane. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 8,
            "title": "CONVINCING 'MR. HYDE'",
            "quote": "Even then, as we hew away, peace and joy will still elude us. That's the place so many of us A. A. oldsters have come to. And it's a hell of a spot, literally. How shall our unconscious—from which so many of our fears, compulsions and phony aspirations still stream —be brought into line with what we actually believe, know and want! How to convince our dumb, raging and hidden 'Mr. Hyde' becomes our main task.",
            "citation": "THE BEST OF BILL, pp. 42-43",
            "reading": "Regular attendance at meetings, serving and helping others is the recipe that many have tried and found to be successful. Whenever I stray from these basic principles, my old habits resurface and my old self also comes back with all its fears and defects. The ultimate goal of each A.A. member is permanent sobriety, achieved One Day at a Time. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 9,
            "title": "GETTING THE 'SPIRITUAL ANGLE'",
            "quote": "How often do we sit in AA meetings and hear the speaker declare, 'But I haven't yet got the spiritual angle.' Prior to this statement, he had described a miracle of transformation which had occurred in him—not only his release from alcohol, but a complete change in his whole attitude toward life and the living of it It is apparent to nearly everyone else present that he has received a great gift; ' . . . except that he doesn't seem to know it yet!' We well know that this questioning individual will tell us six months or a year hence that he has found faith in God.",
            "citation": "LANGUAGE OF THE HEART, p. 275",
            "reading": "A spiritual experience can be the realization that a life which once seemed empty and devoid of meaning is now joyous and full. In my life today, daily prayer and meditation, coupled with living the Twelve Steps, has brought about an inner peace and feeling of belonging which was missing when I was drinking. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 10,
            "title": "I DON'T RUN THE SHOW",
            "quote": "When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn't What was our choice to be?",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 53",
            "reading": "Today my choice is God. He is everything. For this I am truly grateful. When I think I am running the show I am blocking God from my life. I pray I can remember this when I allow myself to get caught up into self. The most important thing is that today I am willing to grow along spiritual lines, and that God is everything. When I was trying to quit drinking on my own, it never worked; with God and A.A., it is working. This seems to be a simple thought for a complicated alcoholic. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 11,
            "title": "THE LIMITS OF SELF-RELIANCE",
            "quote": "We asked ourselves why we had them [fears]. Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us?",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 68",
            "reading": "All of my character defects separate me from God's will. When I ignore my association with Him I face the world and my alcoholism alone and must depend on self-reliance. I have never found security and happiness through self-will and the only result is a life of fear and discontent. God provides the path back to Him and to His gift of serenity and comfort. First, however, I must be willing to acknowledge my fears and understand their source and power over me. I frequently ask God to help me understand how I separate myself from Him. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 12,
            "title": "'THE ROOT OF OUR TROUBLES'",
            "quote": "Selfishness—self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 62",
            "reading": "How amazing the revelation that the world, and everyone in it, can get along just fine with or without me. What a relief to know that people, places and things will be perfectly okay without my control and direction. And how wordlessly wonderful to come to believe that a power greater than me exists separate and apart from myself. I believe that the feeling of separation I experience between me and God will one day vanish. In the meantime, faith must serve as the pathway to the center of my life. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 13,
            "title": "WE CAN'T THINK OUR WAY SOBER",
            "quote": "To the intellectually self-sufficient man or woman, many A. A.'s can say, 'Yes, we were like you—far too smart for our own good. . . . Secretly, we felt we could float above the rest of the folks on our brain power alone.'",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 60",
            "reading": "Even the most brilliant mind is no defense against the disease of alcoholism. I can't think my way sober. I try to remember that intelligence is a God-given attribute that I may use, a joy—like having a talent for dancing or drawing or carpentry. It does not make me better than anyone else, and it is not a particularly reliable tool for recovery, for it is a power greater than myself who will restore me to sanity—not a high IQ or a college degree. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 14,
            "title": "EXPECTATIONS vs. DEMANDS",
            "quote": "Burn the idea into the consciousness of ever, man that he can get well regardless of anyone. The only condition is that he trust in God and clean house.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 98",
            "reading": "Dealing with expectations is a frequent topic at meetings. It isn't wrong to expect progress of myself, good things from life, or decent treatment from others. Where I get into trouble is when my expectations become demands. I will fall short of what I wish to be and situations will go in ways I do not like, because people will let me down sometimes. The only question is: 'What am I going to do about it?' Wallow in self-pity or anger; retaliate and make a bad situation worse; or will I trust in God's power to bring blessings on the messes in which I find myself? Will I ask Him what I should be learning; do I keep on doing the right things I know how to do, no matter what; do I take time to share my faith and blessings with others? "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 15,
            "title": "TAKING ACTION",
            "quote": "Are these extravagant promises? We think not They are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84",
            "reading": "One of the most important things A.A. has given me, in addition to freedom from booze, is the ability to take 'right action.' It says the promises will always materialize if I work for them. Fantasizing about them, debating them, preaching about them and faking them just won't work. I'll remain a miserable, rationalizing dry drunk. By taking action and working the Twelve Steps in all my affairs, I'll have a life beyond my wildest dreams. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 16,
            "title": "COMMITMENT",
            "quote": "Understanding is the key to right principles and attitudes, and right action is the key to good living.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 125",
            "reading": "There came a time in my program of recovery when the third stanza of the Serenity Prayer—'The wisdom to know the difference'—became indelibly imprinted in my mind. From that time on, I had to face the ever-present knowledge that my every action, word and thought was within, or outside, the principles of the program. I could no longer hide behind self-rationalization, nor behind the insanity of my disease. The only course open to me, if I was to attain a joyous life for myself (and subsequently for those I love), was one in which I imposed on myself an effort of commitment, discipline, and responsibility. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 17,
            "title": "THE LOVE IN THEIR EYES",
            "quote": "Some of us won't believe in God, others can't, and still others who do believe that God exists have no faith whatever He will perform this miracle.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 25",
            "reading": "It was the changes I saw in the new people who came into the Fellowship that helped me lose my fear, and change my negative attitude to a positive one. I could see the love in their eyes and I was impressed by how much their 'One Day at a Time' sobriety meant to them. They had looked squarely at Step Two and came to believe that a power greater than themselves was restoring them to sanity. That gave me faith in the Fellowship, and hope that it could work for me too. I found that God was a loving God, not that punishing God I feared before coming to A.A. I also found that He had been with me during all those times I had been in trouble before I came to A.A. I know today that He was the one who led me to A.A. and that I am a miracle. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 18,
            "title": "OUR PATHS ARE OUR OWN",
            "quote": ". . . there was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 25",
            "reading": "My first attempt at the Steps was one of obligation and necessity, which resulted in a deep feeling of discouragement in the face of all those adverbs: courageously; completely; humbly; directly; and only. I considered Bill W. fortunate to have gone through such a major, even sensational, spiritual experience. I had to discover, as time went on, that my path was my own. After a few twenty-four hours in the A.A. Fellowship, thanks especially to the sharing of members in the meetings, I understood that everyone gradually finds his or her own pace in moving through the Steps. Through progressive means, I try to live according to these suggested principles. As a result of these Steps, I can say today that my attitude towards life, people, and towards anything having to do with God, has been transformed and improved. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 19,
            "title": "I'M NOT DIFFERENT",
            "quote": "In the beginning, it was four whole years before A. A. brought permanent sobriety to even one alcoholic woman. Like the 'high bottoms,' the women said they were different; . . . The Skid-Rower said he was different . . . so did the artists and the professional people, the rich, the poor, the religious, the agnostic, the Indians and the Eskimos, the veterans, and the prisoners . . . nowadays all of these, and legions more, soberly talk about how very much alike all of us alcoholics are when we admit that the chips are finally down.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 24",
            "reading": "I cannot consider myself 'different' in A. A.; if I do I isolate myself from others and from contact with my Higher Power. If I feel isolated in A.A., it is not something for which others are responsible. It is something I've created by feeling I'm 'different' in some way. Today I practice being just another alcoholic in the worldwide Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 20,
            "title": "THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER",
            "quote": "At this juncture, his A.A. sponsor usually laughs.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 26",
            "reading": "Before my recovery from alcoholism began, laughter was one of the most painful sounds I knew. I never laughed and I felt that anyone else's laughter was directed at me! My self-pity and anger denied me the simplest of pleasures or lightness of heart. By the end of my drinking not even alcohol could provoke a drunken giggle in me. When my A.A. sponsor began to laugh and point out my self-pity and ego-feeding deceptions, I was annoyed and hurt, but it taught me to lighten up and focus on my recovery. I soon learned to laugh at myself and eventually I taught those I sponsor to laugh also. Every day I ask God to help me stop taking myself too seriously. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 21,
            "title": "I'M PART OF THE WHOLE",
            "quote": "At once, I became a part—if only a tiny part—of a cosmos. . . .",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 225",
            "reading": "When I first came to A.A., I decided that 'they' were very nice people—perhaps a little naive, a little too friendly, but basically decent, earnest people (with whom I had nothing in common). I saw 'them' at meetings—after all, that was where 'they' existed. I shook hands with 'them' and, when I went out the door, I forgot about 'them.' Then one day my Higher Power, whom I did not then believe in, arranged to create a community project outside of A.A., but one which happened to involve many A.A. members. We worked together, I got to know 'them' as people. I came to admire 'them,' even to like 'them' and, in spite of myself, to enjoy 'them.' 'Their' practice of the program in their daily lives—not just in talk at meetings— attracted me and I wanted what they had. Suddenly the 'they' became 'we.' I have not had a drink since. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 22,
            "title": "GUIDANCE",
            "quote": ". . . this means a belief in a Creator who is all power, justice, and love; a God who intends for me a purpose, a meaning, and a destiny to grow, however . . . haltingly, toward His own likeness and image.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 51",
            "reading": "As I began to understand my own powerlessness and my dependence on God, as I understand Him, I began to see that there was a life which, if I could have it, I would have chosen for myself from the beginning. It is through the continuing work of the Steps and the life in the Fellowship that I've learned to see that there is truly a better way into which I am being guided. As I come to know more about God, I am able to trust His ways and His plans for the development of His character in me. Quickly or not so quickly, I grow toward His own image and likeness. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 23,
            "title": "MYSTERIOUS PARADOXES",
            "quote": "Such is the paradox of A.A. regeneration: strength arising out of complete defeat and weakness, the loss of one's old life as a condition for finding a new one.",
            "citation": "A.A. COMES OF AGE, p. 46",
            "reading": "What glorious mysteries paradoxes are! They do not compute, yet when recognized and accepted, they reaffirm something in the universe beyond human logic. When I face a fear, I am given courage; when I support a brother or sister, my capacity to love myself is increased; when I accept pain as part of the growing experience of life, I realize a greater happiness; when I look at my dark side, I am brought into new light; when I accept my vulnerabilities and surrender to a Higher Power, I am graced with unforeseen strength. I stumbled through the doors of A.A. in disgrace, expecting nothing from life, and I have been given hope and dignity. Miraculously, the only way to keep the gifts of the program is to pass them on. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 24,
            "title": "A THANKFUL HEART",
            "quote": "/ try to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits. When brimming with gratitude, one's heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion that we can ever know.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 37",
            "reading": "My sponsor told me that I should be a grateful alcoholic and always have 'an attitude of gratitude'—that gratitude was the basic ingredient of humility, that humility was the basic ingredient of anonymity and that 'anonymity was the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.' As a result of this guidance, I start every morning on my knees, thanking God for three things: I'm alive, I'm sober, and I'm a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Then I try to live an 'attitude of gratitude' and thoroughly enjoy another twenty-four hours of the A.A. way of life. A.A. is not something I joined; it's something I live."
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 25,
            "title": "THE CHALLENGE OF FAILURE",
            "quote": "In God's economy, nothing is wasted. Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which is probably needed, painful though it is.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 31",
            "reading": "How thankful I am today, to know that all my past failures were necessary for me to be where I am now. Through much pain came experience and, in suffering, I became obedient. When I sought God, as I understand Him, He shared His treasured gifts. Through experience and obedience, growth started, followed by gratitude. Yes, then came peace of mind—living in and sharing sobriety. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 26,
            "title": "NO ORDINARY SUCCESS STORY",
            "quote": "A.A. is no success story in the ordinary sense of the word. It is a story of suffering transmuted, under grace, into spiritual progress.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 35",
            "reading": "Upon entering A.A. I listened to others talk about the reality of their drinking: loneliness, terror and pain. As I listened further, I soon heard a description of a very different kind—the reality of sobriety. It is a reality of freedom and happiness, of purpose and direction, and of serenity and peace with God, ourselves and others. By attending meetings I am reintroduced to that reality, over and over. I see it in the eyes and hear it in the voices of those around me. By working the program I find the direction and strength with which to make it mine. The joy of A.A. is that this new reality is available to me. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 27,
            "title": "A UNIQUE STABILITY",
            "quote": "Where does A.A. get its direction? . . . These practical folk then read Tradition Two, and learn that the sole authority in A.A. is a loving God as He may express Himself in the group conscience. . . . The elder statesman is the one who sees the wisdom of the group's decision, who holds no resentment over his reduced status, whose judgment, fortified by considerable experience, is sound, and who is willing to sit quietly on the sidelines patiently awaiting developments",
            "citation": " TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 132, 135",
            "reading": " Into the fabric of recovery from alcoholism are woven the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions. As my recovery progressed, I realized that the new mantle was tailor-made for me. The elders of the group gently offered suggestions when change seemed impossible. Everyone's shared experiences became the substance for treasured friendships. I know that the Fellowship is ready and equipped to aid each suffering alcoholic at all crossroads in life. In a world beset by many problems, I find this assurance a unique stability. I cherish the gift of sobriety. I offer God my gratitude for the strength I receive in a Fellowship that truly exists for the good of all members. "
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 28,
            "title": "WHAT? NO PRESIDENT?",
            "quote": "When told that our Society has no president having authority to govern it, no treasurer who can compel the payment of any dues, . . . our friends gasp and exclaim, 'This simply can 't be. . . .'",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 132",
            "reading": "When I finally made my way to A.A., I could not believe that there was no treasurer to 'compel the payment of dues.' I could not imagine an organization that didn't require monetary contributions in return for a service. It was my first and, thus far, only experience with getting 'something for nothing.' Because I did not feel used or conned by those in A.A., I was able to approach the program free from bias and with an open mind. They wanted nothing from me. What could I lose? I thank God for the wisdom of the early founders who knew so well the alcoholic's disdain for being manipulated."
        },
        {
            "month": "FEBRUARY",
            "day": 29,
            "title": "ONE A.A. MIRACLE",
            "quote": "Slave for a few brief moments of temptation the thought of drink has never returned; and at such times a great revulsion has risen up in him. Seemingly he could not drink even if he would. God had restored his sanity.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p 57",
            "reading": "The word 'God' was frightening to me when I associated it with A.A.'s Twelve Steps. Having tried all the means I could to stop drinking, I found that it was not possible for me to sustain that desire over a period of time. Yet, how could I believe in a 'God' that had allowed me to sink to the deep despair that engulfed me—whether drinking or dry? The answer was in finally admitting that it might be possible for me to know the mercy of a Power greater than myself who could grant me sobriety contingent on my willingness to 'come to believe.'\tBy finally admitting that I was one among many, and by following the example of my sponsor and other A.A. members in practicing faith I did not have, my life has been given meaning, direction and purpose. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 1,
            "title": "IT WORKS",
            "quote": "It works—it really does.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 88",
            "reading": "When I got sober I initially had faith only in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Desperation and fear kept me sober (and maybe a caring and/or tough sponsor helped!). Faith in a Higher Power came much later. This faith came slowly at first, after I began listening to others share at meetings about their experiences—experiences that I had never faced sober, but that they were facing with strength from a Higher Power. Out of their sharing came hope that I too would—and could—'get' a Higher Power. In time, I learned that a Higher Power—a faith that works under all conditions—is possible. Today this faith, plus the honesty, open-mindedness and willingness to work the Steps of the program, gives me the serenity that I seek. It works—it really does. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 2,
            "title": "HOPE",
            "quote": "Do not be discouraged.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 60",
            "reading": "Few experiences are of less value to me than fast sobriety. Too many times discouragement has been the bonus for unrealistic expectations, not to mention self-pity or fatigue from my wanting to change the world by the weekend. Discouragement is a warning signal that I may have wandered across the God line. The secret of fulfilling my potential is in acknowledging my limitations and believing that time is a gift, not a threat. Hope is the key that unlocks the door of discouragement. The program promises me that if I do not pick up the first drink today, I will always have hope. Having come to believe that I keep what I share, every time I encourage, I receive courage. It is with others that, with the grace of God and the Fellowship of A.A., I trudge the road of happy destiny. May I always remember that the power within me is far greater than any fear before me. May I always have patience, for I am on the right road. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 3,
            "title": "OVERCOMING SELF-WILL",
            "quote": "So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us!",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 62",
            "reading": "For so many years my life revolved solely around myself. I was consumed with self in all forms—self-centeredness, self-pity, self-seeking, all of which stemmed from pride. Today I have been given the gift, through the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, of practicing the Steps and Traditions in my daily life, of my group and sponsor, and the capacity—if I so choose—to put my pride aside in all situations which arise in my life. Until I could honestly look at myself and see that I was the problem in many situations and react appropriately inside and out; until I could discard my expectations and understand that my serenity was directly proportional to them, I could not experience serenity and sound sobriety. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 4,
            "title": "WEEDING THE GARDEN",
            "quote": "The essence of all growth is a willingness to make a change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 115",
            "reading": "By the time I had reached Step Three I had been freed of my dependence on alcohol, but bitter experience has shown me that continuous sobriety requires continuous effort. Every now and then I pause to take a good look at my progress. More and more of my garden is weeded each time I look, but each time I also find new weeds sprouting where I thought I had made my final pass with the blade. As I head back to get the newly sprouted weed (it's easier when they are young), I take a moment to admire how lush the growing vegetables and flowers are, and my labors are rewarded. My sobriety grows and bears fruit. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 5,
            "title": "A LIFELONG TASK",
            "quote": "'But just how, in these circumstances, does a fellow 'take it easy?' That's what I want to know.'",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 26",
            "reading": "I was never known for my patience. How many times have I asked, 'Why should I wait, when I can have it all right now ?' Indeed, when I was first presented the Twelve Steps, I was like the proverbial 'kid in a candy store.' I couldn't wait to get to Step Twelve; it was surely just a few months' work, or so I thought! I realize now that living the Twelve Steps of A.A. is a lifelong undertaking. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 6,
            "title": "THE IDEA OF FAITH",
            "quote": "Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 47",
            "reading": "The idea of faith is a very large chunk to swallow when fear, doubt and anger abound in and around me. Sometimes just the idea of doing something different, something I am not accustomed to doing, can eventually become an act of faith if I do it regularly, and do it without debating whether it's the right thing to do. When a bad day comes along and everything is going wrong, a meeting or a talk with another drunk often distracts me just enough to persuade me that everything is not quite as impossible, as overwhelming as I had thought. In the same way, going to a meeting or talking to a fellow alcoholic are acts of faith; I believe I'm arresting my disease. These are ways I slowly move toward faith in a Higher Power. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 7,
            "title": "THE KEY IS WILLINGNESS",
            "quote": "Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock and have the door ever so slightly open, we find that we can always open it some more.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 35",
            "reading": "The willingness to give up my pride and self-will to a Power greater than myself has proved to be the only ingredient absolutely necessary to solve all of my problems today. Even the smallest amount of willingness, if sincere, is sufficient to allow God to enter and take control over any problem, pain, or obsession. My level of comfort is in direct relation to the degree of willingness I possess at any given moment to give up my self-will, and allow God's will to be manifested in my life. With the key of willingness, my worries and fears are powerfully transformed into serenity. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 8,
            "title": "TURNING IT OVER",
            "quote": "Every man and woman who has joined A.A. and intends to stick has, without realizing it, made a beginning on Step Three. Isn't it true that in all matters touching upon alcohol, each of them has decided to turn his or her life over to the care, protection, and guidance of Alcoholics Anonymous? . . . Any willing newcomer feels sure A.A. is the only safe harbor for the foundering vessel he has become. Now if this is not turning one's will and life over to a newfound Providence, then what is it?",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 35",
            "reading": "Submission to God was the first step to my recovery. I believe our Fellowship seeks a spirituality open to a new kinship with God. As I exert myself to follow the path of the Steps, I sense a freedom that gives me the ability to think for myself. My addiction confined me without any release and hindered my ability to be released from my selfconfinement, but A.A. assures me of a way to go forward. Mutual sharing, concern and caring for others is our natural gift to each other and mine is strengthened as my attitude toward God changes. I learn to submit to God's will in my life, to have self-respect, and to keep both of these attitudes by giving away what I receive. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 9,
            "title": "SURRENDERING SELF-WILL",
            "quote": "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 34",
            "reading": "No matter how much one wishes to try, exactly how can one turn his own will and his own life over to the care of whatever God he thinks there is? In my search for the answer to this question, I became aware of the wisdom with which it was written: that this is a two-part Step. I could see many times where I should have died, or at least been injured, during my previous style of living, and it never happened. Someone, or something, was looking after me. I choose to believe my life has always been in God's care. He alone controls the number of days I will be granted until physical death. The matter of will (self-will or God's will) is the more difficult part of the Step for me. It is only when I have experienced enough emotional pain, through failed attempts to fix myself, that I become willing to surrender to God's will for my life. Surrender is like the calm after the storm. When my will is in line with God's will for me, there is peace within. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 10,
            "title": "TODAY, IT'S MY CHOICE",
            "quote": ". . . we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 62",
            "reading": "With the realization and acceptance that I had played a part in the way my life had turned out came a dramatic change in my outlook. It was at this point that the A.A. program began to work for me. In the past I had always blamed others, either God or other people, for my circumstances. I never felt that I had a choice in altering my life. My decisions had been based on fear, pride, or ego. As a result, those decisions led me down a path of self-destruction. Today I try to allow my God to guide me on the road to sanity. I am responsible for my action—or inaction— whatever the consequences may be. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 11,
            "title": "GOOD ORDERLY DIRECTION",
            "quote": "It is when we try to make our will conform with God's that we begin to use it rightly. To all of us, this was a most wonderful revelation. Our whole trouble had been the misuse of willpower. We had tried to bombard our problems with it instead of attempting to bring it into agreement with God's intention for us. To make this increasingly possible is the purpose of A.A.'s Twelve Steps, and Step Three opens the door.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 40",
            "reading": "All I have to do is look back at my past to see where my self-will has led me. I just don't know what's best for me and I believe my Higher Power does. G.O.D., which I define as 'Good Orderly Direction', has never let me down, but I have let myself down quite often. Using my self-will in a situation usually has the same result as forcing the wrong piece into a jigsaw puzzle—exhaustion and frustration. Step Three opens the door to the rest of the program. When I ask God for guidance I know that whatever happens is the best possible situation, things are exactly as they are supposed to be, even if they aren't what I want or expect. God does do for me what I cannot do for myself, if I let Him. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 12,
            "title": "A DAY'S PLAN",
            "quote": "On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 86",
            "reading": "Every day I ask God to kindle within me the fire of His love, so that love, burning bright and clear, will illuminate my thinking and permit me to better do His will. Throughout the day, as I allow outside circumstances to dampen my spirits, I ask God to sear my consciousness with the awareness that I can start my day over any time I choose; a hundred times, if necessary. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 13,
            "title": "A WORLD OF THE SPIRIT",
            "quote": "We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84",
            "reading": "The word 'entered' . . . and the phrase 'entered into the world of the Spirit' are very significant. They imply action, a beginning, getting into, a prerequisite to maintaining my spiritual growth, the 'Spirit' being the immaterial part of me. Barriers to my spiritual growth are self-centeredness and a materialistic focus on worldly things. Spirituality means devotion to spiritual instead of worldly things, it means obedience to God's will for me. I understand spiritual things to be: unconditional love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control and humility. Any time I allow selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear to be a part of me, I block out spiritual things. As I maintain my sobriety, growing spiritually becomes a lifelong process. My goal is spiritual growth, accepting that I'll never have spiritual perfection. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 14,
            "title": "THE KEYSTONE",
            "quote": "He is the Father, and we are His children. Most good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 62",
            "reading": "A keystone is the wedge-shaped piece at the highest part of an arch that locks the other pieces in place. The 'other pieces' are Steps One, Two, and Four through Twelve. In one sense this sounds like Step Three is the most important Step, that the other eleven depend on the third for support. In reality however, Step Three is just one of twelve. It is the keystone, but without eleven other stones to build the base and arms, keystone or not, there will be no arch. Through daily working of all Twelve Steps, I find that triumphant arch waiting for me to pass through to another day of freedom. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 15,
            "title": "THE GOD IDEA",
            "quote": "When we saw others solve their problems by a simple reliance upon the Spirit of the Universe, we had to stop doubting the power of God. Our ideas did not work. But the God idea did.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 52",
            "reading": "Like a blind man gradually being restored to sight, I slowly groped my way to the Third Step. Having realized that only a Power greater than myself could rescue me from the hopeless abyss I was in, I knew that this was a Power that I had to grasp, and that it would be my anchor in the midst of a sea of woes. Even though my faith at that time was minuscule, it was big enough to make me see that it was time for me to discard my reliance on my prideful ego and replace it with the steadying strength that could only come from a Power far greater than myself. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 16,
            "title": "AS WE UNDERSTAND HIM",
            "quote": "My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. . . . 'Why don 't you choose your own conception of God?' That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years I stood in the sunlight at last. It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 12",
            "reading": "I remember the times I looked up into the sky and reflected on who started it all, and how. When I came to A.A., an understanding of some description of the spiritual dimension became a necessary adjunct to a stable sobriety. After reading a variety of versions, including the scientific, of a great explosion, I went for simplicity and made the God of my understanding the Great Power that made the explosion possible. With the vastness of the universe under His command, He would, no doubt, be able to guide my thinking and actions if I was prepared to accept His guidance. But I could not expect help if I turned my back on that help and went my own way. I became willing to believe and I have had 26 years of stable and satisfying sobriety. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 17,
            "title": "MYSTERIOUS WAYS",
            "quote": ". . . out of every season of grief or suffering when the hand of God seemed heavy or even unjust, new lessons for living were learned, new resources of courage were uncovered, and that finally, inescapably, the conviction came that God does 'move in a mysterious way His wonders to perform'",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 105",
            "reading": "After losing my career, family and health, I remained unconvinced that my way of life needed a second look. My drinking and other drug use were killing me, but I had never met a recovering person or an A.A. member. I thought I was destined to die alone and that I deserved it. At the peak of my despair, my infant son became critically ill with a rare disease. Doctors' efforts to help him proved useless. I redoubled my efforts to block my feelings, but now the alcohol had stopped working. I was left staring into God's eyes, begging for help. My introduction to A.A. came within days, through an odd series of coincidences, and I have remained sober ever since. My son lived and his disease is in remission. The entire episode convinced me of my powerlessness and the unmanageability of my life. Today my son and I thank God for His intervention. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 18,
            "title": "REAL INDEPENDENCE",
            "quote": "The more we become willing to depend upon a Higher Power, the more independent we actually are.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 36",
            "reading": "I start with a little willingness to trust God and He causes that willingness to grow. The more willingness I have, the more trust I gain, and the more trust I gain, the more willingness I have. My dependence on God grows as my trust in Him grows. Before I became willing, I depended on myself for all my needs and I was restricted by my incompleteness. Through my willingness to depend upon my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God, all my needs are provided for by Someone Who knows me better than I know myself—even the needs I may not realize, as well as the ones yet to come. Only Someone Who knows me that well could bring me to be myself and to help me fill the need in someone else that only I am meant to fill. There never will be another exactly like me. And that is real independence. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 19,
            "title": "PRAYER: IT WORKS",
            "quote": "It has been well said that 'almost the only scoffers at prayer are those who never tried it enough.'",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 97",
            "reading": "Having grown up in an agnostic household, I felt somewhat foolish when I first tried praying. I knew there was a Higher Power working in my life—how else was I staying sober?—but I certainly wasn't convinced he/she/it wanted to hear my prayers. People who had what I wanted said prayer was an important part of practicing the program, so I persevered. With a commitment to daily prayer, I was amazed to find myself becoming more serene and comfortable with my place in the world. In other words, life became easier and less of a struggle. I'm still not sure who, or what, listens to my prayers, but I'd never stop saying them for the simple reason that they work. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 20,
            "title": "LOVE AND TOLERANCE",
            "quote": "Love and tolerance of others is our code.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84",
            "reading": "I have found that I have to forgive others in all situations to maintain any real spiritual progress. The vital importance of forgiving may not be obvious to me at first sight, but my studies tell me that every great spiritual teacher has insisted strongly upon it. I must forgive injuries, not just in words, or as a matter of form, but in my heart. I do this not for the other persons' sake, but for my own sake. Resentment, anger, or a desire to see someone punished, are things that rot my soul. Such things fasten my troubles to me with chains. They tie me to other problems that have nothing to do with my original problem. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 21,
            "title": "MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING",
            "quote": "Fear . . . of economic insecurity will leave us.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84",
            "reading": "Having fear reduced or eliminated and having economic circumstances improve, are two different things. When I was new in A.A., I had those two ideas confused. I thought fear would leave me only when I started making money. However, another line from the Big Book jumped off the page one day when I was chewing on my financial difficulties: 'For us, material well - being always followed spiritual progress;it never preceded.' (p. 127). I suddenly understood that this promise was a guarantee. I saw that it put priorities in the correct order, that spiritual progress would diminish that terrible fear of being destitute, just as it diminished many other fears. Today I try to use the talents God gave me to benefit others. I've found that is what others valued all along. I try to remember that I no longer work for myself. I only get the use of the wealth God created, I never have 'owned' it. My life's purpose is much clearer when I just work to help, not to possess. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 22,
            "title": "NO MORE STRUGGLE. . .",
            "quote": "And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone— even alcohol.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84",
            "reading": "When A.A. found me, I thought I was in for a struggle, and that A.A. might provide the strength I needed to beat alcohol. Victorious in that fight, who knows what other battles I could win. I would need to be strong, though. All my previous experience with life proved that. Today I do not have to struggle or exert my will. If I take those Twelve Steps and let my Higher Power do the real work, my alcohol problem disappears all by itself. My living problems also cease to be struggles. I just have to ask whether acceptance—or change—is required. It is not my will, but His, that needs doing. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 23,
            "title": ". . . AND NO MORE RESERVATIONS",
            "quote": "We have seen the truth again and again: 'Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.'. . . If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol. . . . To be gravely affected, one does not necessarily have to drink a long time nor take the quantities some of us have. This is particularly true of women. Potential female alcoholics often turn into the real thing and are gone beyond recall in a few years.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 33",
            "reading": "These words are underlined in my book. They are true for men and women alcoholics. On many occasions I've turned to this page and reflected on this passage. I need never fool myself by recalling my sometimes differing drinking patterns, or by believing I am 'cured.' I like to think that, if sobriety is God's gift to me, then my sober life is my gift to God. I hope God is as happy with His gift as I am with mine. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 24,
            "title": "ACTIVE, NOT PASSIVE",
            "quote": "Man is supposed to think, and act He wasn't made in God's image to be an automaton.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 55",
            "reading": "Before I joined A.A., I often did not think, and reacted to people and situations. When not reacting I acted in a mechanical fashion. After joining A. A., I started seeking daily guidance from a Power greater than myself, and learning to listen for that guidance. Then I began to make decisions and act on them, rather than react to them. The results have been constructive; I no longer allow others to make decisions for me and then criticize me for it. Today—and every day—with a heart full of gratitude, and a desire for God's will to be done through me, my life is worth sharing, especially with my fellow alcoholics! Above all, if I do not make a religion out of anything, even A.A., then I can be an open channel for God's expression. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 25,
            "title": "A FULL AND THANKFUL HEART",
            "quote": "/ try hard to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits. When brimming with gratitude, one's heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion that we can ever know.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 37",
            "reading": "I believe that we in Alcoholics Anonymous are fortunate in that we are constantly reminded of the need to be grateful and of how important gratitude is to our sobriety. I am truly grateful for the sobriety God has given me through the A.A. program and am glad I can give back what was given to me freely. I am grateful not only for sobriety, but for the quality of life my sobriety has brought. God has been gracious enough to give me sober days and a life blessed with peace and contentment, as well as the ability to give and receive love, and the opportunity to serve others—in our Fellowship, my family and my community. For all of this, I have 'a full and thankful heart.'"
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 26,
            "title": "THE TEACHING IS NEVER OVER",
            "quote": "Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny. May God bless you and keep you—until then.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 164",
            "reading": "These words put a lump in my throat each time I read them. In the beginning it was because I felt, 'Oh no! The teaching is over. Now I'm on my own. It will never be this new again.' Today I feel deep affection for our A.A. pioneers when I read this passage, realizing that it sums up all of what I believe in, and strive for, and that—with God's blessing— the teaching is never over, I 'm never on my own, and every day is brand new. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 27,
            "title": "A.A.'s FREEDOMS",
            "quote": "We trust that we already know what our several freedoms truly are; that no future generation of AAs will ever feel compelled to limit them. Our AA freedoms create the soil in which genuine love can grow. . . .",
            "citation": "LANGUAGE OF THE HEART, p. 303",
            "reading": "I craved freedom. First, freedom to drink; later, freedom from drink. The A.A. program of recovery rests on a foundation of free choice. There are no mandates, laws or commandments. A.A.'s spiritual program, as outlined in the Twelve Steps, and by which I am offered even greater freedoms, is only suggested. I can take it or leave it. Sponsorship is offered, not forced, and I come and go as I will. It is these and other freedoms that allow me to recapture the dignity that was crushed by the burden of drink, and which is so dearly needed to support an enduring sobriety. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 28,
            "title": "EQUALITY",
            "quote": "Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 565",
            "reading": "Prior to A.A., I often felt that I didn't 'fit in' with the people around me. Usually 'they' had more/less money than I did, and my points of view didn't jive with 'theirs.' The amount of prejudice I had experienced in society only proved to me just how phony some self-righteous people were. After joining A.A., I found the way of life I had been searching for. In A.A. no member is better than any other member; we're just alcoholics trying to recover from alcoholism. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 29,
            "title": "TRUSTED SERVANTS",
            "quote": "They are servants. Theirs is the sometimes thankless privilege of doing the group's chores",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 134",
            "reading": "In Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis describes an encounter between his principal character and an old man busily at work planting a tree. 'What is it you are doing?' Zorba asks. The old man replies: 'You can see very well what I'm doing, my son, I'm planting a tree.' 'But why plant a tree, ' Zorba asks, 'if you won't be able to see it bear fruit?' And the old man answers: 'I, my son, live as though I were never going to die.' The response brings a faint smile to Zorba's lips and, as he walks away, he exclaims with a note of irony: 'How strange -- I live as though I were going to die tomorrow!'. As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I have found that the Third Legacy is a fertile soil in which to plant the tree of my sobriety. The fruits I harvest are wonderful: peace, security, understanding and twenty-four hours of eternal fulfillment; and with the soundness of mind to listen to the voice of my conscience when, in silence, it gently speaks to me, saying: You must let go in service.There are others who must plant and harvest.  "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 30,
            "title": "OUR GROUP CONSCIENCE",
            "quote": "'. . . sometimes the good is the enemy of the best'",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS COMES OF AGE P- 101",
            "reading": "I think these words apply to every area of A.A.'s Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity and Service! I want them etched in my mind and life as I 'trudge the Road of Happy Destiny' (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 164). These words, often spoken by co-founder Bill W., were appropriately said to him as the result of the group's conscience. It brought home to Bill W. the essence of our Second Tradition: 'Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.' Just as Bill W. was originally urged to remember, I think that in our group discussions we should never settle for the 'good,' but always strive to attain the 'best.' These common strivings are yet another example of a loving God, as we understand Him, expressing Himself through the group conscience. Experiences such as these help me to stay on the proper path of recovery. I learn to combine initiative with humility, responsibility with thankfulness, and thus relish the joys of living my twenty-four hour program. "
        },
        {
            "month": "MARCH",
            "day": 31,
            "title": "NO ONE DENIED ME LOVE'",
            "quote": "On the A. A. calendar it was Year Two. . . . A newcomer appeared at one of these groups. . . . He soon proved that his was a desperate case, and that above all he wanted to get well . . . [He said], 'Since I am the victim of another addiction even worse stigmatized than alcoholism, you may not want me among you.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 141-42",
            "reading": "I came to you—a wife, mother, woman who had walked out on her husband, children, family. I was a drunk, a pill-head, a nothing. Yet no one denied me love, caring, a sense of belonging. Today, by God's grace and the love of a good sponsor and a home group, I can say that—through you in Alcoholics Anonymous—I am a wife, a mother, a grandmother and a woman. Sober. Free of pills. Responsible. Without a Higher Power I found in the Fellowship, my life would be meaningless.I am full of gratitude to be a member of good standing in Alcoholics Anonymous."
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 1,
            "title": "LOOKING WITHIN",
            "quote": "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 42",
            "reading": "Step Four is the vigorous and painstaking effort to discover what the liabilities in each of us have been, and are. I want to find exactly how, when, and where my natural desires have warped me. I wish to look squarely at the unhappiness this has caused others and myself. By discovering what my emotional deformities are, I can move toward their correction. Without a willing and persistent effort to do this, there can be little sobriety or contentment for me. To resolve ambivalent feelings, I need to feel a strong and helpful sense of myself. Such an awareness doesn't happen overnight, and no one's self-awareness is permanent. Everyone has the capacity for growth, and for self-awareness, through an honest encounter with reality. When I don't avoid issues but meet them directly, always trying to resolve them, they become fewer and fewer. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 2,
            "title": "CHARACTER BUILDING",
            "quote": "Demands made upon other people for too much attention, protection, and love can only invite domination or revulsion. . . .",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 44",
            "reading": "When I uncovered my need for approval in the Fourth Step, I didn't think it should rank as a character defect. I wanted to think of it more as an asset (that is, the desire to please people). It was quickly pointed out to me that this 'need' can be very crippling. Today I still enjoy getting the approval of others, but I am not willing to pay the price I used to pay to get it. I will not bend myself into a pretzel to get others to like me. If I get your approval, that's fine; but if I don't, I will survive without it. I am responsible for speaking what I perceive to be the truth, not what I think others may want to hear. Similarly, my false pride always kept me overly concerned about my reputation. Since being enlightened in the A.A. program, my aim is to improve my character. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 3,
            "title": "ACCEPTING OUR HUMANNESS",
            "quote": "We finally saw that the inventory should be ours, not the other man's So we admitted our wrongs honestly and became willing to set these matters straight.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 222",
            "reading": "Why is it that the alcoholic is so unwilling to accept responsibility? I used to drink because of the things that other people did to me. Once I came to A.A. I was told to look at where I had been wrong. What did I have to do with all these different matters? When I simply accepted that I had a part in them, I was able to put it on paper and see it for what it was —humanness. I am not expected to be perfect! I have made errors before and I will make them again. To be honest about them allows me to accept them—and myself—and those with whom I had the differences; from there, recovery is just a short distance ahead. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 4,
            "title": "CRYING FOR THE MOON",
            "quote": "'This very real feeling of inferiority is magnified by his childish sensitivity and it is this state of affairs which generates in him that insatiable, abnormal craving for selfapproval and success in the eyes of the world. Still a child, he cries for the moon. And the moon, it seems, won't have him!'",
            "citation": "LANGUAGE OF THE HEART, p. 102",
            "reading": "While drinking I seemed to vacillate between feeling totally invisible and believing I was the center of the universe. Searching for that elusive balance between the two has become a major part of my recovery. The moon I constantly cried for is, in sobriety, rarely full; it shows me instead its many other phases, and there are lessons in them all. True learning has often followed an eclipse, a time of darkness, but with each cycle of my recovery, the light grows stronger and my vision is clearer. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 5,
            "title": "TRUE BROTHERHOOD",
            "quote": "We have not once sought to be one in a family, to be a friend among friends, to be a worker among workers, to be a useful member of society. Always we tried to struggle to the top of the heap, or to hide underneath it This self-centered behavior blocked a partnership relation with any one of those about us. Of true brotherhood we had small comprehension.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 53",
            "reading": "This message contained in Step Four was the first one I heard loud and clear; I hadn't seen myself in print before! Prior to my coining into A.A., I knew of no place that could teach me how to become a person among persons. From my very first meeting, I saw people doing just that and I wanted what they had. One of the reasons that I'm a happy, sober alcoholic today is that I'm learning this most important lesson. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 6,
            "title": "A LIFETIME PROCESS",
            "quote": "We were having trouble with personal relationships, we couldn't control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we couldn't make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn't seem to be of real help to other people. . . .",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 52",
            "reading": "These words remind me that I have more problems than alcohol, that alcohol is only a symptom of a more pervasive disease. When I stopped drinking I began a lifetime process of recovery from unruly emotions, painful relationships, and unmanageable situations. This process is too much for most of us without help from a Higher Power and our friends in the Fellowship. When I began working the Steps of the A.A. program, many of these tangled threads unraveled but, little by little, the most broken places of my life straightened out. One day at a time, almost imperceptibly, I healed. Like a thermostat being turned down, my fears diminished. I began to experience moments of contentment. My emotions became less volatile. I am now once again a part of the human family. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 7,
            "title": "A WIDE ARC OF GRATITUDE",
            "quote": "And, speaking for Dr. Bob and myself, I gratefully declare that had it not been for our wives, Anne and Lois, neither of us could have lived to see A.A.'s beginning.",
            "citation": "THE A.A. WAY OF LIFE, p. 67",
            "reading": "Am I capable of such generous tribute and gratitude to my wife, parents and friends, without whose support I might never have survived to reach A.A.'s doors? I will work on this and try to see the plan my Higher Power is showing me which links our lives together. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 8,
            "title": "AN INSIDE LOOK",
            "quote": "We want to find exactly how, when, and where our natural desires have warped us We wish to look squarely at the unhappiness this has caused others and ourselves By discovering what our emotional deformities are, we can move toward their correction.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 43",
            "reading": "Today I am no longer a slave to alcohol, yet in so many ways enslavement still threatens—my self, my desires, even my dreams. Yet without dreams I cannot exist; without dreams there is nothing to keep me moving forward. I must look inside myself, to free myself. I must call upon God's power to face the person I've feared the most, the true me, the person God created me to be. Unless I can or until I do, I will always be running, and never be truly free. I ask God daily to show me such a freedom! "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 9,
            "title": "FREEDOM FROM 'KING ALCOHOL '",
            "quote": ". . . let us not suppose even for an instant that we are not under constraint. . . . Our former tyrant, King Alcohol, always stands ready again to clutch us to him Therefore, freedom from alcohol is the great 'must' that has to be achieved, else we go mad or die.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 134",
            "reading": "When drinking, I lived in spiritual, emotional, and sometimes, physical confinement. I had constructed my prison with bars of self-will and self-indulgence, from which I could not escape. Occasional dry spells that seemed to promise freedom would turn out to be little more than hopes of a reprieve. True escape required a willingness to follow whatever right actions were needed to turn the lock. With that willingness and action, both the lock and the bars themselves opened for me. Continued willingness and action keep me free—in a kind of extended daily probation—that need never end. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 10,
            "title": "GROWING UP",
            "quote": "The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 115",
            "reading": "Sometimes when I've become willing to do what I should have been doing all along, I want praise and recognition. I don't realize that the more I'm willing to act differently, the more exciting my life is. The more I am willing to help others, the more rewards I receive. That's what practicing the principles means to me. Fun and benefits for me are in the willingness to do the actions, not to get immediate results. Being a little kinder, a little slower to anger, a little more loving makes my life better— day by day. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 11,
            "title": "A WORD TO DROP: 'BLAME '",
            "quote": "To see how erratic emotions victimized us often took a long time. We could perceive them quickly in others, but only slowly in ourselves First of all, we had to admit that we had many of these defects, even though such disclosures were painful and humiliating. Where other people were concerned, we had to drop the word 'blame' from our speech and thought",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 47",
            "reading": "When I did my Fourth Step, following the Big Book guidelines, I noticed that my grudge list was filled with my prejudices and my blaming others for my not being able to succeed and to live up to my potential. I also discovered I felt different because I was black. As I continued to work on the Step, I learned that I always had drunk to rid myself of those feelings. It was only when I sobered up and worked on my inventory, that I could no longer blame anyone. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 12,
            "title": "GIVING UP INSANITY",
            "quote": ". . . where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 38",
            "reading": "Alcoholism required me to drink, whether I wanted to or not. Insanity dominated my life and was the essence of my disease. It robbed me of the freedom of choice over drinking and, therefore, robbed me of all other choices. When I drank, I was unable to make effective choices in any part of my life and life became unmanageable. I ask God to help me understand and accept the full meaning of the disease of alcoholism. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 13,
            "title": "THE FALSE COMFORT OF SELF-PITY",
            "quote": "Self-pity is one of the most unhappy and consuming defects that we know. It is a bar to all spiritual progress and can cut off all effective communication with our fellows because of its inordinate demands for attention and sympathy. It is a maudlin form of martyrdom, which we can ill afford.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 238",
            "reading": "The false comfort of self-pity screens me from reality only momentarily and then demands, like a drug, that I take an ever bigger dose. If I succumb to this it could lead to a relapse into drinking. What can I do? One certain antidote is to turn my attention, however slightly at first, toward others who are genuinely less fortunate than I, preferably other alcoholics. In the same degree that I actively demonstrate my empathy with them, I will lessen my own exaggerated suffering. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 14,
            "title": "THE 'NUMBER ONE OFFENDER '",
            "quote": "Resentment is the 'number one' offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 64",
            "reading": "As I look at myself practicing the Fourth Step, it is easy to gloss over the wrong that I have done, because I can easily see it as a question of 'getting even' for a wrong done to me. If I continue to relive my old hurt, it is a resentment and resentment bars the sunlight from my soul. If I continue o relive hurts and hates, I will hurt and hate myself. After years in the dark of resentments, I have bund the sunlight. I must let go of resentments; I cannot afford them. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 15,
            "title": "THE BONDAGE OF RESENTMENTS",
            "quote": ". . . harboring resentment is infinitely grave. For then we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the spirit.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 5",
            "reading": "It has been said, 'Anger is a luxury I cannot afford.' Does this suggest I ignore this human emotion? I believe not. Before I learned of the A.A. program, I was a slave to the behavior patterns of alcoholism. I was chained to negativity, with no hope of cutting loose. The Steps offered me an alternative. Step Four was the beginning of the end of my bondage. The process of 'letting go' started with an inventory. I needed not be frightened, for the previous Steps assured me I was not alone. My Higher Power led me to this door and gave me the gift of choice. Today I can choose to open the door to freedom and rejoice in the sunlight of the Steps, as they cleanse the spirit within me. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 16,
            "title": "ANGER: A 'DUBIOUS LUXURY '",
            "quote": "If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of the normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 66",
            "reading": "Dubious luxury.'How often have I remembered those words. It's not just anger that's best left to nonalcoholics; I built a list including justifiable resentment, self-pity, judgmentalism, self-righteousness, false pride andfalse humility. I'm always surprised to read the actual quote. So well have the principles of the program been drummed into me that I keep thinking all of these defects are listed too. Thank God I can't afford them— or I surely would indulge in them."
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 17,
            "title": "LOVE AND FEAR AS OPPOSITES",
            "quote": "All these failings generate fear, a soul-sickness in its own right.",
            "citation": "TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 49",
            "reading": "Fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there.'I don 't know to whom this quote should be attributed, but it certainly indicates very clearly that fear is an illusion. I create the illusion myself. I experienced fear early in my life and I mistakenly thought that the mere presence of it made me a coward. I didn't know that one of the definitions of'courage'is'the willingness to do the right thing in spite of fear.' Courage, then, is not necessarily the absence of fear.During the times I didn 't have love in my life I most assuredly had fear. To fear God is to be afraid of joy. In looking back, I realize that, during the times I feared God most, there was no joy in my life. As I learned not to fear God, I also learned to experience joy.'"
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 18,
            "title": "SELF-HONESTY",
            "quote": "The deception of others is nearly always rooted in the deception of ourselves. . . . When we are honest with another person, it confirms that we have been honest with ourselves and with God.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 17",
            "reading": "When I was drinking, I deceived myself about reality, rewriting it to what I wanted it to be. Deceiving others is a character defect—even if it is just stretching the truth a bit or cleaning up my motives so others would think well of me. My Higher Power can remove this character defect, but first I have to help myself become willing to receive that help by not practicing deception. I need to remember each day that deceiving myself about myself is setting myself up for failure or disappointment in life and in Alcoholics Anonymous. A close, honest relationship with a Higher Power is the only solid foundation I've found for honesty with self and with others. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 19,
            "title": "BROTHERS IN OUR DEFECTS",
            "quote": "We recovered alcoholics are not so much brothers in virtue as we are brothers in our defects, and in our common strivings to overcome them",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 167",
            "reading": "The identification that one alcoholic has with another is mysterious, spiritual—almost incomprehensible. But it is there. I 'feel' it. Today I feel that I can help people and that they can help me. It is a new and exciting feeling for me to care for someone; to care what they are feeling, hoping for, praying for; to know their sadness, joy, horror, sorrow, grief; to want to share those feelings so that someone can have relief. I never knew how to do this—or how to try. I never even cared. The Fellowship of A.A., and God, are teaching me how to care about others. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 20,
            "title": "SELF-EXAMINATION",
            "quote": ". . . we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives.",
            "citation": "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 86",
            "reading": "When said sincerely, this prayer teaches me to be truly unselfish and humble, for even in doing good deeds I often used to seek approval and glory for myself. By examining my motives in all that I do, I can be of service to God and others, helping them do what they want to do. When I put God in charge of my thinking, much needless worry is eliminated and I believe He guides me throughout the day. When I eliminate thoughts of self-pity, dishonesty and selfcenteredness as soon as they enter my mind, I find peace with God, my neighbor and myself. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 21,
            "title": "CULTIVATING FAITH",
            "quote": "'I don't think we can do anything very well in this world unless we practice it And I don't believe we do A.A. too well unless we practice it. . . . We should practice . . . acquiring the spirit of service. We should attempt to acquire some faith, which isn't easily done, especially for the person who has always been very materialistic, following the standards of society today. But I think faith can be acquired; it can be acquired slowly; it has to be cultivated. That was not easy for me, and I assume that it is difficult for everyone else. ...'",
            "citation": "DR. BOB AND THE GOOD OLDTIMERS, pp. 307-08",
            "reading": "Fear is often the force that prevents me from acquiring and cultivating the power of faith. Fear blocks my appreciation of beauty, tolerance, forgiveness, service, and serenity. "
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 22,
            "title": "NEW SOIL . . . NEW ROOTS",
            "quote": "Moments of perception can build into a lifetime of spiritual serenity, as I have excellent reason to know, loots of reality, supplanting the neurotic underbrush, will hold fast despite the high winds of the forces which would destroy us, or which we would use to destroy ourselves.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 173",
            "reading": "I came to A.A. green—a seedling quivering with exposed taproots. It was for survival but it was a beginning. I stretched, developed, twisted, but with he help of others, my spirit eventually burst up from the roots. I was free. I acted, withered, went inside, prayed, acted again, understood anew, as one moment of perception struck. Up from my roots, spirit-arms lengthened into strong, green shoots: high-springing servants stepping skyward. Here on earth God unconditionally continues the legacy of higher love. My A.A. life put me 'on a different footing... my roots grasped a new soil' (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 12)"
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 23,
            "title": "A.A. IS NOT A CURE-ALL",
            "quote": "It would be a product offalse pride to claim that A. A. is a cure-all, even for alcoholism",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p.285",
            "reading": "In my early years of sobriety I was full of pride, thinking that A. A. was the only source of treatment for a good and happy life. It certainly was the basic ingredient for my sobriety and even today, with over twelve years in the program, I am very involved in meetings, sponsorship and service. During the first four years of my recovery, I found it necessary to seek professional help, since my emotional health was extremely poor. There are those folks too, who have found sobriety and happiness in other organizations. A.A. taught me that I had a choice: to go to any lengths to enhance my sobriety. A.A. may not be a cure-all for everything, but it is the center of my sober living."
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 24,
            "title": "LEARNING TO LOVE OURSELVES",
            "quote": "Alcoholism was a lonely business, even though we were surrounded by people who loved us . . . We were trying to find emotional security either by dominating or by being dependent upon others . . . We still vainly tried to be secure by some unhealthy sort of domination or dependence.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p.252",
            "reading": "When I did my personal inventory I found that I had unhealthy relationships with most people in my life—my friends and family, for example. I always felt isolated and lonely. I drank to dull emotional pain. It was through staying sober, having a good sponsor and working the Twelve Steps that I was able to build up my low self-esteem. First the Twelve Steps taught me to become my own best friend, and then, when I was able to love myself, I could reach out and love others."
        },
        {
            "month": "APRIL",
            "day": 25,
            "title": "ENTERING A NEW DIMENSION",
            "quote": "In the late stages of our drinking the will to resist has fled. Yet when we admit complete defeat and when we become entirely ready to try A. A. principles, our obsession leaves us and we enter a new dimension—freedom under God as we understand Him.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p.283",
            "reading": "I am fortunate to be among the ones who have had this awesome transformation in my life. When I entered the doors of A.A., alone and desperate, I had been beaten into willingness to believe anything I heard. One of the things I heard was, 'This could be your last hangover, or you can keep going round and round.' The man who said this obviously was a whole lot better off than1.1 liked the idea of admitting defeat and I have been free ever since! My heart heard what my mind never could: 'Being powerless over alcohol is no big deal.' I'm free and I'm grateful! "
        },
        {
            "month": "DECEMBER",
            "day": 31,
            "title": "DAILY RESOLUTIONS",
            "quote": "The idea of 'twenty - four - hour living' applies primarily to the emotional life of the individual. Emotionally speaking, we must not live in yesterday, nor in tomorrow.",
            "citation": "AS BILL SEES IT, p. 284",
            "reading": "A New Year: 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes—a time to consider directions, goals, and actions. I must make some plans to live a normal life, but also I must live emotionally within a twenty-four-hour frame, for if I do, I don't have to make New Year's resolutions! I can make every day a New Year's day! I can decide, 'Today I will do this...Today I will do that.' Each day I can measure my life by trying to do a little better, by deciding to follow God's will and by making an effort to put the principles of our A.A. program into action."
        }
    ]
}