thanks you for sharing about your brother, ygrec. i'm so very happy for him. those of us in AA have found it's benefits-too many to mention. my greatest ones-i'm now happy, joyous, and free! my heart is full of gratitude. thru AA i found spirituality. something very lacking in my life. having that renewed i know i am not alone anymore. my higher power and AA strengthen my resolve-22 yrs sober. may your brother discover all these wonderful things too. you may be interested in reading "THE PROMISES" in chapter 5 of the big book:
Quote:
From pages 83-84 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)
If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
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.
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Reprinted from the book Alcoholics Anonymous (The Big Book) with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc. http://www.sonomacountyaa.org/resour...e_Promises.pdf
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Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle.
The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours..~Ayn Rand
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