September 30, 2026 - But for the grace of God

My thought for today is but for the grace of god. It’s the intervention that shows up when your own power runs out. It’s God acting on your behalf without conditions, without bargaining, without waiting for you to be perfect. If not for God's grace or favor, I would very likely be dead or still dying slowly in some alcohol-induced state. In a meeting I was at last night, I drew attention to an event that happened almost 29 years ago, where a person I barely knew drove a couple hundred kilometers in a snowstorm to save me from freezing to death on the highway. That was most assuredly God acting on my behalf. There have been other instances where I might have died but did not, instances where I received help I didn't earn, protection I didn't deserve and strength I didn't generate. Instances where the grace of God intervened in my life. It is why I continuously give thanks to God.

September 29, 2026 - First Things First

My thought for today is First Things First. For me, that is prayer, meditation, and reflection. Every day. A member of my home group says, The days that I pray almost always turn out better than the days I don't. When I awaken, I read from three books, one AA, one Al-anon, one Alateen. And I read a passage from the Bible, lately it's one of the Psalms. Then, I think about those who are suffering. Some from alcoholism or addiction, others might be dying from some illness. Still others maybe their dog ran away. I ask God to have a care for them. then, I ask God what he wants me to do today and I pick a word from my god box. Today, it was First things first. I write about the word or slogan, like I'm doing right now and then I share my thoughts with over a hundred people on social media. I find that the prayer, meditation, and reflection keeps me focused, centered if you will, and helps me start my day in a much better way than with a few drinks. The big book reminds me that "frequent contact with newcomers and with others is the bright spot of my day." I try to maintain that contact first thing of my day.

September 28, 2026 - Easy Does It, But Do It

My thought for today is Easy Does It...But Do It. It isn't necessary for me to do everything today, but that does not excuse me from doing anything at all. I don't have to build the whole village today, but I should at least fix my own house.

September 27, 2026 - Hope

My thought for today is Hope. The dictionary defines hope as a belief in the possibility of a desirable future, combining desire for an outcome with expectation that it can realistically occur. When I came into recovery for my alcohol addiction, I was given hope that my future could be desirable without the use of alcohol or other drugs and I was offered the love of God as it manifested through the people I met. They offered me their love by sharing with me their experiences with their own alcoholic lives and how they received strength from their higher power, and the end result of that was the hope that maybe this could work for me too. It is why our preamble states that we are a fellowship of people who share our experience strength and hope with each other so that we may solve our common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.

September 26, 2026 - Envy

My thought for today is Envy. The dictionary defines it as the painful awareness of another person’s good paired with the feeling that their good diminishes you. It’s not just wanting something — it’s the sting that someone else already has it. Like all of the other seven deadly sins, it creates other sins, such as resentment or detraction (speaking ill of someone in order to diminish them). Envy leads to hatred of others. In the Bible, in Genesis, chapter 4, Cain's envy of Abel leads Cain to commit murder.

In my recovery, envy can be one of the quiet, corrosive defects because it hides inside comparison, insecurity, and the old belief that I'm falling behind, I'm overlooked, or I'm deprived. It doesn’t look dramatic, but it can quietly pull me out of gratitude, connection, and humility. Similar to complacency, it can be subtle yet deadly.

September 25, 2026 - Live and Let Live

My thought for today is Live And Let Live which is about tolerance, a word I got just a few days ago. I live my life by spiritual principles that I learned when I came to AA, found a higher power and started living the way I thought he wanted me to live. Love. Patience. Humility. Gratitude. Forgiveness. Being of service to others. Honesty. Unselfishness. Those are the qualities I choose to live by. Not everybody in the world has those qualities. I must allow others to live their lives by whatever principles or lack of principles that they have. I might not agree with what they do or say, but as long as they are not hurting myself or others, then it should not interfere with me living my life.

September 24, 2026 - Not My Circus

My thought for today is Not My Circus Not My Monkeys. It reminds me that not everything is my business. Not every problem is mine to fix. It is the acknowledgment that whatever’s happening over there isn’t yours, wasn’t yours, and won’t be yours. When someone is doing something that I disagree with, I can console myself in the knowledge that it is not my circus, those are not my monkeys, and I don't know who hired those clowns. 

September 23, 2023 - Third Step Prayer

My thought for today is the Third Step Prayer. God, I offer myself to you, to build with me and to do with me as you will. Relieve me of the bondage of self, so that I may better do your will. Take away my difficulties, so that victory over them may bear witness to your power, your love and your way of life. May I do your will always. Amen. I said that prayer for the first time, formally, on January 29, 1998. I had already been without a drink for two months, because God had taken away my compulsion to drink, but I was now doing the twelve steps, of which the third step is a crucial part. 

I heard a funny story once. Three frogs are sitting on a fence. One frog makes a decision to jump off the fence. How many frogs are left on the fence? There are still three frogs on the fence because making a decision to do something and actually doing it are not the same thing. So, when you're ready, stop sitting on the fence and jump off.

September 22, 2026 - Tolerance

Good morning. My thought for today is Tolerance. Tolerance is defined as the capacity to endure, allow, or accept something you dislike, disagree with, or find difficult. Way back when I was getting sober, almost three decades ago, my sponsor told me that if there was some word whose meaning I wasn't clear on then I should look that word up. I still do that now but I can just google it these days, or ask AI. Back then, Webster's said that tolerance was the readiness to allow others the right to think, act, or believe as they see fit. The definition I found today was, according to AI, from Merriam-Webster. They are both smilar in meaning. It is about acceptance of things I disagree with. It would be great if everything went the way I wanted it to, if everyone's views were in agreement with mine, and if everyone had the same God as I do, but that just isn't so. And, if I want to have serenity in my day to day life, then I will need to accept those things as being the way they are supposed to be at this moment.

September 21, 2026 - Trust

Good morning. My thought for today is Trust. Trust is defined as the confident expectation that another party will act with reliability, honesty, and goodwill, even when you cannot fully monitor or control them. The one whom I trust first and foremost is God as I understand Him and it is certainly not within my power to monitor nor control Him. Whenever I think of the word trust I am reminded of Trust God, clean house, help others. Cleaning my house, taking inventory of myself and asking God to remove from me all my defects of character certainly required the confident expectation that God would act with reliability, honesty, and goodwill in my life. And just like the passengers on a plane that is crashing, I cannot help others until my own house is in order. I cannot help you put on your oxygen mask until mine is on first. So, that whole process of trust God clean house help others commences once I place trust in my God. Most good ideas are simple.

September 20, 2026 - Carry The Message

Good morning. My thought for today is Carry The Message. I am granted a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, so I try to carry the message to others and to practice these principles in all my affairs. That's an indirect quote from step twelve. There are different ways to carry the message. I can speak at meetings. I can sponsor others. I can write stories for the grapevine. I can be active in service. I can practice the twelve steps twelve traditions and twelve concepts in all my affairs, basically in everything I do. Personally speaking, I do write stories for the grapevine. I do speak at meetings if anyone asks me to. I am a sponsor. I am active in service. One of the things I have learned is that talking about carrying the message and actually carrying the message are not the same thing. And what is the message? I would think that was a no-brainer. I will have a spiritual awakening as the result of doing the twelve steps. After all, on page 29 of the big book, it says "Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own words and from his own point of view, how he established a relationship with God." So, you don't have to take my word for it. It's in the Book. Know what I mean, jellybean.

September 19, 2026 - Live and Let Live

Good morning. My thought for today is Live and Let Live. My sponsor taught me that the slogan is about tolerance. I always thought tolerance was how much I could drink, but apparently it is more than that. it is the readiness to allow others to think, feel, and act as they see fit. as long as it isn't harming myself or others, then it's okay. the first part of the slogan is Live, so I live my life by spiritual principles, at least I try to and the second part, to let live, is where I practice tolerance to allow others to live their lives by their own principles, or lack of. I'm going to an event today where I will be with people whom I do not like, so I will try to put this slogan into action in the hope that i will have a better day.

September 18, 2026 - Self Restraint

Good morning. My thought for today is self-restraint. It is defined as the ability to deliberately hold back an impulse, emotion, or desire so your behavior reflects judgment rather than urge. It is often said that nothing pays off like restraint of tongue or pen. When someone sends us a nasty email or text, our first thought might be to respond hastily or rashly which will eventually lead one of us to say or do something that later we will regret. Giving thought to our words or actions before we actually say or do them can have a much more positive outcome.

September 17, 2026 - Insanity

Good morning! My thought for today is Insanity. The dictionary definition of insanity is a severely disordered or unsound state of mind that impairs a person’s ability to understand reality, distinguish right from wrong, or meet the mental capacity required for legal responsibility. Other definitions I have heard are doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Or, knowing what to do and not doing it. Or, knowing what not to do and doing it anyway. Or, being in a twelve step program and not working the twelve steps. In all cases, it is having a distorted view of what reality actually is. I was at a meeting last night and one of the topics was Step Two: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. That would imply, of course, that we were insane to begin with and so far as my drinking was concerned, I was, as the book says, strangely insane. Luckily, there was a Power at work in my life that was restoring my distorted ways of thinking back to some degree of normalcy.

September 16, 2026 - Gossip

Good morning. My thought for today is Gossip. The Big Book tells me it is a polite form of murder by character assassination. In the Traditions Checklist, under the very first tradition it groups gossip with taking other members' inventories. If you, me, and another member are in the coffee shop after the meeting and you say "I haven't seen Charlie around lately." And I say "Charlie started that new job last week and he has to work on meeting night." That is gossip, but in a benign way. I am talking about Charlie when he is not there but it is not an attempt to make myself look good by dragging Charlie down and that's what the intent of malicious gossip is. There's a saying somewhere in our literature "Have I heard or spread any gossip today?" That's because listening to gossip is just as harmful as speaking gossip. as with most things, it is better if I just stick to minding my own business and let you worry about yours.

September 15, 2026 - Health

Good morning. My thought for today is Health. It comes in different forms. Physical health. Emotional health. Spiritual health.They say if we work on our spiritual well-being then we straighten out physically and mentally. I have a family doctor and I meet with him fairly regular. He gives me directions to follow and as long as I do what he suggests, then my physical health is okay. For my spiritual health, I pray and meditate and for my mental health I go to meetings, share and listen to what others say and all that helps with my emotional health. 

September 14, 2026 - Think Think Think

Good morning. My thought for today is Think Think Think. If ever I think that a drink will solve whatever problem it is that I have or that I think I have, I need to think about the actual craving for the drink and why do I suddenly feel the need, I need to think about the consequences of taking the drink, play the tape through to the end, and I need to think about what I can do instead. I can call someone. I can go to a meeting. I can read some piece of AA literature. I can pray for strength to not do it. In other words, I need to do a lot of thinking about it. I need to think about those who have carried the message to me and how it will affect them, I need to think about those to whom I will one day carry the message to and I also need to think about what the drink will do to me. 

In another context, a member once shared that she was taught about the reading of the last paragraph of the Preface in the Big Book: "If you have a drinking problem, we hope that you may pause in reading one of the forty two personal stories and think: "Yes, that happened to me" or, more important, "Yes, I've felt like that" or, most important, "Yes, I believe this program can work for me too." Think think think.

September 13, 2026 - Say What You Mean Mean What You Say

Good morning. My thought for today is Mean What You Say and Say What You Mean and the last part of that is Don't Say It Mean. Communication is an integral part of a relationship. Just talking with each other is sometimes not enough. How we say what we say carries a lot of meaning and our actions and behavior ought to also match our words. Al-anon How It Works reminds me "It is easy to let our words convey compliance while our tone expresses contempt. This is a way of communicating anger without taking responsibility for it." If I say I'm going to be somewhere at such and such a time, then I should be there and I should not be late. This shows that I have integrity which was once described to me as doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. It is one thing to be honest when people notice that I am and another thing to be honest when I am alone and will receive no reward for it. People can not read my mind so I ought to clearly communicate my boundaries and expectations to them so that there will be no confusion later on.

September 12, 2026 - Willingness

Good morning. My thought for today is Willngness. The big book reminds me that if I have decided I want sobriety and that I am willing to go to any length to get it, then I am ready to take the steps that will help me get it. But, the willingness must be there. In the seventh step prayer we say My creator I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character that stands in the way of my usefulness. Again, we need willingness. When I sponsor new people, I can show them the path they ought to take, but I cannot force them to take it. They must decide for themselves if they will take it. They need to be willing to go to any length to get it. In my case, the any length simply meant surrendering to the truth that of myself I was nothing, that God would work the miracle and I would receive the benefit of sobriety.

September 11, 2026 - Complacency

Good morning. My thought for today is Complacency. It is defined as Self‑satisfaction that blinds you to real risks, problems, or the need for further effort. I sobered up by going to meetings, by getting a sponsor and taking direction from my sponsor and above all by finding a higher power and taking direction from that higher power whom today I choose to call God. I sobered up a long time ago, almost 29 years ago. My life today is good. I'm not sleeping under the bridge anymore. So, maybe I don't need to go to those meetings anymore, not as many at least. And, I have a pretty good handle on my sobriety, I probably don't need to take direction from my sponsor. Nor do I need guidance from God. I could probably do this on my own now. All that is a high grade of horseshit. The Big Book reminds me many times. Now, we need action and more action. The answer to my problems today is more spiritual development. I grow spiritually by doing those things. By regular attendance at meetings, by listening to my sponsor, and by being a sponsor myself, and by improving my conscious contact with God as I understand Him. Anytime I start thinking that I don't need to do this or I don't need to do that, that's when I need to do more of those things. 

September 10, 2026 - Keep It Simple

Good morning. My thought for today is Keep It Simple. It is easy for me to complicate things. Even though I have been without a drink for quite some time, I am still an alcoholic and I am still powerless over alcohol and I will still need a bit of help getting through my day. That's as simple as I can keep it. Throughout my day I will do service to A.A., I will do some sponsorship with alcoholics I know, and I'll go to a meeting tonight because those are the things I did to get sober many years ago and they are the things that will keep me sober today.

September 9, 2026 - Not My Circus

My thought for today is Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys. A reminder that not everything is my business. Some chaos is not mine to step into. Other people's drama is not mine to be an actor in. It is not my problem so I choose to walk on by without even slowing my pace. It’s the moment I stop pretending the chaos was ever organized, ever reasonable, ever mine to fix. It’s a clean refusal to participate in someone else’s mess and a reminder that the mess didn’t appear by magic. Someone else built that tent. Someone else opened the door. Someone else handed out the clown shoes. It is not my responsibility.

September 8, 2026 - Anonymity

My thought for today is Anonymity. Recently, I joined a few recovery groups online, on the facebook social media platform. Everyone seems very supportive of one another, but everyone knows you by whatever name you use on facebook, so there isn't very much anonymity. Personally, I don't care who knows I am sober and starting to get my life together, however, by letting everyone know that I am in Alcoholics Anonymous, am I damaging Alcoholics Anonymous. We learn in Tradition One that we must place the common welfare of our society before our own individual desires. I have more humility when I am more mindful of anonymity.  

September 7, 2026 - But For the Grace of God

My thought today is But for the Grace of God. God's grace is the favor of God. It is not given to us because of the good we do or denied us because we do not do good, it is simply offered to us and it is up to us to accept it. I am sure that without God's favor I would surely be dead today. Or sleeping outside in a tent. Or lying in a hospital bed waiting for the end to come. Instead, I am in my own home, surrounded by family and friends. I have a lot to be grateful for and I give thanks to God as I understand Him for showing me that I do not need to die the way I was dying but rather can live the way I am living.

September 6, 2026 - Honesty With Others

My thought for Today is Honesty With Others. Honesty with God is one thing, honesty with ourselves is another and honesty with other people is also another thing. In the 5th step, it says we admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs. It is not a list of the things we did when we were drinking, it is more about why we did what we did. If we know why we did something wrong, then we can move toward its correction. With me, it was because I was selfish, dishonest, angry and afraid with whomever I came into contact with and so I acted poorly. To act better, I only need to do the opposite of how I acted in the past.

September 5, 2026 - Forgiveness

My thought for today is Forgiveness. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines forgiveness as the act of releasing resentment or anger toward someone who has harmed you, along with the willingness to let go of the desire for revenge. In the Lord's Prayer, which has been around for centuries, we ask God to forgive us our tresspasses as we also forgive those who trespass against us. In a later prayer, the Prayer of Saint Francis, we are told that it is by forgiving others that we ourselves are forgiven. Almost a century ago, in the AA book Twelve Steps Twelve Traditions, it talks about self-restraint. In looking at certain situations, we need willingness to accept the blame if it is our fault, and an equal willingness to forgive if the fault is not ours. What I come here looking for, I must come here looking with. So, the act of forgiveness is not something new; it has been around for quite some time and who am I to reject ideas and practices that have been in effect for centuries.Who made you or I so righteous? I will forgive you. Will you forgive me?

September 4, 2026 - Let It Begin With Me

My thought for today is Let it Begin With Me. That's a slogan I heard in Al-anon. It reminds me to stop worrying about what needs to be changed in others and to concentrate on what needs to be changed in myself and in my attitudes, to let the change begin with me. Also, it tells me not to wait for others to do the twelfth step call that I am able to do myself. The responsibility pledge states that "when anyone anywhere reaches out for help, let the hand of al-anon and alateen always be there and for that I am responsible and let it begin with me." As already stated, I ought to let the change start with me.

September 3, 2026 - Carry The Message

My thought for today is Carry The Message. I can do that in different ways. The most obvious ways are through service and sponsorship. Every time I sponsor an individual, I tell him or her what was told to me. I remember way back when I was a newcomer, I didn't want to hear any talk about God. I had been there, done that, and was not interested. One of the things I learned, from reading the Big Book and from listening to others share, was that in order to recover from alcoholism, I would need to find a Higher Power and to establish a relationship with that Power. That's the real message that was carried to me and the one I carry to others. When I talk to new people about that and they stop listening, I remember how I was and how patient my sponsor was with me. The twelfth step says we have a spiritual awakening as the result of doing the steps. An awakening implies that we must have been asleep. Know what I mean.

September 2, 2026 - Willingness

My thought for today is Willingness. The dictionary definition of willingness is the state of being willing and inclined to act, to help, or to cooperate.I remember when I was still sleeping under the bridge, I did the third step prayer which meant that I was willing to turn my will and my life over to the care of the God of my understanding, that i was willing to go where God lead me and to do what God wanted me to do. In return, God would remove my obsession to drink so I was willing and inclined to cooperate. I have not had a desire to drink or use since I said that prayer and that is almost 29 years ago. Oh, once or twice I might have thought that taking a drink would solve whatever problem I was having, but it was quickly replaced with the thought that taking a drink was never the solution to my problem, it just created more problems. Today, I am still willing.

September 1, 2026 - Boundaries

My thought for today is Boundaries. The definition of a boundary is a line or point where something ends or begins. It is also the point where behavior becomes acceptable or non-acceptable. For example, we do not drink, do drugs or even smoke cigarettes, anymore. So, we do not allow alcohol, drugs, or smoking in our home. We also do not allow people who are drunk or high in our home. And if you have a bottle or a bag of weed on your person, you are also not allowed in our home. If you have chewing tobacco or cigarettes on your person, we will accept you. The beautiful thing about boundaries is that they are not fixed in place. Unlike solid walls, they can be raised or lowered. Two things I have learned about boundaries. We should tell people what they are because they cannot read our minds, and we should enforce those boundaries if ever they are broken.