Sunday November 8, 2026 - Service

Good morning. My thought for today is service. I just picked this word about a week ago. I have been told we get the lesson until we learn it. I usually tell people that I sobered up in November of 1997 and I have been doing service work of one kind or another since November of 1997. I think the two are connected. In the beginning I did the usual simple tasks, setting up the chairs, making coffee, shaking hands. As time progressed and I became more sober, I took on various positions, first within my group and recently within the district. I also learned that I can do service work in my community or within my church. I make use of skills I have. Two of my hobbies are knitting and baking. So, I knit scarves and/or blankets for people in recovery from addictions or from homelessness. Also, I bake cookies and bring them to church for the coffee hours that they have there. It's a small thing but it seems to go a long way toward starting conversations and encouraging fellowship.

Saturday November 7, 2026 - One Day At A Time

Good morning. My thought for today is One Day At A Time. I have a sobriety milestone coming up the end of the month. When I decided to put the plug in the jug almost 29 years ago, I planned to stop drinking for that one day. The next day I chose to do it again, and again. and again and here we are all this time later. It's true I had to do more than just stop drinking, but none of the things I was required to do would have had any effect until I stopped and then doing those things allowed me to continue staying stopped. I was able to apply the one day at a time approach to more than just my drinking. I also used it in my relationship with my wife, with my relationship with my job and later I used it in my retirement. According to an app I use that tells me how long I have been sober, it has been 28 years, 11 months, and 7 days but really I have been sober since I opened my eyes at 7 am because ultimately today is all I have.

Friday November 6, 2026 - Pride

Greetings and salutations. Always wanted to open with that. My thought for today is Pride. Pride is a multifaceted emotional state and character trait centered on self-evaluation, self-worth, and status. Pride can be a good thing, when we have a healthy self-respect of our achievements, but it can also be a bad thing when our pride becomes arrogance. In 12 step recovery, pride is seen as "a chief stumbling block to true progress". It manifests as self-will run riot, a refusal to admit powerlessness, an unwillingness to ask for help, an insistence that we are unique and do not see the need for us to do what others need to do to recover. the opposite and possibly the antidote to pride would be humility, the ability to have a clear, uninflated view of oneself.

Thursday November 5, 2026 - Acceptance

Good morning. My thought for today is Acceptance. The big book reminds me, on page 417, that "Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation—some fact of my life—unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment." Most good ideas are simple.

Wednesday November 4, 2026 - Surrender

Good morning. My thought for today is Surrender. The AI definition of surrender is to yield, give up, or relinquish possession, control, or power to another authority or force, especially upon demand or under compulsion. For most of my adult life, I had given control of my life over to alcohol and that did not turn out very well. In the end, I had nothing; alcohol had taken it all away. So, I surrendered control of my life again, this time to a Power greater than myself, and vowed that I would try to stay sober, a day at a time. I drank for approximately 29 years, from age 12 to age 41. This month I will celebrate 29 years of sobriety, so I will have been sober for as long as I drank. Interestingly enough, everything that alcohol has taken away from me, sobriety has given back to me.

Tuesday November 3, 2026 - Powerless

Good morning. My thought for today is Powerless. The AI definition of being powerless is being unable to act or control an outcome. First and foremost, I am powerless over alcohol. I am also powerless over people, places, and things. It would be great if I could have people do or say what I think they ought to, but alas I am powerless over the actions of others. All I can really do is pray that they will do God's will and that I may understand what that is.

Monday November 2, 2026 - Open Minded

Good morning. Monday already. My thought for today is Openminded. AI defines this as a willingness to consider new ideas, perspectives, beliefs, and arguments without bias, prejudice, or immediate dismissal. I used to use a dictionary when I needed a definition of a word, now I use AI tools to help me with that. Because I am more open now to using tools that I didn't have before. I also try to be more open minded in other areas of my life. With spiritual practices like prayer and meditation. They are also tools that can be used. I once heard a man say that the days he prayed almost always turned out better than the days he didn't. I tried that to see how it worked and learned that it works just fine.

Sunday November 1, 2026 - One Day At a Time

Good morning. My thought for today is One Day At a Time.When I decided I wanted to stop drinking, the notion of doing that forever seemed too daunting of a task. So, I decided to try it for one day. The next day I did it again, for one day. The days became a week, the weeks became a month, the months became a year, the years became decades. According to an app I have, the current count is 10,563 days which is a few weeks short of 29 years. I use the practice of one day at a time in other areas of my life. I remember telling Nancy, my wife, that I'd like to promise her the moon and the stars and that I'd love her till the end of time but I didn't know what I'd be doing at the end of time. I only knew what I'd be doing that day, so all I could really offer her was one day. Today. That was March 24, 1998. According to the app, that's 10,449 days that we have been together. One day at a time.