Latest / Sober Readings / A Wide Arc Of Gratitude
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Welcome to Sober Readings, today is Tuesday the 7th of April. Today's reading from Daily Reflections. A wide arc of gratitude. 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 AA's beginning. That's from the AA Way of Life, page 67. 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 AA's doors? I will work on this and try to see the plan my higher power is showing me, which links our lives together. Today's reading from 24 Hours, April 7, AA Thought for the Day. In AA, an alcoholic finds a way to solve his personality problem. He does this by recovering three things. First, he recovers his personal integrity. He pulls himself together. He gets honest with himself and with other people. He faces himself and his problems honestly, instead of running away. He takes a personal inventory of himself to see where he really stands. Then he faces the facts, instead of making excuses for himself. So ask yourself, have I recovered my integrity? The Meditation for the Day When trouble comes, do not say, why should this happen to me? Leave yourself out of the picture. Think of other people and their troubles and you will forget about your own. Gradually get away from yourself and you will know the consolation of unselfish service of others. After a while, it will not matter so much what happens to you. It is not so important anymore. except as your experience can be used to help others who are in the same kind of trouble. today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may become more unselfish. I pray that I may not be thrown off the track by letting the old selfishness creep back into my life. And for the final reading today, we're going to a book called AA Comes of Age. And if you've been listening to sober readings at all, you must have heard me say it in As Bill Sees It. A lot of the quotes from As Bill Sees It comes out of this book. So the passage that I chose to read today is from page 19. It was soon evident that a scheme of personal sponsorship would have to be devised for the new people. Each prospect was assigned to an older AA who visited him at his home or in the hospital, instructed him on AA principles, and conducted him to his first meeting. But in the face of many hundreds of pleas for help, the supply of elders could not possibly match the demand. Brand new AAs sober only a month or even a week. had to sponsor alcoholics still drying up in the hospitals. Homes were thrown open for meetings. The first Cleveland meeting started in June of 1939 at the home of Abbey G. and his wife Grace. It was composed of Abbey and about a dozen others who had been making the journey to Akron to meet at the Williams home. But Abbey's group presently ran out of space. So one segment began to meet in the home of Cleveland's financier, Mr. T.E. Borton. at his generous invitation. Another part of the group found quarters in a hall in the Lakewood section of Cleveland and became known as the Orchard Grove Group, and still a third offshoot of Abbey's meeting went under the name of the Lee Road Group. These multiplying and bulging meetings continued to run short of home space, and they fanned out into small halls and church basements. Luckily, the AA book had come off the press six months before, and some pamphlets were also available. These were the guides and time savers that probably kept the hectic situation from confusion and anarchy. We old timers in New York and Akron had regarded this fantastic phenomenon with deep misgivings. Had it not taken us four whole years littered with countless failures to produce even a hundred good recoveries? Yet there in Cleveland, we saw about 20 members not very experienced themselves suddenly confronted by hundreds of newcomers as a result of the plain dealer articles. How could they possibly manage? We did not know. But a year later, we did know. For by then Cleveland had about 30 groups and several hundred members. Growing pains and group problems had been terrifying, but no amount of squabbling could dampen the mass demand for sobriety. Yes, Cleveland's results were of the best. Their results were in fact so good and AA's membership elsewhere was so small that many a Clevelander really thought AA had started there in the first place. The Cleveland pioneers had proved three essential things. The value of personal sponsorship, the worth of the AA book in indoctrinating newcomers, and finally, the tremendous fact that AA, when the world really got around, could now soundly grow to great size. And as I said, that comes from page 19 through 21 of the book AA Comes of Age. And I hope you enjoyed that little passage from AA Comes of Age. If there's any sobriety literature that you'd like to hear me read on the program, send me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com. So that's it for today's episode of Sober Readings. If you enjoyed the show, please do me a huge favor. Hit the like button and share this episode who you think might need it. Drop a comment and let me know what you thought. And make sure you're following or subscribed so you never miss a new episode. And also if you love to read sober literature or you'd just like to be a guest reader on the show, I would love to have you. Again, shoot me an email at soberreadingswithscottatgmail.com and we can certainly make that happen. If you'd like to drop a dollar in today's virtual donation basket, go to my website soberreadings.com. and click the donate button. Also, while you're there at the website, you can follow the show. You can purchase a copy of my book. I love you. Don't do anything stupid. That's all the way down at the bottom of the site. And you can also listen to ⁓ the latest episodes there on the website. So thank you so much for listening. Stay sober, keep reading, and I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other. And remember, just for today, don't drink, go to a meeting. keep coming back. Have a great day, and as my friend Larry says, best day ever!