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Welcome to the Transitions Daily Podcast. Transitions Daily is an online recovery group that
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offers a daily distribution of popular recovery resources accompanied by a secret Facebook
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group for discussion. We hope you enjoy today's readings.
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This is Transitions Daily from March 27th, read by Kurt L. from Albuquerque, Mexico, USA.
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AA Thoughts for the Day. Possibilities. How shall we come to terms with
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seeming failure or success? Can we now adjust to either without despair or pride?
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Can we accept poverty, sickness, loneliness, and bereavement with courage and serenity?
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The AA answer to these questions about living is yes, all of these things are possible.
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12 steps in 12 traditions, page 112. Thought to consider. It works. It really does. Alcoholics
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Anonymous, page 88. Acronyms. Ego. Easing God out. Just for today, medicine from the three
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legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous. The medical aspect of alcoholism includes the problem of
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hospitalization, and here also great progress has been made. Many hospitals have been reluctant
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to take alcoholics at all. State and provincial institutions usually have required alcoholics
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to stay for long periods of commitment. Therefore, it has been difficult and still is to persuade
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the average general hospital to take in AA prospects for short periods of treatment and to grant
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sponsors the necessary visiting privileges in cooperation with our local inner group associations.
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It is good to report that this condition is rapidly changing for the better. Our pioneering
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activity in this field together with the use which AA headquarters has been able to make of that
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experience has a special interest for us all. Two American hospitals have afforded fine
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examples of how medicine and AA can best cooperate. At St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Dr. Bob,
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the wonderful sister Ignatia and the hospital staff presided over an alcoholic
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ward which had treated several thousand alcoholics by the time of Dr. Bob's death in 1950.
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And beginning in 1945, Nicarbocker Hospital in New York provided an AA ward under the care of
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our first friend in medicine, Dr. William D. Silkworth, who was assisted with rare devotion and
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skill by Nurse Teddy. By 1954, 10,000 alcoholics have been referred to Nicarbocker by the New York
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Inner Group Association and had passed through this ward the majority on their way to freedom.
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Alcoholics Anonymous comes of age page 206. Daily Reflections, AA's freedoms. We trust that we
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already know what our several freedoms truly are that no future generation of AA's will ever
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feel compelled to limit them. Our AA freedoms create the soil in which genuine love can grow.
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Language of the Heart, page 303. I crave freedom. First, freedom to drink, later freedom from drink.
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The AA program of recovery rests on a foundation of free choice. There are no mandates, laws,
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or commandments. AA spiritual program has outlined in the 12 steps and by which I am offered,
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even greater freedoms is only suggested. I can take it or leave it. Sponsorship is offered,
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not forced, and I can come and go as I will. It is these and other freedoms that allow me to
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recapture the dignity that was crushed by the burden of drink and which is so dearly needed to
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support and enduring sobriety as Bill sees it. Room for improvement. We have come to believe that AA's
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recovery steps and traditions represent the approximate truths which we need for our particular
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purpose. The more we practice them, the more we like them. So there is little doubt that AA
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principles will continue to be advocated in the form they stand now. If our basics are so firmly
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fixed as all this, then what is there left to change or to improve? The answer will immediately
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occur to us. While we need not alter our truths, we can surely improve their application to ourselves,
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to AA as a whole and to our relation with the world around us. We can constantly step up the
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practice of these principles in all our affairs. Great Vine February 1961. Big book quote.
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We need to ask ourselves about one short question. Do I now believe or am I even willing to believe
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that there is a power greater than myself? As soon as a man can say that he does believe or is
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willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way. It has been repeatedly
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proven among us that upon this simple cornerstone, a wonderfully effective spiritual structure can be
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built. Alcoholics anonymous, we agnostics page 47. 24 hours a day, AA thought for the day. You get the
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power to overcome drinking through the fellowship of other alcoholics who have found the way out.
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You get power by honestly sharing your past experience by a personal witness. You get power by
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coming to believe in a higher power. The divine principle in the universe, which can help you.
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You get power by working with other alcoholics. In these four ways, thousands of alcoholics have
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found all the power they need to overcome drinking. Am I ready and willing to accept this power and
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work for it? Meditation for the day. The power of God's Spirit is the greatest power in the universe,
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our conquest of each other, the great kings and conquerors, the conquest of wealth, the leaders of
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the money society, all amount very little in the end, but one who conquers oneself is greater than
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one who conquers a city. Material things have no permanence, but God's Spirit is eternal. Everything
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really worthwhile in the world is a result of the power of God's Spirit. Prayer for the day.
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I pray that I may open myself to the power of God's Spirit. I pray that my relationships
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with others may be improved by this spirit. Hazelton Foundation PO Box 176, Center City,
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Minnesota, 551-2. My name is Kurt L. I'm an alcoholic. We hope you enjoy today's readings.
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You can also receive Transitions Daily via email and discuss today's readings in our secret
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Facebook group. So for more information, go to dailyAAemails.com today. Other than the 24
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hours a day reading, unless otherwise specified, all quotes copyright Alcoholics Anonymous World
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Services Inc. 1952-2001.