Excuses

We can spend hours thinking of reasons that we want or need or intend to take a drink.
Or we can spend the same time listing reasons that drinking is not good for us and abstaining is more healthful, and listing things we can do instead of drinking.
Each of us makes that choice in his or her own way.

Spirituality

Spirituality is an awakening -- or is it all the loose ends woven together into a mellow fabric?
It's understanding -- or is it all the knowledge one need ever know?
It's freedom -- if you consider fear slavery.
It's confidence -- or is it the belief that a higher power will see you through any storm or gale? . . . It's peace of mind in the face of adversity.
It's a keen and sharpened desire for survival.

Suggestions

I remember my sponsor's answer when I told him that the Steps were "suggested."
He replied that they are "suggested" in the same way that, if you were to jump out of an airplane with a parachute, it is "suggested" that you pull the ripcord to save your life.
He pointed out that it was "suggested" I practice the Twelve Steps, if I wanted to save my life.

- Daily Reflections, p. 344

Guilt is insidious and counterproductive.

Guilt is insidious and counterproductive.
You are a perfect child of God.
It shines through in your sobriety.
I see it, and so do others.
Make yourself see it.
Past liabilities can be turned around and become our strongest points.
No need to feel guilt; simply get rid of the thing you feel guilty about.
A wonderful way to do this is to reverse your shortcomings by reaching out to another drunk. It works.

- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 1], p. 86

Guilt is in the past;
worry is the future.
Both are manifestations of ego.

Life

Look not on life as a person would watch a play on the stage.
Rather look upon it as a student who is learning at college.
It is not a passing show; it is not a place of amusement in which to fool our life away.
It is a place for study, in which every sorrow, every heartbreak brings a precious lesson.
It is a place in which to learn by one's own suffering, by the study of the suffering of others; to learn from the people who have been kind to us as well as from the people who have been unkind.
It is a place in which all experiences, be they disappointments, struggles, and pains, or joys, pleasures, and comforts, contribute to the understanding of what life is, and the realization what it is.

-- Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Encouragement

Many of us exclaimed, "What an order! I can't go through with it."  Do not be discouraged.  No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints.  The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines.  The principles we have set down are guides to progress.  We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 60

If

Alcoholism respects no ifs. It does not go away, not for a week, for a day, or even for an hour, leaving us nonalcoholic and able to drink again on some special occasion or for some extraordinary reason -- not even if it is a once-in-a-lifetime celebration, or if a big sorrow hits us, or if it rains in Spain or the stars fall on Alabama.  Alcoholism is for us unconditional, with no dispensations available at any price.

- Living Sober