We of AA are apt sometimes to brag of the virtues
of our fellowship.
Let us remember that none of these are earned virtues.
We have been forced into them, to begin with,
by the cruel lash of John Barleycorn.
We have adopted these attitudes, these practices,
this structure, not at first because we wished to
but because we had to.
And then, as time confirmed the seeming rightness
of our basic principles,
we began to conform because it was right to do so.
Some of us, notably myself,
conformed even then with reluctance.
- Bill W., St. Louis, 1955.

Thought to Ponder....

AA's message doesn't change.
AA's message changes us.

Recovery Related Acronym

B A R S = Balance, Action, Responsibility, Serenity.