Honesty with ourselves & others gets us sober, but it is tolerance that keeps us that way.
Interpretation
Being honest leads to clarity and sobriety, while tolerance helps maintain it.
This quote by Bill W. emphasizes the importance of honesty in achieving personal clarity and sobriety, suggesting that recognition of one's true self is essential for recovery or personal growth. However, it also highlights that maintaining this state requires continuous tolerance, both for oneself and for others, indicating that patience and understanding are crucial in the journey towards a healthier mindset.
In practice
During a support group meeting, a member could say this quote to emphasize the importance of honesty in recovery.
It must never be forgotten that the purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous is to sober up alcoholics. There is no religious or spiritual requirement for membership. No demands are made on anyone. An experience is offered which members may accept or reject. That is up to them.
Almost without exception alcoholics are tortured by loneliness.
No personal calamity is so crushing that something true and great can't be made of it
Grown-up people do not know that a child can give exceedingly good advice even in the most difficult case.
(Whispered to a novice while standing in front of the convent library) Oh! I would have been sorry to have read all those books...If I had read them, I would have broken my head, and I would have wasted precious time that I could have employed very simply in loving God.
He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.
Make peace with silence, and remind yourself that it is in this space that you'll come to remember your spirit. When you're able to transcend an aversion to silence, you'll also transcend many other miseries. And it is in this silence that the remembrance of God will be activated.
Each night the black sky and the bright stars were my stunning companions; occasionally Id see their beauty and solemnity so plainly that I'd realize in a piercing way that my mother was right. That someday I WOULD be grateful and that in fact I was grateful now, that I felt something growing in me that was strong and real.
Everything can be used as an invitation to meditation
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