Dave42001

June 4

Daily Reflections

LETTING GO OF OUR OLD SELVES

Carefully reading the first five proposals we ask if we have omitted
anything, for we are building an arch through which we shall walk a
free man at last. . . . Are we now ready to let God remove from us all
the things which we have admitted are objectionable?
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pp. 75, 76

The Sixth Step is the last "preparation" Step. Although I have
already used prayer extensively, I have made no formal request of my
Higher Power in the first Six Steps. I have identified my problem,
come to believe that there is a solution, made a decision to seek this
solution, and have "cleaned house." I now ask: Am I willing to live a
life of sobriety, of change, to let go of my old self? I must determine if
I am truly ready to change. I review what I have done and become
willing for God to remove all my defects of character; for in the next
Step, I will tell my Creator I am willing and will ask for help. If I have
been thorough in the preparation of my foundation and feel that I am
willing to change, I am then ready to continue with the next Step. "If
we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be
willing."
(Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 76)

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Some things I like since becoming dry: feeling good in the morning; full
use of my intelligence; joy in my work; the love and trust of my
children; lack of remorse; the confidence of my friends; the prospect
of a happy future; the appreciation of the beauties of nature; knowing
what it is all about. I'm sure that I like these things, am I not?

Meditation For The Day

Molding your life means cutting and shaping your material into
something good, something that can express the spiritual. All material
things are the clay out of which we mold something spiritual. You must
first recognize the selfishness in your desires and motives, actions and
words, and then mold that selfishness until it is sublimated into a
spiritual weapon for good. As the work of molding proceeds, you see
more and more clearly what must be done to mold your life into
something better.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may mold my life into something useful and good. I pray
that I may not be discouraged by the slow progress that I make.

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As Bill Sees It

Built by the One and the Many, p. 155

We give thanks to our Heavenly Father, who, through so many friends
and through so many means and channels, has allowed us to construct
this wonderful edifice of the spirit in which we are now dwelling--this
cathedral whose foundations already rest upon the corners of the earth.

On its great floor we have inscribed our Twelve Steps of recovery. On
the side walls, the buttresses of the A.A. Traditions have been set in
place to contain us in unity for as long as God may will it so. Eager
hearts and hands have lifted the spire of our cathedral into its place.
That spire bears the name of service. May it ever point straight
upward toward God.

<< << << >> >> >>

"It is not only to the few that we owe the remarkable developments in
our unity and in our ability to carry A.A.'s message everywhere. It is to
the many, indeed, it is to the labors of all of us that we owe these prime
blessings."

1. A.A. Comes Of Age, p. 234
2. Talk, 1959

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Walk in Dry Places

Needing to receive credit
Humility
"Is it wrong to want credit for the good things I do?" a person asked at a 12 Step meeting.
"Why do people say my ego is showing just because I feel I should get proper credit?"
We should, indeed, receive the right amount of praise and recognition for the good things we do. We have to remember, however, that we're trying to get this from human beings... many of whom are poorly informed or indifferent. Whatever credit we receive will be influenced by others perceptions. Sometimes we will be praised too lavishly: at other times, insufficiently.
But the real question is not whether others give us the right amount of praise or credit. The question we should really ask is why we need such recognition. If we are doing a good thing or have made progress, isn't that sufficient reward? What can receiving credit do for us that we do not already have?
I'll take as my guide today the belief that right action is its own reward. I do not need credit or recognition from others, although I'll appreciate it if it comes.

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Keep It Simple

We cannot solve life's problems except by solving them.---M. Scott Peck
Before getting into the program, we ran from problems at all costs. As time went on, we had more problems. As our problems grew, we became afraid of life.
The program---the Twelve Steps---teaches us how to face and solve our problem. We stop running and stand up to problems. That way, life's problems scare us less and less over time.
In fact, life's problems help us better know our Higher Power and ourselves. We now know our Higher Power is with us every step of the way.
Prayer for the Day: I pray for the courage to stand and face life's problems. I pray for the wisdom to ask my Higher Power for help.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll list all problems I now have. I will talk about them with friends and with my Higher Power. I will make plans to solve them (sometimes solving problems means accepting them).

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Each Day a New Beginning

We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. --Anne Frank
Happiness feels so close and yet so far away. Perhaps we look to a person for it, or to a job, or a new winter coat. We deserve happiness, we know. Yet, we learn so slowly that happiness can only be found within. The person leaves; the job goes sour; the new coat is quickly out of style. Elusive, all of them.
But the happiness that comes from knowing who we are and how our lives fit in the grand design of the Creator, never eludes us. We are one of a kind. And there is no other who can offer to the world of friends just what each of us can. We are needed, and knowing that, really knowing it, brings happiness.
Before we found this program, we no doubt failed to realize our worth. We can celebrate it now. We can glory in our worth, our specialness, and we can cherish the design. We can cherish our parts and cherish the part each other person plays.
Combined, we are as one big orchestra. The conductor reads the music and directs the movements. Being in tune with the conductor feels good. I can call it happiness. All I need do is play my part.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

MORE ABOUT ALCOHOLISM

Whatever the precise definition of the word may be, we call this plain insanity. How can such a lack of proportion, of the ability to think straight, be called anything else?
You may think this an extreme case. To us it is not far-fetched, for this kind of thinking has been characteristic of every single one of us. We have sometimes reflected more than Jim did upon the consequences. But there was always the curious mental phenomenon that parallel with our sound reasoning there inevitably ran some insanely trivial excuse for taking the first drink. Our sound reasoning failed to hold us in check. The insane idea won out. Next day we would ask ourselves, in all earnestness and sincerity, how it could have happened.

p. 37

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Stories

A DRUNK, LIKE YOU - The more he listened at meetings, the more he came to know about his own drinking history.

When I got back to my meeting. I told them what had happened. I don't know why--it was not like the old me to 'fess up to anything. They were concerned only whether I was still drinking. And I said, "No, I'm not." I was worried they were going to take my coin back. All they wanted to know was what I was going to do now. I had no idea. They did, however. They said I needed a sponsor--so I found a sponsor. They said I needed more meetings. "How many?" I wanted to know. They said I only had to go to meetings on days I would have had a drink. They said I needed to identify, not compare. I didn't know what they meant. What was the difference? Identifying, they said, was trying to see how I was like the people I was with. Comparing, they told me, was looking for differences, usually seeing how I was better than others.
pp. 404-405

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Tradition Ten - "Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy."

NEVER since it began has Alcoholics Anonymous been divided by a major controversial issue. Nor has our Fellowship ever publicly taken sides on any question in an embattled world. This, however, has been no earned virtue. It could almost be said that we were born with it, for, as one old-timer recently declared, "Practically never have I heard a heated religious, political, or reform argument among A.A. members. So long as we don't argue these matters privately, it's a cinch we never shall publicly."

p. 176

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You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is
a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It's just a
matter of paying attention to this miracle.
--Paulo Coelho

You're never fully dressed without a smile!
--Anon

God gets our attention in a lot of different ways. For a great many of
us, it was through accident or illness, coming close to death. All of us
come to this program frightened for our life or our sanity or both. God
has our attention.
And now we are learning about the spiritual aspect of our life, the one
we had so long neglected. Now we are partaking of God's love---soul
food---and discovering that the spiritual life is fuller and more
rewarding than anything we thought possible. Nothing we do to please
our body can compare to the joy of unconditional love. When we lend a
loving hand to anyone, we realize once again that the pain we suffered
was worth it to bring us to this awareness.
Today I will look for ways to help others----and bless my soul!
--Passing It On

"We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and
probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery."
--Samuel Smiles

Some tension is necessary for the soul to grow, and we can put that
tension to good use. We can look for every opportunity to give and
receive love, to appreciate nature, to heal our wounds and the wounds
of others, to forgive, and to serve.
--Joan Borysenko

A life lived in love, goodness, and oneness with God is a life full of joy.
A soul that lives such a life is a soul that grows ever more beautiful.
May your life be joyous then and may your soul’s beauty shine on
forever.
--Joseph J. Mazzella

The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love.
Therefore, it can never find rest nor happiness in other things. It must
lose itself in love. By its very nature it must seek God, who is love.
--Mechthild of Magdenburg

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

PROFIT

"What is a man to profit if he
shall gain the whole world and
lose his own soul?"
--Jesus (Mt. 16:26)

Spirituality brings with it a sense of priority in my life: first things
first. Unless I discover me and have a love and respect for me, I have
nothing to offer in this world. I am the center of my universe and
through my life God is radiated. I am a part of God's creative plan and
the pleasures of this world must be seen as secondary to my
developing a right relationship with God.

My disease of obsession and compulsion wants me to place other
things at the center of my life: food, alcohol, drugs, people, money,
success, achievement and ego.

My spiritual program reminds me that my love of self is shown in my
refusal of the first drink. If I am healthy, I can have the world; without
me, I can have nothing!

Let me find Your Kingdom that is within.

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Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not
seen.
Hebrews 11:1

I will exalt you, O Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me. O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. O Lord, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit. Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me; O Lord, be my help."
You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.
Psalm 30:1-3;10-12

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Daily Inspiration

The more you think about the little difficulties in life, the bigger they become and still nothing is resolved. Lord, may I let go of those problems that I cannot solve and resolve quickly those things that I can.

It is important to remember that different can be better. Lord, as I resist change and cling to the familiar, help me to remember that Your plan is perfect and will truly make me happy.

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NA Just For Today

Build, Don't Destroy

"Our negative sense of self has been replaced by a positive concern for others."
Basic Text, p. 16

Spreading gossip feeds a dark hunger in us. Sometimes we think the only way we can feel good about ourselves is to make someone else look bad by comparison. But the kind of self-esteem that can be purchased at another's expense is hollow and not worth the price.

How, then, do we deal with our negative sense of self? Simple. We replace it with a positive concern for others. Rather than dwell on our low self-esteem, we turn to those around us and seek to be of service to them. This may seem to be a way of avoiding the issue, but it's not. There's nothing we can do by dwelling on our low sense of self except work ourselves into a stew of self-pity. But by replacing our self-pity with active, loving concern for others, we become the kind of people we can respect.

The way to build our self-esteem is not to tear others down, but to build them up through love and positive concern. To help us with this, we can ask ourselves if we are contributing to the problem or to the solution. Today, we can choose to build instead of destroy.

Just for today: Though I may be feeling low, I don't need to tear someone down to build myself up. Today, I will replace my negative sense of self with a positive concern for others. I will build, not destroy.

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You are reading from the book Today's Gift.
"Oh, 'tis love, 'tis love, that makes the world go round! Somebody said," Alice whispered, "that it's done by everybody minding their own business. Ah well! It means much the same thing." --Lewis Carroll
No one helps a caterpillar become a butterfly. First it must crawl through the leaves as a many-legged creature, and then it weaves its own cocoon. Nature does its slow, daily work inside the cocoon and one day a butterfly emerges--and each butterfly is a different shape and color. No other creature can step in and speed up this process without hurting the butterfly.
Sometimes we humans confuse love with playing the part of God. We think we can speed up the natural growth of people around us. We interfere by telling them to do what we think best.
Sometimes the greatest love we can offer is to accept our loved ones the way they are. We need to remember that each caterpillar weaves a cocoon in its own time and becomes a butterfly in its own way. The wisdom of the universe is greater than our own.
How will I show my acceptance of others today?


You are reading from the book Touchstones.
I will thank you because I am marvelously made; your works are wonderful, and I know it well. ---Psalms 139:14
Some days we feel bad about ourselves. Perhaps there is no real reason except a mood has come over us. Moodiness is a remnant of our past. Or perhaps we feel guilty or ashamed or hurt. We feel blue. We feel grouchy toward ourselves or toward others around us and the world.
This is a time to turn it over to our Higher Power. We are children of the universe. We are loved. Our Creator has endowed us with marvelous strengths and potentials. Today may be a day we allow ourselves to be carried along by the love of our Higher Power. If we reach out we will feel the presence of the spirit in our contact with other people. We need not try so hard. We only need to pray for openness within ourselves to feel the love of God.
I pray for help today to renew the feeling within that God loves me and never abandons me.


You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning.
We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. --Anne Frank
Happiness feels so close and yet so far away. Perhaps we look to a person for it, or to a job, or a new winter coat. We deserve happiness, we know. Yet, we learn so slowly that happiness can only be found within. The person leaves; the job goes sour; the new coat is quickly out of style. Elusive, all of them.
But the happiness that comes from knowing who we are and how our lives fit in the grand design of the Creator, never eludes us. We are one of a kind. And there is no other who can offer to the world of friends just what each of us can. We are needed, and knowing that, really knowing it, brings happiness.
Before we found this program, we no doubt failed to realize our worth. We can celebrate it now. We can glory in our worth, our specialness, and we can cherish the design. We can cherish our parts and cherish the part each other person plays.
Combined, we are as one big orchestra. The conductor reads the music and directs the movements. Being in tune with the conductor feels good. I can call it happiness. All I need do is play my part.


You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go.
Trusting God
A married couple, friends of mine, decided to make some changes in their living situation. They had always lived in the city, and now they decided they wanted to live in the country, on a lake.
They found a small, lake home. It wasn't the house of their dreams, but when they sold their city home, they would have money to remodel it. They had saved some money, so they moved into their lake home before selling their city home.
One year passed, and the city home didn't sell. My friends went through many changes during this time. They had times of patience and impatience. Some days they trusted God; other days they couldn't figure out why God was making them wait so long, why God wouldn't let them move forward with their plan. The doors just wouldn't swing wide open.
One day, a neighbor came to visit my friends. His home on the lake was my friends' dream home - everything they wanted, plus more. The first time my friends saw this house, they admired it, wishing they could have a home just like it, but then they forgot about the idea. They didn't believe it could ever be possible.
The reason the neighbor came to visit my friends was that he and his wife had decided to move. He offered my friends the first option on purchasing his home.
My friends accepted his offer, and signed a purchase agreement. Within two months, they sold their city home and their small but adequate lake home. A short time later, they moved into the home of their dreams.
Sometimes, we experience times of frustration in our life. We believe we're on track, trusting God and ourselves, yet things don't work out. We have false starts and stops. The door refuses to swing wide open.
We may wonder if God has abandoned us, or doesn't care. We may not understand where we're going, or what our direction is.
Then one day we see: the reason we didn't get what we wanted was because God had something much better planned for us.
Today, I will practice patience. I will ask, and trust, my Higher Power to send me His best.


This day is full of miracle. They are right in front of me on my path. Today I have all the courage to let go of all that is holding me back so that I can step forward and experience each miracle that is waiting for me. --Ruth Fishel

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Journey To The Heart

Let Joy Find You

Somewhere along my journey it happened. Quietly, imperceptibly, almost without my knowing it. I relaxed. Got comfortable with myself. I began enjoying myself, accepting life. Liking life. I found joy.

Somewhere along your journey it will happen to you.

Joy is a gift. It appears imperceptibly, without warning, like a morning sunrise lighting our bedroom while we sleep. And it is almost as predictable. Keep doing the activities that bring healing and growth into your life. Keep loving yourself. Keep walking your path. Continue loving.

Don’t worry about finding joy. Because somewhere along your journey, joy will find you.

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More Language Of Letting Go

Stop trying so hard

Stop trying to force and make things happen. Don’t you see that by pushing so hard, you’re sabotaging yourself.

There’s another way, a better way.

Surrender– not to the way you want things to be, but to the way things are, right now. Sometimes that means we surrender to loneliness, defeat, confusion, and helplessness. Sometimes that means we don’t get what we want today. Instead we get what we have today.

We’re not in control of many things and circumstances in this world. By forcing things, we often disconnect from our true power, instead of aligning with it.

Maybe something has to happen first, before you can get what you want or do what you want. Maybe there’s an important lesson you’re trying to skip. Maybe it’s not time. Stop trying so hard to push and force, to make it happen. Stop trying to do the impossible, and instead do what you can do– surrender to the way things are.

Then watch how naturally the impossible falls into place.

God, help me stop trying so hard to force things into place. Help me remember that all is well.

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Growing Your Own Food
Flavors of Life by Madisyn Taylor

When we grow our food, we participate more fully in nature’s cycles and form a closer bond with Mother Earth.

Growing a garden of food at home is an experience anyone can enjoy. Even a hanging basket of rosemary or a cherry tomato plant in a pot on the windowsill can enhance your connection with the cycle of life. If you have space outdoors, the green and blooming colors of the edible delights you are growing will decorate any view while tempting you to enjoy the outdoors. The edible plants we nurture allow us to literally taste the fruits (or vegetables or herbs) of our labor while helping us more consciously participate in the circulating energy of nature.

Allow yourself to begin slowly and simply, so that you can learn to dance with nature’s intricate orchestrations. There are many experienced gardeners out there to assist you as you choose seeds or small plants to start your garden. As you learn to heed the seasons, soil, sun, frost, and shade, you become more than a mere spectator of life’s cycle. Instead, you step into the role of cocreator and enhance what you nurture. No matter how large or small the size of your garden, you can benefit from growing your own organic, fresh, and nutritious food while also reveling in the depth of flavor and texture that comes from plants that have been well-tended, nurtured, and loved. As we appreciate the food we’ve grown, we can recognize the care that farmers put into the produce most of us buy at the supermarket. With this new understanding, we can acknowledge the roles other living creatures fill as participants in cultivating the cycle of life. We may even learn to peacefully coexis! t with the animals and insects that share perhaps too great an interest in our garden.

When we grow our food, we participate more fully in nature’s cycles and form a closer bond with Mother Earth. Knowing how to grow your own food allows for a sense of freedom and pride that you can feed and provide for yourself, one of the most basic necessities. Gratitude may fill us as we marvel at the beauty of nature and the majesty of the universe that orchestrates such natural wonders. When we allow our appreciation of life to expand, we harvest so much more than food and the taste is that much sweeter. Published with permission from Daily OM

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A Day at a Time

Reflection for the Day
"It seems to me," wrote AA co-founder Bill W., "that the primary object of any human being is to grow, as God intended, that being the nature of all growing things. Our search must be for what reality we can find, which includes the best definition and feeling of love that we can acquire. If the capability of loving is in the human being, then it must surely be in his Creator."

Will I pray today not so much to be loved, as to love?

Today I Pray
God grant me the patience of a lifetime in my search for the best answer to the question, "What is love?" May I know that the definition will come to me in snatches as I live life's several roles - as child, lover, parent, teacher, friend, spiritual being. May I be grateful for my experience as a chemically dependent person, which adds a special dimension to the meaning of love.

Today I Will Remember
All love reflects God's love.

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Food For Thought

Avoiding Extremes

The Greek ideal of the golden mean is a concept, which we would do well to ponder. Most of us are extremists, as evidenced by our compulsiveness. We are all or nothing people, and our histories are full of times when we "couldn't believe we ate the whole thing."

Before coming to OA, many of us alternated between starving and bingeing. Either we attempted a diet so limited and stringent that it was impossible to follow for very long, or we indulged our appetites by eating everything that did not move.

OA endorses the practice of moderation. Learning it is difficult for most of us and something, which we have been unable to do by ourselves. The members who maintain their abstinence and have a strong program serve as guides and sponsors for those of us who are beginners. Old and new, all of us rely every day on our Higher Power to lead us in the way of moderation.

May I avoid extremes and learn moderation.

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One Day At A Time

FOURTH STEP SECRETS
“These are weighty secrets and we must whisper them.”
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (Susan Coolidge)

When I came to the Recovery Group, I was wearing the pain of a lifetime of well-kept secrets - secrets about a childhood of poverty and secrets about a difficult marriage. No one ever saw my secret pain; I never shared it with anyone. But all could see the effects of the food I used as a coping mechanism.

Because of my willingness "to do whatever it takes," I shared these secrets with the person who took my 5th step. I later shared it with my sponsor and some of them later with a sponsee during her 5th step. Sharing this pain the first two times was like the bursting of a painful abscess, with poison being released. The poison that kept me living in resentful, negative thinking has been gradually replaced with gratitude for what I had and now have, and with the ability to experience joy in my many, many blessings.

One day at a time...
I will experience gratitude for the gifts I was given in my 4th and 5th steps and for the gifts of this program.
~ Karen A.

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AA 'Big Book' - Quote

For those who are unable to drink moderately the question is how to stop altogether. We are assuming, of course, that the reader desires to stop. Whether such a person can quit upon a nonspiritual basis depends upon the extent to which he has already lost the power to choose whether he will drink or not. - Pg. 34 - More About Alcoholism

Hour To Hour - Book - Quote

Vengeance sometimes seems the only way to get back at who've hurt us. But we've found the best vengeance is living well, practicing our principles, and letting our Higher Power take care of the offenders.

May I recognize and internalize that vengeance is an attribute of addiction, not recovery.

Releasing of Perfectionism

Today, I will not demand that my life be perfect in order for me to love it, nor will I demand that all my relationships be perfect for me to value and respect them. If I try to make my life and relationships perfect, I will be constantly engaged in a neurotic battle with my transitory illusion of perfection. There is no such thing as an ideal, and to insist that life be ideal is to miss the forest for the trees. I will not condemn myself to the constant feeling that I have drawn the short straw. Perfection is in the eyes of the beholder -- it is subjective. I will not ask the moment to be more than the moment -- I will not be conditional in my love.

- Tian Dayton PhD

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

Humility is not so much thinking less of yourself as it is thinking of yourself less.

True humility is accepting myself without embellishment and without embarrassment.

"Walk Softly and Carry a Big Book" - Book

You need newcomers to tell you where you came from; old-timers, to tell you where you could go, and a sponsor to tell you where you are at.

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

This day is full of miracle. They are right in front of me on my path. Today I have all the courage to let go of all that is holding me back so that I can step forward and experience each miracle that is waiting for me.

Alkiespeak - Book - Quote

I was half Irish and half Scot. It was A real dilemma in my life; one half of me wanted to get drunk all the time and the other half didn't want to pay for it. - Tom M.
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