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terryberryster.bsky.social

@terryberryster.bsky.social
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 17h
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 17h
Wednesday, October 7: To be obsessed with one thing only as life goes by denies us the opportunity to enjoy everything else in life. The Monastic Way By Joan Chittister
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 17h
October 7, 2026 “Sobriety does interesting things to the mind – clears it up some, lets a bit of honesty and truth filter in, and begins to demand reality.” “It Takes What It Takes,” Pompano Beach, Florida, June 1978, Step By Step
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 17h
65 Growth by the Tenth Step Such is the universal penalty for the failure to go on growing. Just as each A.A. must continue to take his moral inventory and act upon it, so must our whole Society if we are to survive and if we are to serve usefully and well. A.A. COMES OF AGE, P. 231
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Tuesday, October 6: The search for life is an excursion through a myriad of desires. “Life,” Alice Caldwell Rice says, “is made up of desires that seem big and vital one minute and little and absurd the next. Guess we get what’s best for us in the end.” The Monastic Way By Joan Chittister
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
October 6, 2026 “I’ve likened that transforming instant, when despair gave way to a glimmer of hope, to a tiny flower sprung into bloom amid the bombed-out wreckage of my life. Thanks to AA, that tiny bloom was to become a garden.” Voices of Long-Term Sobriety
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
64 Search for Motives Some of us clung to the claim that when drinking we never hurt anybody but ourselves. This attitude, of course, is the end result of purposeful forgetting. It is an attitude which can be changed only by deep and honest search of our motives and actions. TWELVE AND TWELVE
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Monday, October 5: What we spend our time on will even determine our social life and the kind of people with whom we associate. It can be wonderful; it can also be deadly dull. The Monastic Way By Joan Chittister
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
October 5, 2026 “The phrase ‘God as we understand him’ is perhaps the most important expression to be found in our whole AA vocabulary. Within these five words there is included every kind and degree of faith, together with the positive assurance that each of us may choose his own.” Bill W.
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
63 Free of Dependence Reinforced by what grace I could find in prayer, I had to exert every ounce of will and action to cut off these faulty emotional dependencies upon people and upon circumstances. Then only could I be free to love as Francis had loved. GRAPEVINE, JANUARY 1958
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Sunday, October 4: To play computer games eight hours a day doesn’t leave much time for anything else. To paraphrase the proverb—“all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”—all one thing and nothing else makes Jack a dull boy. The Monastic Way By Joan Chittister
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
October 4, 2026 “My life and the lives of those around me do, in fact, form their own parts in a symphony of interaction.” “A New Way of Looking at Life,” Columbus, Ohio, April 1981, Voices of Long-Term Sobriety
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
62 A Different Swinging Door When a drunk shows up among us and says that he doesn't like the A.A. principles. We simply say, "Maybe your case really is different. Why don't you try something else?" TWELVE CONCEPTS, PP. 74-75
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Saturday, October 3: Interests don’t come out of nowhere. They depend on the amount of time we give them in comparison to other dimensions of life. Unless we’re careful, interests easily become fixations. The Monastic Way By Joan Chittister
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
October 3, 2026 “What I’ve had to figure out is that I can’t figure anything out.” “Winners and Whiners,” Port Townsend, Washington, October 1994, Emotional Sobriety: The Next Frontier
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
59 Conviction and Compromise Of course, we cannot always compromise. Deciding when to compromise and when not to compromise always calls for the most careful discrimination. TWELVE CONCEPTS, PP. 42-43
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Friday, October 2: A healthy life develops concerns and involvements in every area: spiritual, physical, emotional and intellectual. What we think about determines what we are. The Monastic Way By Joan Chittister
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
October 2, 2026 “In the life of each AA member, there still lurks a tyrant. His name is alcohol.” AA Co-Founder, Bill W., July 1946, “The Individual in Relation to AA as a Group”, The Language of the Heart
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
8 Righteous Indignation "The positive value of righteous indignation is theoretical -- especially for alcoholics. It leaves every one of us open to the rationalization that we may be as angry as we like provided we can claim to be righteous about it." 1. LETTER, 1954
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Thursday, October 1: We do not possess what we yearn for; it possesses us. What fixates us stands to drive out of us the consciousness of other worthwhile things in life. “There is only one big thing—desire,” Willa Cather wrote. “And before it, when it is big, all is little.” The Monastic Way
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
October 1, 2026 “Only a gift given in love and gratitude is blessed to the giver and precious to the receiver.” Orchard Lake, Mich., December 1966, From: “Breaking Through Ritual”, Step By Step
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
57 Better than Gold As newcomers, many of us have indulged in spiritual intoxication. Like a gaunt prospector, belt drawn in over the last ounce of food, we saw our pick strike gold. Joy at our release from a lifetime of frustration knew no bounds. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, PP. 128-129
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Wednesday, September 30: Life is not a burden to be bemoaned; it is an adventure to be trusted. As Shel Silverstein says: "Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be." The Monastic Way
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
September 30, 2026 “It is out of our discussions, our differences of opinion, our daily experiences, and our general consent that the true answers must finally come.” AA Co-Founder, Bill W., September 1945, From: “’Rules’ Dangerous but Unity Vital”
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
54 To Deepen Our Insight We can go far beyond those things which were superficially wrong with us, to see those flaws which were basic, flaws which sometimes were responsible for the whole pattern of our lives. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 80
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Tuesday, September 29: Never despair of life. It does not depend on what you get in life; it depends on what you do that makes you happy. The artist Pablo Picasso tells us, "I am always doing that which I can not do in order that I may learn how to do it." The Monastic Way By Joan Chittister
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
September 29, 2026 “Personal glorification, overweening pride, consuming ambition, intolerant smugness, money madness, refusal to admit mistakes, self-satisfaction, lazy complacency – these are the garden variety of ills which so often beset movements as well as individuals.” Bill W.
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
53 "Loners" -- but Not Alone Yes -- whenever they try hard to seek out these satisfactions. Surrounded by so many A.A. friends, the co-called loners tell us they no longer feel alone. We daily see such members render prodigies of service, and receive great joys in return. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 120
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Prayer September 28 Here are some of my favorite prayers: Help. Please. Don't. Show me. Guide me. Change me. Are you there? Why'd you do that? Oh. Thank you. Today, I will tell God what I want to tell God, and listen for God's answer. Melody Beattie, The Language of Letting Go
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Monday, September 28: Don't wait for someone else to tell you what you should become. Become it a piece at a time. Follow your interests and inclinations and watch your life become what you always wanted it to be. The Monastic Way By Joan Chittister
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
September 28, 2026 “I was so busy juggling the regrets of the past with the expectations of tomorrow I had no time for living in the present.” Atlanta, Ga., August 2001, From: “How Is My Now?”, Beginner’s Book
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
52 To Guard Against a Slip Suppose we fall short of the chosen ideal and stumble? Does this mean we are going to get drunk? But this is only a half-truth. It depends on us and on our motives. If we are sorry for what we have done, we believe we will be forgiven ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, P. 70
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Sunday, September 27: Life in our times demands new respect for creativity. We must now begin to earn our bread differently, live differently, learn differently and imagine the future differently. It's time to strike out and make life what we want it to be. The Monastic Way By Joan Chittister
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
September 27, 2026 “I have discovered a new way to learn – by shutting my mouth and listening ... It’s not so much what I’m doing as what I’m not doing. I’m not talking. So I’m open; I’m teachable.” Houston, Texas, June 1976, From: “Growth”, Emotional Sobriety: The Next Frontier
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
51 The Coming of Faith "When I was driven to my knees by alcohol, I was made ready to ask for the gift of faith. And all was changed. Never again, my problems notwithstanding, would I experience my former desolation. I saw the universe to be lighted by God's love; I was alone no more." LETTER
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Saturday, September 26: Don't be afraid of the unknown. It is, in fact, the doorway to the future. "The illiterate of the 21st century," Alvin Toffler said, "will not be those who can-not read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." The Monastic Way By Joan Chittister
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
September 26, 2026 “Spiritual growth and experiences are not limited to orthodox believers in a deity, any more than the disease of alcoholism is limited to skid-row bums.” Casper, Wyo., September 1969, From: “Is ‘Agnostic’ a Nasty Word?”, AA Grapevine
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
50 A.A.: Benign Anarchy As our old-timers retired, we therefore began to elect our trusted servants by majority vote. This meant that no single individual could appoint himself to act for his group or for A.A. as a whole. Neither dictatorship nor paternalism was for us. A.A. COMES OF AGE
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fri, September 25: Very little of what we learn now will still be considered current knowledge ten years from now. "In times of change," Eric Hoffer wrote, "learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. The Monastic Way
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
September 25, 2026 “During his first AA years every AA has had plenty of the urge to revolt against authority. I’ve also served my time as a maker of rules, a regulator of other people’s conduct ... I can now look back upon such experiences with much amusement. And gratitude as well.” Bill W.
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
49 Out of Defeat...Strength If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that some day we will be immune to alcohol. 1. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, P. 33
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
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terryberryster.bsky.social @terryberryster.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thursday, September 24: "Old lady," the young woman asks, "what is a woman's greatest burden?" And the old woman answers her, "Young woman, the greatest burden in life is to have no burden to carry at all." The Monastic Way By Joan Chittister
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