BB Chapter 1, Bill's Story

1999
OA Online Big Book Study

Bill's Story

ASSIGNMENT: Read "Bill's Story"
Respond To Questions About This Reading
Text of the AABB Found Here

ซ:*ด`ณคณด`*:ปงซ:*ด`ณคณด`*:ปงซ:*ด`ณคณด`*:ปซ:*ด`ณคณด`*:ป

"Renewing my resolve, I tried again. Some time passed, and confidence began to be replaced by cocksureness. I could laugh at the gin mills….In no time I was beating on the bar asking myself how it happened….The remorse, horror and hopelessness of the next morning are unforgettable. The courage to do battle was not there. My brain raced uncontrollably and there was a terrible sense of impending calamity.
"My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, 'Why don't you choose your own conception of God?' That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last."

"Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia. We have it with us right here and now. Each day my friend's simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men."
~ The Big Book ~

Hi, everyone.

My name is Lee. I'm a COE and the group leader (i.e. sharing my ESH and posting the assignment) for March and April.

It feels as though I can't possibly do this chapter justice. I read this with a sense of awe. This is Bill W. we're reading about. If it weren't for him, or HP working through him, imagine where we'd all be today? (Or don't.)

I have to admit that whenever I read Bill's story, I start to feel really uncomfortable. Each time he gets drunk, I wince. Every time I'd think, "Oh, this has got to be his bottom," but there's another "bottom." It is so painful for me because that's my story. I even had the advantage of knowing about bottoms, but I bounced up and down for years, even after I was in OA. My
bottom was reaching a place of exhaustion - the old saying of being sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Bill's amazing spiritual awakening was obviously the "sudden type" talked about in "Spiritual Experience," but, really, it's a miracle that all of us are on this path.

I loved the way Bill went right through the 12 steps. I heard somewhere that AA's would take no more than a month to do the steps the first time around. The focus was really on helping other alcoholics.

It is the sharing of our collective experience, strength, hope and wisdom inspired by our reading of this Big Book together that will make a difference in our recovery. *It would be helpful to you as you read along to substitute the word food for alcohol and compulsive eater for alcoholic. I hope all of you will join us on our journey through the Big Book.

Thank you all for being part of this group!
Love in recovery,

Lee

THE QUESTIONS

1. Do you see similarities between Bill's story and your story?

2. Did you have the experience of thinking you had reached a bottom only to find that you were still descending into your disease?

3. Bill's spiritual awakening seemed to start with him hearing one simple statement. Have you had any experiences with hearing something, as if for the first time, and having your whole world change in that instant? If so, please describe.

4. How does the statement, "Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish" apply to your life today?

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