Our Folded Hands

Women helping Women. Reaching out to the Sister who still suffers. Helping each other through the Good times and the Difficult times. To get to the SOBER way of life, One Day at a Time.

Daily Reflections

GROUP AUTONOMY

Some may think that we have carried the principle of group
autonomy to extremes. For example, in its original “long form,”
Tradition Four declares: “Any two or three gathered together
for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that
as a group they have no other affiliation.” . . . . But this
ultra-liberty is not so risky as it looks.
A.A. COMES OF AGE, pp. 104-05

As an active alcoholic, I abused every liberty that life
afforded. How could A.A. expect me to respect the
“ultra-liberty” bestowed by Tradition Four? Learning respect
has become a lifetime job.
A.A. has made me fully accept the necessity of discipline
and that, if I do not assert it from within, then I will pay
for it. This applies to groups too. Tradition Four points me
in a spiritual direction, in spite of my alcoholic inclinations.