From the books ...
Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
IMPOSSIBLE occurs
22 times
(
Definition from Merriam-Webster Online)
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1.
... impossible.
12&12 p.25,
Step Two
But now, still
smarting from that
admission, he is
faced with
something really
impossible.
2.
... impossible.
12&12 p.35,
Step Three
To every
worldly and
practical-
minded beginner, this
Step looks hard, even
impossible.
3.
... impossible.
12&12 p.66,
Step Six
To
think of
liking lust seems impossible.
4.
... impossible.
12&12 p.68,
Step Six
Seen in this
light,
Step Six is still
difficult, but
not at all
impossible.
5.
... impossible.
12&12 p.72,
Step Seven
For just so
long as we were
convinced that we could
live
exclusively by our
own
individual strength
and
intelligence, for just that
long was a
working faith in a
Higher Power impossible.
6.
... impossible.
12&12 p.121,
Step Twelve
And these were
fears which would make a
serene and
useful existence, at any
financial level, quite
impossible.
7.
... impossible.
BB p.11,
Bill's Story
Here was something at
work in a
human heart which had done the
impossible.
8.
... impossible.
BB p.34,
More About Alcoholism
Yet we
found it
impossible.
9.
... impossible.
BB p.50,
We Agnostics
This
Power has in each
case
accomplished the
miraculous, the
humanly
impossible.
10.
... impossible, and
if we had passed into ...
BB p.25,
There Is A Solution
We were in a
position where
life was
becoming impossible, and if we had
passed
into the
region from which there is no
return through
human aid, we had but
two alternatives: One was to go on to the
bitter end,
blotting out the
consciousness of our
intolerable situation
as
best we could; and the other, to
accept spiritual help.
11.
... impossible, but
to continue as he is ...
BB p.44,
We Agnostics
To one who
feels he is an
atheist or
agnostic such
an
experience seems
impossible, but to
continue as he is
means disaster,
especially if
he is an
alcoholic of the
hopeless variety.
12.
... impossible domestic
situations righted; feuds and bitterness ...
BB p.15,
Bill's Story
I have seen
hundreds of
families set their
feet in the
path that really
goes somewhere; have seen the most
impossible domestic situations righted;
feuds and
bitterness of
all
sorts wiped out.
13.
... impossible for
any of us to fully ...
BB p.46,
We Agnostics
We
found that as soon as we were able to
lay aside prejudice and
express
even a
willingness to
believe in a
Power greater than ourselves, we
commenced to get
results,
even though it was
impossible for any of us to
fully define or
comprehend that
Power,
which is
God.
14.
... impossible for
him to stop.
BB p.22,
There Is A Solution
We are
equally positive
that once he
takes any
alcohol whatever into his
system, something
happens,
both in the
bodily and
mental sense, which makes it
virtually impossible for
him to
stop.
15.
... impossible had
now become possible.
12&12 p.17,
Foreword
16.
... impossible have
always failed.
BB p.101,
Working With Others
These
attempts to do the
impossible have always
failed.
17.
... impossible job
from which we recoil.
12&12 p.73,
Step Seven
We will
want to be
rid of some
of these
defects, but in some
instances this will
appear
to be an
impossible job from
which we
recoil.
18.
... impossible list
for Santa Claus.
12&12 p.31,
Step Two
Sometimes it's because
God has not
delivered us the
good things
of
life which we
specified, as a
greedy child makes an
impossible list for
Santa Claus.
19.
... impossible situations,
seeking neither to run nor ...
12&12 p.31,
Step Two
We saw them
calmly accept
impossible situations,
seeking neither to
run nor
to
recriminate.
20.
... impossible to
explain what we see, feel, ...
BB p.48,
We Agnostics
Simply because it is
impossible to
explain what we
see,
feel,
direct, and use,
without a
reasonable assumption as a
starting point.
21.
... impossible to
persuade an alcoholic to discuss ...
BB p.18,
There Is A Solution
22.
... impossible to
say we had no capacity ...
BB p.54,
We Agnostics
It was
impossible to say we had no
capacity for
faith, or
love, or
worship.
Passages from the Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous
and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
are reprinted with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.
The A.A. Preamble, copyright ©
The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., is reprinted with permission.
Permission to reprint does not in any way imply affiliation with or
endorsement by either Alcoholics Anonymous or The A.A. Grapevine, Inc.
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