AA Thought for the Day: What It Is and Where to Read It
If someone in a meeting mentions the AA Thought for the Day, they are almost always talking about a specific book rather than a general idea. It has a name, an author and a publisher, and today's entry is free to read. For help finding AA meetings in your area, call (866) 920-0628.
Read more: How Meditation Fits Into the AA Programme
Where the AA Thought for the Day Comes From
The phrase is a section heading inside Twenty-Four Hours a Day, a small daily meditation book written by Richmond Walker and published by Hazelden since 1954. It has been carried in pockets and read aloud at meeting tables for seventy years, which is why the wording feels familiar to people who have never owned a copy.
Each day in the book has three parts, always in the same order: the A.A. Thought for the Day, the Meditation for the Day, and the Prayer for the Day. When a member says they read the thought for the day, they usually mean that first section, though many read all three.
It Is Not the Same as Daily Reflections
This trips up newcomers constantly. Twenty-Four Hours a Day and Daily Reflections are two different books by two different publishers, and only one of them is Conference-approved literature.
Daily Reflections was published by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services in 1990 and carries the Conference approval. Twenty-Four Hours a Day is published by Hazelden and does not, which does not make it less loved, only unofficial. Plenty of groups read from both.
Where to Read Today's AA Thought for the Day
Hazelden Betty Ford publishes the current day's Thought for the Day free on its own site, which is the source to use if you want today's reading rather than a description of it. The book itself is widely available in print, and the pocket edition is the one most often seen in meetings.
Be careful with the copies that circulate as PDFs and reposted blogs. The text is under copyright, and sites republishing the whole book are doing so without permission. Reading from the publisher keeps you on the right side of that and gets you the correct entry.
How Meetings Use the Thought for the Day
A common format opens with the Serenity Prayer, then someone reads the day's entry aloud, and the reading becomes the discussion topic for the hour. Nobody is expected to comment on it, and nobody is expected to agree with it.
Other groups use it as a closing rather than an opening, or pass the book around so a different member reads each week. There is no single correct way, and format varies from room to room.
Using It on Your Own
Most people who keep the habit read the entry at the same time every day, usually first thing. The point is less the passage than the pause: a couple of minutes of deliberate attention before the day starts making demands.
If a particular entry lands badly, members generally move on rather than argue with it. Over a year the book covers enough ground that the ones that do not fit are outnumbered by the ones that do.
Finding a Meeting That Reads It
Reading alone is not the programme. If the daily reading is what brought you here, the natural next step is a room where it gets read out loud and then talked about.
You can search by city and state in our meeting directory, and many listings show the format so you can find literature and meditation meetings near you.
Common Questions
Is it official AA literature? No. It is published by Hazelden, not by AA World Services, and it is not Conference-approved. Daily Reflections is.
Do I need to buy the book? No. Hazelden publishes the current day free, and most groups that read it keep a copy on the table.
What if I miss a day? Nothing happens. The book is organised by calendar date so you can pick it up wherever you are; nobody reads it as a streak.