|
Daily Recovery Readings - April
April 1
Daily Reflections LOOKING WITHIN Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 42 Step Four is the vigorous and painstaking effort to discover what the liabilities in each of us have been, and are. I want to find exactly how, when, and where my natural desires have warped me. I wish to look squarely at the unhappiness this has caused others and myself. By discovering what my emotional deformities are, I can move toward their correction. Without a willing and persistent effort to do this, there can be little sobriety or contentment for me. To resolve ambivalent feelings, I need to feel a strong and helpful sense of myself. Such an awareness doesn't happen overnight, and no one's self-awareness is permanent. Everyone has the capacity for growth, and for self-awareness, through an honest encounter with reality. When I don't avoid issues but meet them directly, always trying to resolve them, they become fewer and fewer. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Since I've been in A.A., have I made a start toward becoming more honest? Do I no longer have to lie to my loved ones? Do I try to have meals on time, and do I try to earn what I make at work? Am I trying to be honest? Have I faced myself as I really am and have I admitted to myself that I'm no good by myself, but have to rely on God to help me do the right thing? Am I beginning to find out what it means to be alive and to face the world honestly and without fear? Meditation For The Day God is all around us. His spirit pervades the universe. And yet we often do not let His spirit in. We try to get along without His help and we make a mess of our lives. We can do nothing of any value without God's help. All our human relationships depend on this. When we let God's spirit rule our lives, we learn how to get along with others and how to help them. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may let God run my life. I pray that I will never again make a mess of my life through trying to run it myself. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Courage and Prudence, p. 91 When fear persisted, we knew it for what it was, and we became able to handle it. We began to see each adversity as a God-given opportunity to develop the kind of courage which is born of humility, rather than of bravado. << << << >> >> >> Prudence is a workable middle ground, a channel of clear sailing between the obstacles of fear on the one side and of recklessness on the other. Prudence in practice creates a definite climate, the only climate in which harmony, effectiveness, and consistent spiritual progress can be achieved. << << << >> >> >> "Prudence is rational concern without worry." 1. Grapevine, January 1962 2. Twelve Concepts, p. 62 3. Talk, 1966 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places There are no coincidences Guidance Here's an exercise that can strengthen your belief in a Higher Power: Review your life for seemingly insignificant things that were actually major turning points. A chance meeting, for example, may have resulted in an astonishing career opportunity for lifelong romance. Such surprises come to everybody, and people often wonder what their lives would have been like without these "coincidences." The founding of AA also seemed to be a series of coincidences and chance happenings. The message reached Bill W. by a circular route, and then an unexpected business opportunity took him to Akron, Ohio, where he finally met Dr. Bob. The unusual aspect was that Akron just "Happened" to have stalwart members of the Oxford Group, the same fellowship that had helped Bill W. People with strong spiritual foundations in AA have come to see these happenings not as coincidences but as the guidance of a Higher power. This Higher Power was…and is… continuously working through inspired people. We'll find similar chance happenings for good in our own lives. We don't control them except by keeping our own house in order. This assures us that the outcome of any " coincidence" will be favorable. I'll carry on my activities today without trying to second-guess what my Higher Power has in mind for me. At the same time, I'll know that a superior intelligence is directing my affairs in wonderful ways. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. --- Step Fourof Alcoholics Anonymous. We avoid the Fourth Step. We put it off. We're scared of what we will find inside of us. We may find out we're mean, angry, selfish, afraid. We might see how badly we've acted to others, to ourselves. We have all these things inside us. We also have love, trust, faith, and hope. We love art, music, nature, or sports. We have power to heal, and we have used it too. The Fourth Step helps us to know our inner power. As we learn about our own power, we can use it carefully, on purpose, to do good. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me use my power to do Your will. Let your power work through me too. Action for the Day: Today Ill watch my own actions and words. I'll see how my power affects others. I'll talk about this with my sponsor. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning To be wildly enthusiastic, or deadly serious--both are wrong. Both pass. One must keep ever present a sense of humor. --Katherine Mansfield How familiar wild enthusiasm and deadly seriousness are to most of us. We experience life within the extremes. The thrill of wild enthusiasm we try to trap, to control. We are exhilarated and feel good. Our serious side traps us, controls us, lowers a pall on all our activities. Both expressions keep us stuck. Neither expression allows the freedom of spontaneity so necessary to a full, healthy life. Through our addiction--the liquor, the upper, the person, the food--we were searching for a feeling we didn't feel. We were searching for an unnatural state of happiness, even perhaps wild enthusiasm, because we had so little of any enthusiasm for life. Our search failed. Again and again we'd "catch it," only to have it elude us. We may not have given up the search. But we will come to accept both states of mind as temporary and search instead for the middle ground. A sense of humor will make all of life's loads easier to bear. A sense of humor will offer us the balance that has been missing for so many years. Today will offer me a chance to be wildly enthusiastic and a chance to be deadly serious. I'll try to focus on the middle ground and cultivate my sense of humor. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 8 - TO WIVES We women carry with us a picture of the ideal man, the sort of chap we would like our husbands to be. It is the most natural thing in the world, once his liquor problem is solved, to feel that he will now measure up to that cherished vision. The chances are he will not for, like yourself, he is just beginning his development. Be patient. p. 118 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Foreword Everywhere there arose threatening questions of membership, money, personal relations, public relations, management of groups, clubs, and scores of other perplexities. It was out of this vast welter of explosive experience that A.A.'s Twelve Traditions took form and were first published in 1946 and later confirmed at A.A.'s First International Convention, held at Cleveland in 1950. The Tradition section of this volume portrays in some detail the experience which finally produced the Twelve Traditions and so gave A.A. its present form, substance, and unity. p. 18 ************************************************** ********* And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. --Kahlil Gibran God, help me own my power to love and appreciate myself. Help me give myself validity instead of looking to others to do that. --Melody Beattie "I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in Gods hands, that I still possess." Fear is everywhere, and many fears lie within us, whether screaming loudly or sitting dormant. We must cast away fear, as we would the plague. --SweetyZee To help each other, is to help ourselves. C A R E = Comforting And Reassuring Each other. ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation TIME "I would I could stand on a busy corner, hat in hand, and beg people throw me their wasted hours." --Bernard Berenson I enjoy my sobriety so much that I hate to waste my time. Part of my spiritual program involves a correct use of time. I will not spend time with negative or destructive people. I will not spend time in useless gossip or doing things I do not enjoy to please other people. I am enjoying life so much I do not wish to waste any of it. Spirituality involves a creative stewardship of time. As an alcoholic I wasted so much time. For most of my life I was "out to lunch"! Today I spend time enjoying my life - and I spend quality time alone with "self". I enjoy my little conversations with self - the thoughts I have and need to ponder upon. I need time to rest in the peace of my life. Time is a precious gift from God that should not be wasted. Lord, let me live each day as if it were my last. ************************************************** ********* "May you be blessed by the Lord." Psalm 115:15 Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God's likeness--righteous, holy, and true. So put away all falsehood and "tell your neighbor the truth" because we belong to each other. And "don't sin by letting anger gain control over you." Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a mighty foothold to the Devil. If you are a thief, stop stealing. Begin using your hands for honest work, and then give generously to others in need. Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he is the one who has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:21-32 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration It is the little bits of kindness and love that make this world happy. Lord, may I do my part to make today happy for someone. Have the courage to forgive. Lord, may I bring myself to a place of peace by never holding a grudge. |
April 2
Daily Reflections CHARACTER BUILDING Demands made upon other people for too much attention, protection, and love can only invite domination or revulsion.... TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 44 When I uncovered my need for approval in the Fourth Step, I didn't think it should rank as a character defect. I wanted to think of it more as an asset (that is, the desire to please people). It was quickly pointed out to me that this "need" can be very crippling. Today I still enjoy getting the approval of others, but I am not willing to pay the price I used to pay to get it. I will not bend myself into a pretzel to get others to like me. If I get your approval, that's fine; but if I don't, I will survive without it. I am responsible for speaking what I perceive to be the truth, not what I think others may want to hear. Similarly, my false pride always kept me overly concerned about my reputation. Since being enlightened in the A.A. program, my aim is to improve my character. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Since I've been in A.A., have I made a start toward becoming more loving to my family and friends? Do I visit my parents? Am I more appreciative of my spouse than I was before? Am I grateful to my family for having put up with me? Have I found real understanding with my children? Do I feel that the friends I've found in A.A. are real friends? Do I believe that they are always ready to help me and do I want to help them if I can? Do I really care now about other people? Meditation For The Day Not what you do so much as what you are, that is the miracle- working power. You can be a force for good, with the help of God. God is here to help you and to bless you, here to company with you. You can be a worker with God. Changed by God's grace, you shed one garment of the spirit for a better one. In time, you throw that one aside for a yet finer one. And so from character to character, you are gradually transformed. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may accept every challenge. I pray that each acceptance of a challenge may make me grow into a better person. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Walking Toward Serenity, p. 92 "When I was tired and couldn't concentrate, I used to fall back on an affirmation toward life that took the form of simple walking and deep breathing. I sometimes told myself that I couldn't do even this--that I was too weak. But I learned that this was the point at which I could not give in without becoming still more depressed. "So I would set myself at a small stint. I would determine to walk a quarter of a mile. And I would concentrate by counting my breathing--say, six steps to each slow inhalation and four to each exhalation. Having done the quarter-mile, I found that I could go on, maybe a half-mile more. Then another half-mile, and maybe another. "This was encouraging. The false sense of physical weakness would leave me (this feeling being so characteristic of depressions). The walking and especially the breathing were powerful affirmations toward life and living and away from failure and death. The counting represented a minimum discipline in concentration, to get some rest from the wear and tear of fear and guilt." Letter, 1960 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Accepting Risk Facing Reality. Like it or not, life seems to have certain risks that just can't be avoided. Alcoholics are not really comfortable with risk-taking. This is especially true in situations that include risk of rejection, risk of defeat, or risk of loss. If we try to get through life without accepting some risk, however, we're simply not being realistic. The refusal to accept risk may also mean that we miss wonderful opportunities in the process. What should we do? We should face risk intelligently and with spiritual preparation. FIRST, we do everything possible to reduce risk in any situation (thus making it a "calculated risk"). THEN we pray for guidance and inspiration (but not a certain outcome). FINALLY, we do our very best to succeed in the situation, whether it's a courtship, a job search, competition in sports, or whatever. We might surprise ourselves by succeeding more times than we fail. But even in temporary failure, we gain if we follow through in accepting reasonable and necessary risks. I'll exercise prudence and good judgment in all my undertakings today, but I won't expect to be able to "play it safe" in everything. As a human being, I have to take risks in life. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple To know all things is not permitted.--- Horace In recovery, we give up trying to be perfect. We give up trying to know everything. We work at coming to know and accept our short-comings. In Step Four and Five, we look at our good points and our bad points. In Step Six, we become ready to have our Higher Power remove our "defects of character." Then in Step Seven we ask our Higher Power to remove our "shortcomings." Recovery is about coming to accept that we're not prefect. We admit that trying to be perfect got in the way of being useful to ourselves, our Higher Power, and those around us. Pretending to be prefect doesn't allow us to be real. It's also boring and no fun---you never get to mess up. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You will let me know what I need to know. Allow me to claim my mistakes and shortcomings. Action for the Day: I will work at being okay today. Not prefect, just okay. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. --Amelia Earhart We have learned from experience that a wave of peacefulness washes over us after we have successfully finished a task that was difficult to face. Courage has its reward. However, from time to time, and from task to task, we find we need the reminder that peace will come once the loose ends have been tied by us. Our search for peace was desperate and unending in past years. Our fears overwhelmed us more often than not. Courage was seldom displayed. Tasks were often left half done or not done at all. Challenges went unmet. And peace eluded us. We are so lucky that the program found us, and that we found the program! We are looking forward, at last, with the courage that trusting a higher power has given us. Peace is ours, now and always, as we go forth with the strength of the program to bolster us. New jobs, new friends, new situations may still elicit our old fears. But their hold on us is gone. We have learned that we face nothing alone. What relief that simple truth brings. Courage is one of the program's gifts. I will have courage to go forward: to meet the new day, to handle whatever confronts me. Peace is coupled with courage, now and forever. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 8 - TO WIVES Another feeling we are very likely to entertain is one of resentment that love and loyalty could not cure our husbands of alcoholism. We do not like the thought that the contents of a book or the work of another alcoholic has accomplished in a few weeks that for which we struggled for years. At such moments we forget that alcoholism is an illness over which we could not possibly have had any power. Your husband will be the first to say it was your devotion and care which brought him to the point where he could have a spiritual experience. Without you he would have gone to pieces long ago. When resentful thoughts come, try to pause and count your blessings. After all, your family is reunited, alcohol is no longer a problem and you and your husband are working together toward an undreamed-of future. pp. 118-119 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Foreword As A.A. now enters maturity, it has begun to reach into forty foreign lands.* In the view of its friends, this is but the beginning of its unique and valuable service. It is hoped that this volume will afford all who read it a close-up view of the principles and forces which have made Alcoholics Anonymous what it is. (A.A.'s General Service Office may be reached by writing: Alcoholics Anonymous, P.O. Box 459, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163, U.S.A.) *In 1998, A.A. is established in 150 countries. p. 18 ************************************************** ********* "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." --Will Rogers Laughter is by definition healthy. --Doris Lessing He who laughs, lasts. --Mary Pettibone Poole The best portion of a good man's life is in his little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. --William Wordsworth No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. --Aesop Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown away. --Arthur Helps "We get so much in the habit of wearing a disguise before others that we eventually appear disguised before ourselves." --Jim Bishop ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation PROBLEMS "The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men." --Albert Einstein We are facing not so much a "drug problem" as a people problem - and this requires a solution from the people. I believe the solution and recovery has already been given by God, but it must be discovered from within. We need to seek out what is truly in our minds and hearts: what are our problems, what are our needs, what do we long for, where are we going in our lives? Today it is not enough for me to know my problems, I need also to talk about them. Today I choose to express my feelings. God, I thank You for the creative gift of communication. ************************************************** ********* O, come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice. Psalm 95:6-7 When you lie down you will not be afraid; when you lie down , your sleep will be sweet. Proverbs 3:24 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration There are always better things to come than that which we have left behind. Lord, I look with excitement toward the enexpected joys of today. Forget what you have done for others and remember what they have done for you. Lord, a gift is given freely with no expection. May I become a truly giving person. |
April 3
Daily Reflections ACCEPTING OUR HUMANNESS We finally saw that the inventory should be ours, not the other man's. So we admitted our wrongs honestly and became willing to set these matters straight. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 222 Why is it that the alcoholic is so unwilling to accept responsibility? I used to drink because of the things that other people did to me. Once I came to A.A. I was told to look at where I had been wrong. What did I have to do with all these different matters? When I simply accepted that I had a part in them, I was able to put it on paper and see it for what it was - humanness. I am not expected to be perfect! I have made errors before and I will make them again. To be honest about them allows me to accept them - and myself - and those with whom I had the differences; from there, recovery is just a short distance ahead. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day When I was drinking, I was absolutely selfish, I thought of myself first, last, and always. The universe revolved around me at the center. When I woke up in the morning with a hangover, my only thought was how terrible I felt and about what I could do to make myself feel better. And the only thing I could think of was more liquor. To quit was impossible. I couldn't see beyond myself and my own need for another drink. Can I now look out and beyond my own selfishness? Meditation For The Day Remember that the first quality of greatness is service. In a way, God is the greatest servant of all, because He is always waiting for us to call on Him to help us in all good endeavors. His strength is always available to us, but we must ask it of Him through our own free will. It is a free gift, but we must sincerely seek for it. A life of service is the finest life we can live. We are here on earth to serve others. That is the beginning and the end of our real worth. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may cooperate with God in all good things. I pray that I may serve God and others and so lead a useful and happy life. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Atmosphere Of Grace, p. 93 Those of us who have come to make regular use of prayer would no more do without it than we would refuse air, food, or sunshine. And for the same reason. When we refuse air, light, or food, the body suffers. And when we turn away from meditation and prayer, we likewise deprive our minds, our emotions, and our intuitions of vitally needed support. As the body can fail its purpose for lack of nourishment, so can the soul. We all need the light of God's reality, the nourishment of His strength, and the atmosphere of His grace. To an amazing extent the facts of A.A. life confirm this ageless truth. 12 & 12, pp. 97-98 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places More will be revealed Spiritual Growth There's an old saying, "To him that hath, more shall be given." That saying applies to our growth in AA. If we dedicate ourselves to the program, new information and understanding will continue to flow in our direction. This is not because God is singling us out for special favors. It's simply a law of life. When we are interested in a subject, we find more knowledge coming to us almost "Out of the blue" as we continue to seek it. It's almost as if hidden forces were gathering up ideas and pushing them in our direction. What's happened is that we have put ourselves in line for such growth. We have our antennae out, and we become conditioned to recognize useful ideas as they come to us. We are Open-Minded to our good. This same process has also led to more general knowledge about alcoholism. When the early AA's attained sobriety, most of the information about alcoholism was summed up in a handful of books. Now there are hundreds of books, symposia, and speeches dealing with the subject. More was revealed, and we can hope that even more will be revealed as we continue to focus on recovery. I can expect useful information to come to me from a number of sources. My interest in my recovery and self-improvement helps attract the information and understanding I need. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Rest is the guardian of health.---Melba Colgrave Now that we are sober, we're feeling better than we have in years. We're busy too. We attend meetings and visit friends. We have work, school, families, and homes to keep up with. It's easy to forget to rest. We forgot that our bodies and minds need time off. We need plenty of sleep each night. And we need a lazy weekend now and than to let our bodies recover from to go, go, go of daily life. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me listen to my body. Remind me to slow down and rest now and then. Action for the Day: How much have I rested lately? Have I gotten enough sleep each night? What can I do in the next two days to rest my body, mind, and spirit? ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either. --Golda Meir We all know people who live on the fringes of life. They seem uninvolved with the activity in their midst, as though a pane of glass separated them from us. And there are times when we join the persons standing alone away from the vibrancy of life. Fears keep people apart, particularly the fear of letting go of the vulnerable self and joining in the feelings of the moment. To fully reap the benefits of life, we have to risk full exposure to one another and to the experience of the moment. Full involvement in the ebb and flow of life will bring the weeping that accompanies both the pain and the joy of life. It will also bring the fruits of laughter. Both laughter and weeping cleanse us. They bring closure to an experience. They make possible our letting go. And we must let go of pain, as well as joy, to ready ourselves for the next blessing life offers us. When we keep ourselves apart, when we hold off the tears or the laughter, we cheat ourselves of the richness of life. We have to go through an experience fully in order to learn all it can teach us and then be free of it. Past experiences never let me go until I fully grieve those that need to be grieved or laugh over those that deserve the light touch. The present is distorted when the past shadows it. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 8 - TO WIVES Still another difficulty is that you may become jealous of the attention he bestows on other people, especially alcoholics. You have been starving for his companionship, yet he spends long hours helping other men and their families. You feel he should now be yours. It will do little good if you point that out and urge more attention for yourself. We find it a real mistake to dampen his enthusiasm for alcoholic work. You should join in his efforts as much as you possibly can. We suggest that you direct some of your thought to the wives of his new alcoholic friends. They need the counsel and love of a woman who has gone through what you have. p. 119 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable." Who cares to admit complete defeat? Practically no one, of course. Every natural instinct cries out against the idea of personal powerlessness. It is truly awful to admit that, glass in hand, we have warped our minds into such an obsession for destructive drinking that only an act of Providence can remove it from us. p. 21 ************************************************** ********* "The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving." --Oliver Wendell Holmes "If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well." --Martin Luther King, Jr. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." --Anon. A pint of example is worth a gallon of advice. --Unknown God, help me accept all the twists and turns along my path. Help me to say whatever to the good and the unfortunate incidents that come my way. --Melody Beattie ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation WONDER "Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science" --Ralph Waldo Emerson In my sobriety the world is a wonderful place. I often sit back and am amazed at the splendor of life, at the simple happenings that give such joy, at the nobility that is revealed in man, at the creative adventure and mystery of life. I meditate in wonder. Now I see how drugs kept me blind from so much. Alcohol kept me a prisoner of mediocrity and much of the wonder of life passed me by. As a drinking alcoholic I existed in life, rather than lived life. I was a bored spectator rather than a participant. I reacted to things, rather than initiated events Alcoholism equals dullness. Recovery symbolized energy. Today I can dream dreams and rest in the wonder of it all. God is Good. O Lord, let me see the wonderful mystery of life even in the ordinary. ************************************************** ********* "Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you." I Peter 5:7 "I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forevermore." Psalm 86:12 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration We are extremely precious to God and are never left alone not even for one second. Lord, Thank You for Your promise to protect and care for me always. It is important to remember that different can be better. Lord, as I resist change and cling to the familiar, help me to remember that Your plan is perfect and will truly make me happy. |
April 4
Daily Reflections CRYING FOR THE MOON "This very real feeling of inferiority is magnified by his childish sensitivity and it is this state of affairs which generates in him that insatiable, abnormal craving for self-approval and success in the eyes of the world. Still a child, he cries for the moon. And the moon, it seems, won't have him!" LANGUAGE OF THE HEART, p. 102 While drinking I seemed to vacillate between feeling totally invisible and believing I was the center of the universe. Searching for that elusive balance between the two has become a major part of my recovery. The moon I constantly cried for is, in sobriety, rarely full; it shows me instead its many other phases, and there are lessons in them all. True learning has often followed an eclipse, a time of darkness, but with each cycle of my recovery, the light grows stronger and my vision is clearer. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day When I came into A.A., I found men and women who had been through the same things I had been through. But now they were thinking more about how they could help others than they were about themselves. They were a lot more unselfish than I ever was. By coming to meetings and associating with them, I began to think a little less about myself and a little more about other people. I also learned that I didn't have to depend on myself alone to get out of the mess I was in. I could get a greater strength than my own. Am I now depending less on myself and more on God? Meditation For The Day You cannot help others unless you understand the person you are trying to help. To understand the problems and temptations of others, you must have been through them yourself. You must do all you can to understand others. You must study their backgrounds, their likes and dislikes, their reactions and their prejudices. When you see their weaknesses, do not confront the person with them. Share your own weaknesses, sins, and temptations and let other people find their own convictions. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may serve as a channel for God's power to come into the lives of others. I pray that I may try to understand them. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It ". . .In All Our Affairs, p. 94 "The chief purpose of A.A. is sobriety. We all realize that without sobriety we have nothing. "However, it is possible to expand this simple aim into a great deal of nonsense, so far as the individual member is concerned. Sometimes we hear him say, in effect, "Sobriety is my sole responsibility. After all, I'm a pretty fine chap, except for my drinking. Give me sobriety, and I've got it made!' "As long as our friend clings to this comfortable alibi, he will make so little progress with his real life problems and responsibilities that he stands in a fair way to get drunk again. This is why A.A.'s Twelfth Steps urges that 'we practice these principles in all our affairs.' We are not living just to be sober; we are living to learn, to serve, and to love. Letter, 1966 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places You are not alone Fellowship If you feel isolated and lonely, tape the letters ~~ YANA~~ to the dash in your car. "You Are Never Alone" can help bring a surge of confidence when you most need it. We are not alone because we have thousands of friends who have shared our experience and who understand our feelings. We also are not alone because we have a Higher Power who presides over the affairs of all humankind. We can never be separated from this Power except in our own minds. We must remember that we will always need other people. Virtually everything that benefits us is supplied by the skills and knowledge of others.We can believe that we are completely independent, but the truth is that no person survives completely alone. The typical problem for many of us is in failing to seek help from others. If extreme loneliness is closing in on us, the best prescription is a meeting and the company of other members. I'll not be too proud to ask for help today or to explain to others that I need them and appreciate them. I should also freely admit that help from others led me to sobriety---and helps maintain it today. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Pray without resentment in your heart. ---The Little Red Book Resentment is anger that we don't want to turn over to our Higher Power. Sometimes we want to keep our anger. Maybe we want to "get even." it's hard to be spiritual and full of anger at the same time. When we hold on to anger, it turns into self-will. We get angry from time to time. This is normal. But we now have a program to help us let go of anger. We also know that stored-up anger can drive us back to alcohol and other drugs. Instead of trying to "get even," let's work at keeping anger out of our hearts. Prayer for the Day: I pray without anger in my heart. Higher Power, I give You my anger. Have me work for justice, instead of acting like a judge. Action For the Day: I'll list any resentments I now have. I'll talk about them at my next meeting. This is the best way to turn resentments over to my Higher Power. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning All we are asked to bear we can bear. That is a law of the spiritual life. The only hindrance to the working of this law, as of all benign laws, is fear. --Elizabeth Goudge There is no problem too difficult to handle with all the help available to us. Let's not be overwhelmed. The program tells us to "Let go and let God," to turn it over. And that's where the solution lies. Our challenges, the stumbling blocks in our way, beckon us toward the spiritual working-out of the problem which moves us closer toward being the women we are meant to be. Our fear comes from not trusting in the power greater than ourselves to provide the direction we need, to make known the solution. Every day we will have challenges. We have lessons to learn which mean growing pains. If we could but remember that our challenges are gifts to grow on and that within every problem lies the solution. I will not be given more than I and my higher power can handle today, or any day. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 8 - TO WIVES It is probably true that you and your husband have been living too much alone, for drinking many times isolates the wife of an alcoholic. Therefore, you probably need fresh interests and a great cause to live for as much as your husband. If you cooperate, rather than complain, you will find that his excess enthusiasm will tone down. Both of you will awaken to a new sense of responsibility for others. You, as well as your husband, ought to think of what you can put into life instead of how much you can take out. Inevitably your lives will be fuller for doing so. You will lose the old life to find one much better. pp. 119-120 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable." No other kind of bankruptcy is like this one. Alcohol, now become the rapacious creditor, bleeds us of all self-sufficiency and all will to resist its demands. Once this stark fact is accepted, our bankruptcy as going human concerns is complete. p. 21 ************************************************** ********* "In forgiving ourselves, we make the journey from guilt for what we have done (or not done) to celebration of what we have become." --Joan Borysenko Pitying yourself will get you nowhere. Things aren't always going to go the way you want them to, but still you must set the rules regarding how you respond to them. There is incredible beauty, in the gentle and quiet spirit, precious in God's direction. --SweetyZee "He who cannot rest, cannot work; He who cannot let go, cannot hold on; He who cannot find footing, cannot go forward." --Harry Emerson Fosdick "Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." --Benjamin Franklin If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could be better changed in ourselves. --Carl Jung Voices we prefer to ignore may speak words we need to hear. --Don Deal ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation BEAUTY "Beauty is not caused. It is." --Emily Dickinson So many people think that beauty is what you do to yourself; what you wear, makeup, clothes, hairstyles or expensive jewelry. Again it is so easy to get caught up in "things". Reality is not about what we wear but who we are. The beauty that God has created comes from within. The twinkle in the eyes that says "hello". The hug that says "I love you". The gentle embrace and smile that says "I forgive you". The tear that cries "I understand". When God said to the world, "It is good", Beauty was born. Drugs and crazy relationships only get in the way of us being what we were intended to be: beautiful for God. Today I seek to put God's beauty in my actions, words and attitudes. ************************************************** ********* "Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord." Psalm 31:24 For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared. Proverbs 3:26 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Today is an opportunity to love, to work and to play. Lord, may I recognize the opportunities that come today and participate in them as much as I can. In life it is those that persevere that will succeed. Lord, every day is a fresh beginning. With You, I will come closer to my goals each day if only I don't give up and quit. |
April 5
Daily Reflections TRUE BROTHERHOOD We have not once sought to be one in a family, to be a friend among friends, to be a worker among workers, to be a useful member of society. Always we tried to struggle to the top of the heap, or to hide underneath it. This self-centered behavior blocked a partnership relation with any one of those about us. Of true brotherhood we had small comprehension. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 53 This message contained in Step Four was the first one I heard loud and clear; I hadn't seen myself in print before! Prior to my coming into A.A., I knew of no place that could teach me how to become a person among persons. From my very first meeting, I saw people doing just that and I wanted what they had. One of the reasons that I'm a happy, sober alcoholic today is that I'm learning this most important lesson. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day People often ask what makes the A.A. program work. One of the answers is that A.A. works because it gets people away from themselves as the center of the universe. And it teaches them to rely more on the fellowship of others and on strength from God. Forgetting ourselves in fellowship, prayer, and working with others is what makes the A.A. program work. Are these things keeping me sober? Meditation For The Day God is the great interpreter of one human personality to another. Even personalities who are the nearest together have much in their natures that remains a seated book to each other. And only as God enters and controls their lives are the mysteries of each revealed to the other. Each personality is so different. God alone understands perfectly the language of each and can interpret between the two. Here we find the miracles of change and the true interpretation of life. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be in the right relationship to God. I pray that God will interpret to me the personalities of other people, so that I can understand them and help them. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Spiritual Kindergarten, p. 95 "We are only operating a spiritual kindergarten in which people are enabled to get over drinking and find the grace to go on living to better effect. Each man's theology has to be his own quest, his own affair." << << << >> >> >> When the Big Book was being planned, some members thought that it ought to be Christian in the doctrinal sense. Others had no objection to the use of the word "God", but wanted to avoid doctrinal issues. Spirituality, yes. Religion, no. Still others wanted a psychological book, to lure the alcoholic in. Once in, he could take God or leave Him alone as he wished. To the rest of us this was shocking, but happily we listened. Our group conscience was at work to construct the most acceptable and effective book possible. Every voice was playing its appointed part. Our atheists and agnostics widened our gateway so that all who suffer might pass through, regardless of their belief or lack of belief. 1. Letter, 1954 2. A.A. Comes Of Age, pp. 162, 163, 167 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Letting Go of Resentment___ Releasing the Past How can we really put an end to festering resentments toward other people? "Pray for these people," the Old-timers said. "Go out of your way to do something good for them." This is a big order for most of us, but we are working for a big reward: Sobriety, peace of mind, and personal progress. When we pray for others in this manner, we're practicing the noble art of forgiveness. How do we know when it's staring to work? Lewis B. Smedes, a master teacher of forgiveness, offers this thought: "You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well." Forgiveness also is supposed to include forgetting the wrong. What we really forget is the hurt connected with it. When anything that once evoked pain comes to mind, we're growing spiritually if it no longer has the power to hurt us. We then discover that we had been letting go our resentments hurt us again and again. We also learn that one effort to forgive is not nearly enough. Forgiveness takes the same amount of practice and emotional power we put into carrying the resentment! Today will bring enough problems. I don't have either the time or the energy to play the old tapes that cause me pain. I'll practice praying for those who hurt me, and I'll take it for granted that my HIgher Power is removing my resentments. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Go outside, to the fields, enjoy nature and the sunshine, go out and try to recapture happiness in yourself and in God.---Anne Frank Many of us look at the joy and beauty of the program with caution. It was different from our addictive joy. Was it to be trusted? When we started working the Steps, we found inner joy and beauty. As we let go and gave in to the program, we found more happiness. We found joy in ourselves, our friends, our Higher Power, and those around us. Our self-pity changed to self-respect. We were truly out in the sunshine. We were no longer lost in misery. We know how to walk through misery to find joy. Prayer for the Day: May I become better friends with myself. Higher Power, let me see the world through Your innocent, yet wise and loving eyes Action for the Day: Today I'll work to make my life and the lives of others more joyful. I'll greet myself and others with much joy. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning I came to the conclusion then that "continual mindfulness". . . must mean, not a sergeant-major-like drilling of thoughts, but a continual readiness to look and readiness to accept whatever came. --Joanna Field Resistance to the events, the situations, the many people who come into our lives blocks the growth we are offered every day. Every moment of every day is offering us a gift: the gift of awareness of other persons, awareness of our natural surroundings, awareness of our own personal impact on creation. And in awareness comes our growth as women. Living in the now, being present in the moment, guarantees us the protection of God. And in the stretches of time when we anxiously anticipate the events of the future, we cheat ourselves of the security God offers us right now. We are always being taken care of, right here, right now. Being mindful, this minute, of what's happening and only this, eases all anxieties, erases all fears. We only struggle when we have moved our sights from the present moment. Within the now lies all peace. The most important lesson I have to learn, the lesson that will eliminate all of my pain and struggle, is to receive fully that which is offered in each moment of my life. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 8 - TO WIVES Perhaps your husband will make a fair start on the new basis, but just as things are going beautifully he dismays you be coming home drunk. If you are satisfied he really wants to get over drinking, you need not be alarmed. Though it is infinitely better that he have no relapse at all, as has been true with many of our men, it is by no means a bad thing in some cases. Your husband will see at once that he must redouble his spiritual activities if he expects to survive. You need not remind him of his spiritual deficiency—he will know of it. Cheer him up and ask him how you can be still more helpful. p. 120 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable." But upon entering A.A. we soon take quite another view of this absolute humiliation. We perceive that only through utter defeat are we able to take our first steps toward liberation and strength. Our admissions of personal powerlessness finally turn out to be firm bedrock upon which happy and purposeful lives may be built. p. 21 ************************************************** ********* You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses. --Tom Wilson "Not to transmit an experience is to betray it." --Elie Wiesel A friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. "The difficulties of life are intended to make us better, not bitter." --Anon. "None of us knows what the next change is going to be, what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner, waiting to change all the tenor of our lives." --Kathleen Norris The beauty of God is evident when we work together for God's glory. --Jacki Work ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation FAILURE "No man is a failure who is enjoying life." --William Feather Spirituality is fun. I enjoy my sobriety today and I do not take myself too seriously. For years I thought I was a failure and this "thought" manifested the behavior of a failure. I hid, sulked, was jealous, carried resentments and isolated myself from life - and then blamed the world. Today because I really understand and accept that I am a child of God, I know that I am not a failure and I have a glorious future in recovery. Today I have hope. Today I have confidence. Today I am able to accept and forgive. Today I am able to love my neighbor because I love myself. In my enjoyment of life may I reflect your love for the world. ************************************************** ********* "For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways." Psalm 91:11 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 1 John 4:6 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in a advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration In a day when almost everything goes right, don't ruin it by focusing on the one thing that didn't. Lord, help me to allow the good in my life to prevail. To live with anger or resentment creates even more anger and resentment. Lord, increase my ability to forgive and free me from all that separates me from You so that I may be filled with Your peace. |
April 6
Daily Reflections A LIFETIME PROCESS We were having trouble with personal relationships, we couldn't control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we couldn't make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn't seem to be of real help to other people. . . . ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 52 These words remind me that I have more problems than alcohol, that alcohol is only a symptom of a more pervasive disease. When I stopped drinking I began a lifetime process of recovery from unruly emotions, painful relationships, and unmanageable situations. This process is too much for most of us without help from a Higher Power and our friends in the Fellowship. When I began working the Steps of the A.A. program, many of these tangled threads unraveled but, little by little, the most broken places of my life straightened out. One day at a time, almost imperceptibly, I healed. Like a thermostat being turned down, my fears diminished. I began to experience moments of contentment. My emotions became less volatile. I am now once again a part of the human family. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day All alcoholics have personality problems. They drink to escape from life, to counteract feelings of loneliness or inferiority, or because of some emotional conflict within them, so that they cannot adjust themselves to life. Alcoholics cannot stop drinking unless they find a way to solve their personality problems. That's why going on the wagon doesn't solve anything. That's why taking the pledge usually doesn't work. Was my personality problem ever solved by going on the wagon or taking the pledge? Meditation For The Day God irradiates your life with the warmth of His spirit. You must open up like a flower to this divine irradiation. Loosen your hold on earth, its cares, and its worries. Unclasp your hold on material things, relax your grip, and the tide of peace and serenity will flow in. Relinquish every material thing and receive it back again from God. Do not hold on to earth's treasures so firmly that your hands are too occupied to clasp God's hands as He holds them out to you in love. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be open to receive God's blessing. I pray that I may be willing to relinquish my hold on material things and receive them back from God. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It When Defects Are Less Than Deadly, p. 96 Practically everybody wishes to be rid of his most glaring and destructive handicaps. No one wants to be so proud that he is scorned as a braggart, nor so greedy that he is labeled a thief. No one wants to be angry enough to murder, lustful enough to rape, gluttonous enough to ruin his health. No one wants to be agonized by chronic envy or paralyzed by sloth. Of course, most human beings don't suffer these defects at these rock-bottom levels, and we who have escaped such extremes are apt to congratulate ourselves. Yet can we? After all, hasn't it been self-interest that has enabled most of us to escape? Not much spiritual effort is involved in avoiding excesses which will bring us punishment anyway. But when we face up to the less violent aspects of these very same defects, where do we stand then? 12 & 12, p. 66 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places The Barrier of Sick Pride Sharing Feelings Pride can be either sick or healthy. It's sick pride that keeps us in bondage to alcohol. It's healthy pride that emerges when we have high self-esteem. Finding the right path in sobriety always involves a battle to keep sick pride out of our lives. What if I'm at a discussion meeting and I feel reluctant to admit that certain character defects are still giving me trouble? Can this be sick pride carrying on the pretense that I have risen above such problems? What if someone takes issue with a point I've tried to make in a discussion? Does sick pride cause me to react in self-defense? We learn in the 12 Step program that we gain nothing by attempting to conceal our character defects from our fellow members. We gain everything by sharing our true feelings and letting others know we are vulnerable human beings. There is never any need to defend or explain anything we've tried to say in a meeting. The real message always comes through in our attitude, and it will reach those for whom it's intended. I'll check myself today to see if sick pride is dictating what I say and do. The more I can let others see me as I really am, the more honest my relationships will be. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.---Chinese proverb We're going down a new-road---in our recovery and in our lives. We don't know the road. We only know we're on the right one, because our Higher Power led us here. We ask for help from those who already know the road. We ask our sponsor, "How far is it until I get done feeling guilty?" "How far to self-love?" "How bumpy is the road when I'm at Step Four?" We need people who have been in the program. They tell us where to slow down because this part of the trip is beautiful. Someday, maybe today, we too will be called on to guide others. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You've put me on this road. You've also put others on this road. Let them be my guide. Let my guides become my friends. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll find someone who has been in the program two or more years longer than me. I'll ask that person what the road ahead is like. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in their best light. --Jennie Jerome Churchill Taking our friends and loved ones for granted, expecting perfection from them in every instance, greatly lessens the value we have in one another's life. Being hard on those closest to us may relieve some of the tension we feel about our own imperfections, but it creates another tension, one that may result in our friends leaving us behind. We need the reminder, perhaps, that our friends are special to our growth. Our paths have crossed with reason. We complete a portion of the plan for one another's life. And for such gifts we need to offer gratitude. Each of us is endowed with many qualities, some more enhancing than others; it is our hope, surely, that our lesser qualities will be ignored. We must do likewise for our friends. We can focus on the good, and it will flourish--in them, in ourselves, in all situations. A positive attitude nurtures everyone. Let us look for the good and, in time, it is all that will catch our attention. I can make this day one to remember with fondness. I will appreciate a friend. I will let her know she matters in my life. Her life will be enhanced by my attention. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 8 - TO WIVES The slightest sign of fear or intolerance may lessen your husband’s chance or recovery. In a weak moment he may take your dislike of his high-stepping friends as one of those insanely trivial excuses to drink. p. 120 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable." We know that little good can come to any alcoholic who joins A.A. unless he has first accepted his devastating weakness and all its consequences. Until he so humbles himself, his sobriety--if any--will be precarious. Of real happiness he will find none at all. Proved beyond doubt by an immense experience, this is one of the facts of A.A. life. The principle that we shall find no enduring strength until we first admit complete defeat is the main taproot from which our whole Society has sprung and flowered. pp. 21-22 ************************************************** ********* God, help me to let go of my need to control and to be open to the flow of the universe. -Melody Beattie It becomes a hard life when we pray to God for all sorts of help but we won't be quiet, sit back, and listen for the answers God provides. Don't dominate the conversation: Be silent and listen a little. In other words, meditate. Quiet down and observe your life. --John-Roger Positive mental energy, positive thinking, does not mean we think unrealistically or revert to denial. If we don't like something, we respect our own opinion. If we spot a problem, we're honest about it. If something isn't working out, we accept reality. But we don't dwell on the negative parts of our experience. Whatever we give energy to, we empower. --Melody Beattie "Notice the acts of kindness other people do rather than their wrongdoing. This is how the loving presence views you. We are all good, decent, loving souls who occasionally get lost." --Wayne Dyer "When things go wrong, don't go with them." --Anon. "It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark." --Howard Ruff We can trust God for daily protection. --John D. Byers ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation PRIDE "Though pride is not a virtue, it is the parent of many virtues." --M. C. Collins I need to remember that "pride" is not necessarily a negative. It is sensible to have a balanced pride in my sobriety because self-esteem will grow from the pride and respect I give to myself. God has made me and is involved with me and, therefore, I am a beautiful person. Balanced pride helps me with my appearance, grooming and personal etiquette that comes with clothes, fashion and hairstyles. Pride helps me with my communication skills - I work hard at being understood, speaking out clearly and developing better methods of being understood. Pride stops me from being taken advantage of, enabling me to say "no" to others while still feeling good about myself. A healthy sense of pride is essential for spiritual growth. Lord, let me have a realistic appreciation of myself that leads to achievement. ************************************************** ********* "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations." Psalms 100:5 "If you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me." Jeremiah 29:13-14 I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." Psalm 91:2 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Don't think less of yourself than God thinks of you. He has created us with worth and value beyond our comprehension. Lord, help me to live daily knowing that I am very valuable and do make a difference. The choices we make will affect our lives for better or for worse. Lord, You have given me all that I need to make wise choices. May I always take time to listen to You. |
April 7
Daily Reflections A WIDE ARC OF GRATITUDE And, speaking for Dr. Bob and myself, I gratefully declare that had it not been for our wives, Anne and Lois, neither of us could have lived to see A.A.'s beginning. THE A.A. WAY OF LIFE, p. 67 Am I capable of such generous tribute and gratitude to my wife, parents and friends, without whose support I might never have survived to reach A.A.'s doors? I will work on this and try to see the plan my Higher Power is showing me which links our lives together. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day In A.A. alcoholics find a way to solve their personality problems. They do this by recovering three things. First, they recover their personal integrity. They pull themselves together. They get honest with themselves and with other people. They face themselves and their problems honestly, instead of running away. They take a personal inventory of themselves to see where they really stand. Then they face the facts instead of making excuses for themselves. Have I recovered my integrity? Meditation For The Day When trouble comes, do not say: "Why should this happen to me?" Leave yourself out of the picture. Think of other people and their troubles and you will forget about your own. Gradually get away from yourself and you will know the consolation of unselfish service to others. After a while, it will not matter so much what happens to you. It is not so important any more, except as your experience can be used to help others who are in the same kind of trouble. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may become more unselfish. I pray that I may not be thrown off the track by letting the old selfishness creep back into my life. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Self-Respect Through Sacrifice, p. 97 At the beginning we sacrificed alcohol. We had to, or it would have killed us. But we couldn't get rid of alcohol unless we made other sacrifices. We had to toss the self-justification, self-pity, and anger right out the window. We had to quit the crazy contest for personal prestige and big bank balances. We had to take personal responsibility for our sorry state and quit blaming others for it. Were these sacrifices? Yes, they were. To gain enough humility and self-respect to stay alive at all, we had to give up what had really been our dearest possessions--our ambitions and our illegitimate pride. A.A. Comes Of Age, p. 287 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Deserving Happiness___Emotional Control Somewhere in the course of living sober, we should realize that we can deserve to be happy. If happiness is eluding us, the fault may lie in a peculiar guilt from our past. In a perverse way, we may be using unhappiness as penance for our past wrongs. We deserve to be happy if we are doing the things that should bring happiness to ourselves and others. Thinking and living rightly is a path to happiness. Meeting our obligations to society and others contributes to personal happiness. Placing the overall responsibility for our lives in God's hands is yet another route to happiness. We can also learn from our experience. Did any of us ever meet a truly happy person who was totally self-seeking? Do we remember any happy, serene people among our drinking companions? Did any of our temporary successes and victories bring permanent happiness? AA experience gives us the answers we need. Happiness is always in the direction of love and service, never in anything selfish. We deserve to be happy, but we must plant seeds of happiness by our thoughts and actions. I'll be happy today. If I'm worrying about something, I'll suspend the worry and let myself be happy in spite of it. I deserve to be happy and I am usually the person who is responsible for this happiness. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple To make the world a friendly place One must show it a friendly face.---James Whitcomb Riley We are beginning to learn that we get what we expect. Why? If we believe that people are out to get us, we'll not treat them well. We will think it's okay to "get them" before they "get us." Then, they'll be angry and want to get even. And on it goes. It's great when we can meet the world with a balance. We are honest people. We can expect others to be fair with us. We get the faith, strength, and courage to do this because of our trust in our Higher Power. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I put my life in Your care. Use me to spread Your love to others. Action for the Day: Today, I'll spread friendliness. I will greet people with a smile. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning It is only when people begin to shake loose from their preconceptions, from the ideas that have dominated them, that we begin to receive a sense of opening, a sense of vision. --Barbara Ward A sense of vision, seeing who we can dare to be and what we can dare to accomplish, is possible if we focus intently on the present and always the present. We are all we need to be, right now. We can trust that. And we will be shown the way to become who we need to become, step by step, from one present moment to the next present moment. We can trust that, too. The past that we hang onto stands in our way. Many of us needlessly spend much of our lives fighting a poor self-image. But we can overcome that. We can choose to believe we are capable and competent. We can be spontaneous, and our vision of all that life can offer will change--will excite us, will cultivate our confidence. We can respond to life wholly. We can trust our instincts. And we will become all that we dare to become. Each day is a new beginning. Each moment is a new opportunity to let go of all that has trapped me in the past. I am free. In the present, I am free. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 8 - TO WIVES We never, never try to arrange a man’s life so as to shield him from temptation. The slightest disposition on your part to guide his appointment or his affairs so he will not be tempted will be noticed. Make him feel absolutely free to come and go as he likes. This is important. If he gets drunk, don’t blame yourself. God has either removed your husband’s liquor problem or He has not. If not, it had better be found out right away. Then you and your husband can get right down to fundamentals. If a repetition is to be prevented, place the problem, along with everything else, in God’s hands. p. 120 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable." When first challenged to admit defeat, most of us revolted. We had approached A.A. expecting to be taught self-confidence. Then we had been told that so far as alcohol is concerned, self-confidence was no good whatever; in fact, it was a total liability. Our sponsors declared that we were the victims of a mental obsession so subtly powerful that no amount of human willpower could break it. There was, they said, no such thing as the personal conquest of this compulsion by the unaided will. Relentlessly deepening our dilemma, our sponsors pointed out our increasing sensitivity to alcohol--an allergy, they called it. The tyrant alcohol wielded a double-edged sword over us: first we were smitten by an insane urge that condemned us to go on drinking, and then by an allergy of the body that insured we would ultimately destroy ourselves in the process. Few indeed were those who, so assailed, had ever won through in single-handed combat. It was a statistical fact that alcoholics almost never recovered on their own resources. And this had been true, apparently, ever since man had first crushed grapes. p. 22 ************************************************** ********* It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up. --Vince Lombardi If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were. --Kahlil Gibran "Devote uninterrupted chunks of time to the most important people in your life." --Brian Tracy The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. --John Powell You can sit there choosing to live your life in pain, or you can choose to take action and free yourself from the bondage. --Gary Barnes Nothing is better than experiencing joy except sharing it with someone else. --Deanna Smythe There shall be an eternal summer in the grateful heart. --Celia Thaxter ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation OLD AGE "You just wake up one morning and you got it!" --Moms Mabley I am so busy living I don't think about "getting old". I am so grateful in my recovery from alcoholism that tomorrow, the future and age are secondary. In my sickness I was always living in the future; what would tomorrow bring? Will I die crippled, lonely and afraid? My projections into the future produced an emotional pain. Today I do not need to do this. I welcome old age because I bring into it the joy and experience of my sobriety. Will I be lonely? I doubt it if I stick to my recovery program; I have so many friends all over the world meeting together to face the disease on a daily basis. Also I know that nothing could ever compare with the loneliness of my drinking days. My spiritual program reminds me to be grateful for my life and this includes the inevitability of old age. Lord, as I grow in age may I also grow in wisdom and tolerance. ************************************************** ********* "But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold." Job 23:10 Do not plot harm against your neighbor who lives trustfully near you. Proverbs 3:29 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration One of the best parts of receiving blessings is enjoying them. Lord, may I take time to recognize my blessings and appreciate their wonder. As a mother sets aside gifts for her children long before they need them, so, too, has God prepared for our needs long before we call out to Him. Lord, I give thanks and place my trust in Your loving arms. |
April 8
Daily Reflections AN INSIDE LOOK We want to find exactly how, when, and where our natural desires have warped us. We wish to look squarely at the unhappiness this has caused others and ourselves. By discovering what our emotional deformities are, we can move toward their correction TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p.43 Today I am no longer a slave to alcohol, yet in so many ways enslavement still threatens--my self, my desires, even my dreams. Yet without dreams I cannot exist; without dreams there is nothing to keep me moving forward. I must look inside myself, to free myself. I must call upon God's power to face the person I've feared the most, the true me, the person God created me to be. Unless I can or until I do, I will always be running, and never be truly free. I ask God daily to show me such a freedom! ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Second, alcoholics recover their faith in a Power greater than themselves. They admit that they're helpless by themselves and they call on that Higher Power for help. They surrender their lives to God, as they understand Him. They put their drink problem in God's hands and leave it there. They recover their faith in a Higher Power that can help them. Have I recovered my faith? Meditation For The Day You must make a stand for God. Believers in God are considered by some as peculiar people. You must even be willing to be deemed a fool for the sake of your faith. You must be ready to stand aside and let the fashions and customs of the world go by, when God's purposes are thereby forwarded. Be known by the marks that distinguish a believer in God. These are honesty, purity, unselfishness, love, gratitude, and humility. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be ready to profess my belief in God before others. I pray that I may not be turned aside by the skepticism and cynicism of unbelievers. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Anger--Personal and Group Enemy, p. 98 "As the book 'Alcoholics Anonymous' puts it, 'Resentment is the Number One offender.' It is a primary cause of relapses into drinking. How well we of A.A. know that for us 'To drink is eventually to go mad or die.' "Much the same penalty overhangs every A.A. group. Given enough anger, both unity and purpose are lost. Given still more 'righteous' indignation, the group can disintegrate; it can actually die. This is why we avoid controversy. This is why we prescribe no punishments for any misbehavior, no matter how grievous. Indeed, no alcoholic can be deprived of his membership for any reason whatever. "Punishment never heals. Only love can heal." Letter, 1966 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Keep it Simple, BUT not simple-minded Working the Steps. Dr. Bob Smith left little in the way of written material for AA's future. His phrase "Keep it Simple," however, is now a guiding slogan in the program. What did he really have in mind with this final piece of advice? We can take it as certain that Dr. Bob…. A highly intelligent man… was not saying that we shouldn't use our heads for real thinking and study. One of the blessings of sobriety, in fact, should be the ability to think clearly and effectively. It would be a mistake to believe that one must renounce a brainpower and education in order to stay sober. The real aim of "keeping it simple" should be to stay mindful of the principles and essentials that are key to everybody else. Even the most difficult subject can usually be mattered by processes of simplification. The deepest book, for example, is still composed of only twenty-six letters. We can "Keep it Simple" by building or lives around the principles of the Twelve Step program. When we discover new ideas, they'll reinforce and expand what we've already learned. In this way, we should always be learning and growing… which is beautiful simple, but certainly not simple-minded. I'll be grateful today for the ability to think and to understand complicated subjects. With a strong foundation in the bedrock principles of AA, I can use my mind in constructive and progressive ways. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple It's a simple formula: Do your best and somebody might like it.---Dorothy Baker Our program is a selfish program. It tells us to let go of what others think. We're staying sober for ourselves, not for anyone else. Our body and our spirit are at stack. And we know what we need to do to stay sober. If we fell shaky about going to a party, we don't go---no matter who gets upset. If our job makes it hard to stay sober, we get a different one---no mater who it upsets. It's simple we must take good care of ourselves before we can be good to others. In doing this, we learn how to be a friend, a good parent, a good spouse. we have to care for ourselves to have good relationships. Do I believe it okay to be selfish when it comes to my program? Prayer for the Day : Higher Power, help me do what is best for my recovery, no matter what others think. Action for the Day: I will remind myself that staying sober is simple. I don't use chemicals. And I work the program. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Life is patchwork--here and there, scraps of pleasure and despair. Joined together, hit or miss. --Anne Bronaugh As you look ahead, to this day, you can count on unexpected experiences. You can count on moments of laughter. And you can count on twinges of fear. Life is seldom what we expect, but we can trust that we will survive the rough times. They will, in fact, soften our edges. Pleasure and pain share equally in the context of our lives. We so easily forget that our growth comes through the challenges we label "problems." We do have the tools at hand to reap the benefits inherent in the problems that may face us today. Let us move gently forward, take the program with us, and watch the barriers disappear. There is no situation that a Step won't help us with. Maybe we'll need to "turn over" a dilemma today. Accepting powerlessness over our children, or spouse, or co-worker may free us of a burden today. Or perhaps amends will open the communication we seek with someone in our lives. The program will weave the events of our day together. It will give them meaning. Today, well lived, will prepare me for both the pleasure and the pain of tomorrow. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 8 - TO WIVES We realize that we have been giving you much direct advice. We may have seemed to lecture. If that is so we are sorry, for we ourselves, don’t always care for people who lecture us. But what we have related is base upon experience, some of it painful. We had to learn these things the hard way. That is why we are anxious that you understand, and that you avoid these unnecessary difficulties.* So to you out there—who may soon be with us—we say “Good luck and God bless you!" * The fellowship of Al-Anon Family Groups was formed about thirteen years after this chapter was written. Though it is entirely separate from Alcoholics Anonymous, it uses the general principles of the A.A. program as a guide for husbands, wives, relatives, friends, and others close to alcoholics. The foregoing pages (though addressed only to wives) indicate the problems such people may face. Alateen, for teen-aged children of alcoholics, is a part of Al-Anon. If there is no Al-Anon listing in your local telephone book, you may obtain further information on Al-Anon Family Groups by writing to its World Service Office: Box 862, Midtown Station, New York, NY 10018-0862 p. 121 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable." In A.A.'s pioneering time, none but the most desperate cases could swallow and digest this unpalatable truth. Even these "last-gaspers" often had difficulty in realizing how hopeless they actually were. But a few did, and when these laid hold of A.A. principles with all the fervor with which the drowning seize life preservers, they almost invariably got well. That is why the first edition of the book "Alcoholics Anonymous," published when our membership was small, dealt with low-bottom cases only. Many less desperate alcoholics tried A.A., but did not succeed because they could not make the admission of hopelessness. pp. 22-23 ************************************************** ********* I came to this program to save my butt and found out it was attached to my soul. --Anonymous Just beyond the night, another day is breaking, bringing hope to all. --D. Hockaday Newness opens eyes Be in love, at peace with all Travel to know joy --Tara "Change is simply a combination of growing up and gaining knowledge." --Jill Thomas God, help me stay alert to the lessons of today. -Melody Beattie "If you're not feeling God's Presence, who moved?" God exists everywhere. Whenever we feel abandoned by God, remember, it is we who have moved. God is always fully present to us when we remember to open our hearts to that Presence. --Mary Manin Morrissey ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation LIES "It takes a wise man to handle a lie; a fool had better remain honest." --Norman Douglas As a drinking alcoholic I was telling so many lies to cover the lies I had previously told that I got lost in a maze of untruth! Most of the lies were stupid, irrelevant and harmless - but they were all aimed at building up my ego. Making me look good. Telling people I had more. My memory could not keep up with my tongue and I became guilty, ashamed and embarrassed. Today I need to remember that there is nothing any lie can give me that I need; there is nothing in the world of fabrication that I need; I have what I need. Today I have a relationship with a God and Friend that I can understand and be vulnerable with; I don't need to be perfect to be loved. Help me to seek the good life in those things that are good. ************************************************** ********* "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." 1 John 4:4 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Ephesians 4:31 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration There is no good enough reason to ever feel we are a failure. No matter how hard we fall, God is there to restore our spirit and forgive our past. Lord, help me to understand that it is this moment that counts, not the last one and with each new moment, I have a new beginning. They are wise who depend on God. Lord, Your perfect law revives my soul. Keeping Your law makes me rich. |
April 9
Daily Reflections FREEDOM FROM "KING ALCOHOL" . . . let us not suppose even for an instant that we are not under constraint. . . . Our former tyrant, King Alcohol, always stands ready again to clutch us to him. Therefore, freedom from alcohol is the great "must" that has to be achieved, else we go mad or die. As Bill Sees It, p. 134 When drinking, I lived in spiritual, emotional, and sometimes, physical confinement. I had constructed my prison with bars of self-will and self-indulgence, from which I could not escape. Occasional dry spells that seemed to promise freedom would turn out to be little more than hopes of reprieve. True escape required a willingness to follow whatever right actions were needed to turn the lock. With that willingness and action, both the lock and the bars themselves opened for me. Continued willingness and action keep me free--in a kind of extended daily probation--that need never end. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Third, alcoholics recover their proper relationship with other people. they think less about themselves and more about others. They try to help other alcoholics. They make new friends so that they're no longer lonely. They try to live a life of service instead of selfishness. All their relationships with other people are improved. They solve their personality problems by recovering their personal integrity, their faith in a Higher Power, and their way of fellowship and service to others. Is my drink problem solved as long as my personality problem is solved? Meditation For The Day All that depresses you, all that you fear, is really powerless to harm you. These things are but phantoms. So arise from earth's bonds, from depression, distrust, fear, and all that hinders your new life. Arise to beauty, joy, peace, and work inspired by love. Rise from death to life. You do not even need to fear death. All past sins are forgiven if you live and love and work with God. Let nothing hinder your new life. Seek to know more and more of that new way of living. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may let God live in me as I work for Him. I pray that I may go out into the sunlight and work with God. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It The "Slipper" Needs Understanding, p. 99 "Slips can often be charged to rebellion; some of us are more rebellious than others. Slips may be due to the illusion that one can be 'cured' of alcoholism. Slips can also be charged to carelessness and complacency. Many of us fail to ride out these periods sober. Things go fine for two or three years--then the member is seen no more. Some of us suffer extreme guilt because of vices or practices that we can't or won't let go of. Too little self-forgiveness and too little prayer--well, this combination adds up to slips. "Then some of us are far more alcohol-damaged than others. Still others encounter a series of calamities and cannot seem to find the spiritual resources to meet them. There are those of us who are physically ill. Others are subject to more or less continuous exhaustion, anxiety, and depression. These conditions often play a part in slips--sometimes they are utterly controlling." Talk, 1960 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Understanding Compulsion__Protecting Sobriety Often called a "compulsive illness," alcoholism is still a baffling mystery to most people. All we really know is that a single drink, a pleasant beverage for many, becomes a deadly trigger for alcoholics. We may even think it's unfair that we're unable to enjoy the pleasant customs of social drinking. If we let down our guard, we can even entertain the thought that we've somehow been cured of the compulsion to drink. But we don't have to understand the exact nature of compulsion to realize that we are victims of it. Bitter experience and the tragic examples of others should tell us that our compulsion exists and is activated by the first drink. That's really all the understanding we need for living successfully in sobriety. If there's anything we should question, it's not whether we have the compulsion, but why we would have any doubts after so much bad experience with alcohol. After all, if we always had a bad reaction from any other food or beverage, we would soon give it up. Why is there so much persistence in denying that we are compulsively attached to alcohol? We still may be trying to convince ourselves that we can take a drink safely, and this delusion is another way the compulsion works. All we have to understand is that a single drink leads to our destruction. I'll remember today that I've accepted the fact that I am alcoholic and subject to disaster with a first drink. I'll live today with the knowledge that I only have to understand that I have a compulsion to drink. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day a time. --Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln did great things for the United States. He took life One Day at a time.. He broke the future into manageable pieces. We can do the same. We can live in the present and focus on the task at hand. Spirituality comes when we focus this way. When we stay in the present we find choice. And we worry less about the future. Still, we must have goals. We must plan for the future. Goals and plans help us give more credit to the present than to the future. And when we feel good about the present, we feel good about the future. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me focus. Help me keep my energy in the present. Have me live life One Day at a Time. Action for the Day: When I find myself drifting into the future, I'll work at bring myself back to the present. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning For is it not true that human progress is but a mighty growing pattern woven together by the tenuous single threads united in a common effort? --Soong Mei-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek) We each are spinning our individual threads, lending texture, color, pattern, to the "big design" that is serving us all. Person by person our actions, our thoughts, our values complement those of our sisters, those of the entire human race. We are heading toward the same destination, all of us, and our paths run parallel on occasion, intersect periodically, and veer off in singleness of purpose when inspiration calls us. It's comforting to be reminded that our lives are purposeful. What we are doing presently, our interactions with other people, our goals, have an impact that is felt by many others. We are interdependent. Our behavior is triggering important thoughts and responses in someone else, consistently and methodically. No one of us is without a contribution to make. Each one of us is giving what we are called upon to give when we are in a right relationship with God, who is the master artist in this design we are creating. Prayer and meditation will direct my efforts today. My purpose can then be fulfilled. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards OUR WOMEN FOLK have suggested certain attitudes a wife may take with the husband who is recovering. Perhaps they created the impression that he is to be wrapped in cotton wool and placed on a pedestal. Successful readjustment means the opposite. All members of the family should meet upon the common ground of tolerance, understanding and love. This involves a process of deflation. The alcoholic, his wife, his children, his “in-laws,” each one is likely to have fixed ideas about the family’s attitude towards himself or herself. Each is interested in having his or her wishes respected. We find the more one member of the family demands that the others concede to him, the more resentful they become. This makes for discord and unhappiness. And why? Is it not because each wants to play the lead? Is not each trying to arrange the family show to his liking? Is he not unconsciously trying to see what he can take from the family life rather than give? p. 122 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable." It is a tremendous satisfaction to record that in the following years this changed. Alcoholics who still had their health, their families, their jobs, and even two cars in the garage, began to recognize their alcoholism. As this trend grew, they were joined by young people who were scarcely more than potential alcoholics. They were spared that last ten or fifteen years of literal hell the rest of us had gone through. Since Step One requires an admission that our lives have become unmanageable, how could people such as these take this Step? p. 23 ************************************************** ********* You have to leave the city of your comfort and go unto the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself. --Alan Alda Right now, this moment, is the time to celebrate by dancing beneath the warmth of the sun. --Gary Barnes When we are doing our best to live as God would have us live, if we are in harmony with God, we shall feel and be at peace. --SweetyZee Silence is the great revelation. --Lao Tzu "God answers all kneel-mail." --Gary R. Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have. Make a conscious effort to thank God today. --Patricia Ferris ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation SERVICE "No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." Charles Dickens As a drunk I thought that the world owed me a living. Everybody existed for my employment and service; the world was waiting for my telephone call! For years I manipulated people, and I was such a good con artist they often left thanking me! Today a part of my spiritual program requires service. I make the coffee, put out the cookies, cook the meal and invite friends for dinner. I make the telephone call, give the lectures, share in groups and write articles. The life of service helps to keep me sober. I am the message that I share. And I do it for me! Thank you for making me aware of my need to give. ************************************************** ********* It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:26 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Matthew 6:20 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Courage is not the lack of fear, but the ability to go on in spite of it. Lord, may I be strong in my abilities and courageous in my beliefs. In life it is those that persevere that will succeed. Lord, every day is a fresh beginning. With You, I will come closer to my goals each day if only I don't give up and quit. |
April 10
Daily Reflections GROWING UP The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 115 Sometimes when I've become willing to do what I should have been doing all along, I want praise and recognition. I don't realize that the more I'm willing to act differently, the more exciting my life is. The more I am willing to help others, the more rewards I receive. That's what practicing the principles means to me. Fun and benefits for me are in the willingness to do the actions, not to get immediate results. Being a little kinder, a little slower to anger, a little more loving makes my life better--day by day. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day When I came into A.A., I came into a new world. A sober world. A world of sobriety, peace, serenity, and happiness. But I know that if I take just one drink, I'll go right back into that old world. That alcoholic world. That world of drunkenness, conflict, and misery. That alcoholic world is not a pleasant place for an alcoholic to live in. Looking at the world through the bottom of a whiskey glass is no fun after you've become an alcoholic. Do I want to go back to that alcoholic world? Meditation For The Day Pride stands sentinel at the door of the heart and shuts out the love of God. God can only dwell with the humble and the obedient. Obedience to God's will is the key unlocking the door to God's kingdom. You cannot obey God to the best of your ability without in time realizing God's love and responding to that love. The rough stone steps of obedience lead up to where the mosaic floor of love and joy is laid. Where God's spirit is, there is your home. There is heaven for you. Prayer For The Day I pray that God may make His home in my humble and obedient heart. I pray that I may obey His guidance to the best of my ability. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It The Forgotten Mountain, p. 100 When I was a child, I acquired some of the traits that had a lot to do with my insatiable craving for alcohol. I was brought up in a little town in Vermont, under the shadow of Mount Aeolus. An early recollection is that of looking up at this vast and mysterious mountain, wondering what it meant and whether I could ever climb that high. But I was presently distracted by my aunt who, as a fourth-birthday present, made me a plate of fudge. For the next thirty-five years I pursued the fudge of life and quite forgot about the mountain. << << << >> >> >> When self-indulgence is less than ruinous, we have a milder word for it. We call it "taking our comfort." 1. A.A. Comes Of Age, pp. 52-53 2. 12 & 12, p. 67 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Protecting Sobriety Though AA members never criticize drinking customs, we do tell newcomers that it's wise to avoid situations involving alcohol. Even this is not an absolute, because we also concede that it's sometimes necessary to attend a cocktail reception or to lunch with a friend in a bar. So how do we distinguish between what's safe and what's likely to lead to trouble. The litmus test is always to look at our own motives and spiritual guidance. A drink has no power over us unless we want to take the drink. If we are not deliberately seeking out drinking situations, our motives are probably good. If our spiritual house is in order, our Higher Power will also protect us in any situation. Wherever we go, however, we should also make our sobriety the first priority of business. Whatever the importance of any social event, it is insignificant compared with the importance of sobriety. Keep sobriety at the top of your list, and the other decisions will follow in proper order. We should hole the additional thought that "walking in dry places" is really thinking of our selves as always being in dry places under God's guidance. ..Today I will focus on the sober world I want to enjoy and share. The world of drinking has nothing for me. I may encounter situations involving casual drinking today, but I will not be part of them in mind and spirit. I will think and walk in dry places. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent their making their nest in your head.---Chinese proverb Life is full of feelings. We can be happy, sad, mad, scared. These feelings can come and go quickly. Or we may hang on to them. As recovering addicts, we used to hang on to feelings that made us feel bad. We let them make"nest" in our hair. We used our feelings as excuse to drink or use other drugs. Now we're learning to hang on to our good feelings. We can let go of anger, hurt, and fear. We can shoo away the birds of sadness and welcome the birds of happiness. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me become a "bird watcher." Help me learn from my feelings. And help me let go of the bad one so I can be happy. Action For the Day: If I need to get rid of the sadness or anger that I'm hanging on to, I'll get help from my sponsor, a counselor, or a clergy person. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Even though I can't solve your problems, I will be there as your sounding board whenever you need me. --Sandra K. Lamberson The prize we each have been given is our ability to offer full and interested attention to people seeking our counsel. And seldom does a day pass, that we aren't given the opportunity to listen, to nurture, to offer hope where it's been dashed. We are not separate, one from another. Interdependence is our blessing; however, we fail to recognize it at our crucial crossroads. Alone we ponder. Around us, others, too, are often suffering in silence. These Steps that guide our lives push us to break the silence. The secrets we keep, keep us from the health we deserve. Our emotional well-being is enhanced each time we share ourselves - our stories or our attentive ears. We need to be a part of someone else's pain and growth in order to make use of the pain that we have grown beyond. Pain has its purpose in our lives. And in the lives of our friends, too. It's our connection to one another, the bridge that closes the gap. We dread our pain. We hate the suffering our friends must withstand. But each of us gains when we accept these challenges as our invitations for growth and closeness to others. Secrets keep us sick. I will listen and share and be well. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards Cessation of drinking is but the first step away from a highly strained, abnormal condition. A doctor said to us, “Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic. The entire family is, to some extent, ill.” Let families realize, as they start their journey, that all will not be fair weather. Each in his turn may be footsore and may straggle. There will be alluring shortcuts and by-paths down which they may wander and lose their way. pp. 122-123 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable." It was obviously necessary to raise the bottom the rest of us had hit to the point where it would hit them. By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression. To the doubters we could say, "Perhaps you're not an alcoholic after all. Why don't you try some more controlled drinking, bearing in mind meanwhile what we have told you about alcoholism?" This attitude brought immediate and practical results. It was then discovered that when one alcoholic had planted in the mind of another the true nature of his malady, that person could never be the same again. Following every spree, he would say to himself, "Maybe those A.A.'s were right..." After a few such experiences, often years before the onset of extreme difficulties, he would return to us convinced. He had hit bottom as truly as any of us. John Barleycorn himself had become our best advocate. pp. 23-24 ************************************************** ********* May I look at my experiences, not as trouble, but as a way to use my experience to help others. --SweetyZee When you make a mistake, make amends immediately. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. --Eric Hoffer Life is like a mirror. If you frown at it, it frowns back. If you smile, it returns the greeting. "One of the greatest gifts you can give to anyone is the gift of attention." --Jim Rohn "Develop a benevolent world view; look for the good in the people and circumstances around you." --Brian Tracy ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation TODAY "Real generosity towards the future consists in giving all to what is present." --Albert Camus Much of the gratitude that I talk about needs to be centered in what I do with today; I need to focus on the present, rather than procrastinate for the future. As a sick alcoholic I lived either in the guilt of yesterday or the fear of tomorrow - missing the reality of the present. The present moment is all that I have and through this "moment" I live and breathe and have my existence! My understanding of prayer is centered in the present moment because any understanding of relationship and communication, especially with God, must begin from where one is, rather than where one would like to be. Spirituality is the reality of the moment. Master, thank You for the life that is experienced in the moment. ************************************************** ********* "O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever." Psalm 30:12 "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created." Revelation 4:11 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:1-4 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Let life's lessons grow into wisdom so that you may be the light for someone else's darkness. Lord, help me put to good use that which today brings so that I am better prepared for tomorrow. To know someone doesn't mean to know every detail of that person's life. It means to feel affection, confidence and to believe in that person. Lord, may I really know You and have it reflect in how I treat others. |
April 11
Daily Reflections A WORD TO DROP: "BLAME" To see how erratic emotions victimized us often took a long time. We could perceive them quickly in others, but only slowly in ourselves. First of all, we had to admit that we had many of these defects, even though such disclosures were painful and humiliating. Where other people were concerned, we had to drop the word "blame" from our speech and thought. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 47 When I did my Fourth Step, following the Big Book guidelines, I noticed that my grudge list was filled with my prejudices and my blaming others for my not being able to succeed and to live up to my potential. I also discovered I felt different because I was black. As I continued to work on the Step, I learned that I always had drunk to rid myself of those feelings. It was only when I sobered up and worked on my inventory, that I could no longer blame anyone. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day In that alcoholic world, one drink always leads to another and you can't stop till you're paralyzed. And the next morning it begins all over again. You eventually land in a hospital or jail. You lose your job. Your home is broken up. You're always in a mess. You're on the merry-go-round and you can't get off. You're in a squirrel cage and you can't get out. Am I convinced that the alcoholic world is not a pleasant place for me to live in? Meditation For The Day I must learn to accept self-discipline. I must try never to yield one point that I have already won. I must not let myself go in resentments, hates, fears, pride, lust, or gossip. Even if the discipline keeps me separated from some people who are without discipline, nevertheless I will carry on. I may have different ways and a different standard of living than some others. I may be actuated by different motives than some people. But I will try to live the way I believe God wants me to live, no matter what others say. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be an example to others of a better way of living. I pray that I may carry on in spite of hindrances. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It "The Spiritual Angle", p. 101 How often do we sit in A.A. meetings and hear the speaker declare, "But I haven't yet got the spiritual angle." Prior to this statement, he has described a miracle of transformation which has occurred in him--not only his release from alcohol, but a complete change in his whole attitude toward life and the living of it. It is apparent to everyone else present that he has received a great gift, and that this gift is all out of proportion to anything that may be expected from simple A.A. participation. So we in the audience smile and say to ourselves, "Well, that guy is just reeling with the spiritual angle--except that he doesn't seem to know it yet!" Grapevine, July 1962 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Helping Others____Motives It may sound selfish, but you should always help others for no reason other than your own benefit. In giving assistance, guard against posing as an idealist or even a Good Samaritan. We are not saints, and our spiritual progress is interrupted the moment we begin to act more saintly than we really are. Two things happen when we help others in the full knowledge that we are really helping only ourselves. First, we do not place the other person in a demeaning role or make him or her obligated to us. Second, we sidestep the swollen egotism that could arise if we view ourselves as rescuers. In helping others, we are only passing on the good that has come to us. Any good action will always bring rich rewards in personal well-being. People we have helped will be grateful to us when it becomes clear that we don't demand their gratitude. They will also be inspired to follow this example, which is the true AA spirit that became evident with the first Twelve Step calls. I'll look for opportunities to help others in the same way that a businessman looks for ways to increase profits. I know that I grow as a person when I help others in the right spirit. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Many of us as children, were taught to hide our pain, to act as if we had none. We look for ways to hide our pain. Alcohol and other drugs helped us do this. But the pain always returned. We were ashamed that we hurt. We thought we were the only one who hurt so badly. and, worst of all, we thought our pain meant we were bad people. Ours is a program of honesty. As we live life, there will be troubles, and there will be pain. But now we know that we don't try to hide it. If we hide our wounds, they will not heal. We will listen to others pain and ask them to listen to ours. This will help us continue our journey in recovery. Prayer for the Day: God, help me be honest about my pain. Help me see pain not as a personal defect, but as a part of life. Action for the Day: I'll share my pain with a friend, a family member, my group, or sponsor. I'll ask them to do the same with me. I'll think of pain as part of life. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning An element of recovery is learning that we deserve success, the good things that come to us, and also that pain is a reality. We have the strength to deal with that pain without medicating, and it will pass. --Dudley Martineau Many of us didn't understand the changing variables in being human. Our coping skills were at a minimum until we discovered what alcohol or pills, even food, could do for us. And then, a drink or two--or six, maybe--got us through many a lonely evening. The desire for an easy solution might still haunt us, but time, new experiences, and program friends have taught us that our past habits weren't really easy solutions. In reality, they increased our problems and led us nowhere. The Steps and the principles of the program, if applied, guarantee success, living success. We come to believe that strength enough to handle any situation is ours for the asking. And experience with these principles shows us that when we live the way our conscience dictates, the rewards are many. Every day, especially this one facing us, our choices and decisions will be many. But there is only one solution to any problem, and that's the one our higher power guides us to. The answer, the choice, always lies within, and the good life will accompany our thoughtful, reverent choices. The power of the program is mine for the taking. All of today's problems can be eased, if I choose so. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards Suppose we tell you some of the obstacles a family will meet; suppose we suggest how they may be avoided—even converted to good use for others. The family of an alcoholic longs for the return of happiness and security. They remember when father was romantic, thoughtful and successful. Today’s life is measured against that of other years and, when it falls short, the family may be unhappy. p. 123 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable." It was obviously necessary to raise the bottom the rest of us had hit to the point where it would hit them. By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression. To the doubters we could say, "Perhaps you're not an alcoholic after all. Why don't you try some more controlled drinking, bearing in mind meanwhile what we have told you about alcoholism?" This attitude brought immediate and practical results. It was then discovered that when one alcoholic had planted in the mind of another the true nature of his malady, that person could never be the same again. Following every spree, he would say to himself, "Maybe those A.A.'s were right..." After a few such experiences, often years before the onset of extreme difficulties, he would return to us convinced. He had hit bottom as truly as any of us. John Barleycorn himself had become our best advocate. pp. 23-24 ************************************************** ********* The person who sends out positive thoughts activates the world around him positively and draws back to himself positive results. --Norman Vincent Peale Thoughts have power. Thoughts are energy. You can make your world or break it by your thinking. --Susan Taylor When your knees knock, kneel on them. Those who are awake live in a state of constant amazement. --Buddha If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance! "We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers." --Martin Luther King Jr. ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation PRINCIPLES "Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. " --Ralph Waldo Emerson Slowly I am understanding what principles are in my life. I am learning to live with code of ethics that I do not always like, but I know is good for me and others. Although I do not always fully understand the "spiritual principles" of life, I know that my ongoing recovery should be based upon them. Some of the "spiritual principles" by which I try to live are: Honesty, Truth, Openness, Forgiveness, Acceptance, Humility and Hope. I am also experiencing a personal satisfaction in knowing that I am living today with a set of principles that work. They enable me to be a feeling and loving human being. Today I am beginning to feel what I always thought other people had. Today I am alive in my life. May Your principles be my lifestyle. ************************************************** ********* "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:9 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 The peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Discover how really nice today is by taking it less for granted. Lord, thank you for my health, my friends, my abilities and the people who enrich my life and I theirs. Not one day passes without receiving wonderful blessings from our loving and generous God. Lord, may I forget the irritations that distract me from Your happiness. |
April 12
Daily Reflections GIVING UP INSANITY . . . where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 38 Alcoholism required me to drink, whether I wanted to or not. Insanity dominated my life and was the essence of my disease. It robbed me of the freedom of choice over drinking and, therefore, robbed me of all other choices. When I drank, I was unable to make effective choices in any part of my life and life became unmanageable. I ask God to help me understand and accept the full meaning of the disease of alcoholism. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day This sober world is a pleasant place for an alcoholic to live in. Once you've gotten out of your alcoholic fog, you find that the world looks good. You find real friends in A.A. You get a job. You feel good in the morning. You eat a good breakfast and you do a good day's work at home or outside. And your family loves you and welcomes you because you're sober. Am I convinced that this sober world is a pleasant place for an alcoholic to live in? Meditation For The Day Our need is God's opportunity. First we must recognize our need. Often this means helplessness before some weakness or sickness and an admission of our need for help. Next comes faith in the power of God's spirit, available to us to meet that need. Before any need can be met, our faith must find expression. That expression of faith is all God needs to manifest His power in our lives. Faith is the key that unlocks the storehouse of God's resources. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may first admit my needs. I pray that then I may have faith that God will meet those needs, in the way which is best for me. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Healing Talk, p. 102 When we consult an A.A. friend, we should not be reluctant to remind him of our need for full privacy. Intimate communication is normally so free and easy among us that an A.A. adviser may sometimes forget when we expect him to remain silent. The protective sanctity of this most healing of human relations ought never be violated. Such privileged communications have priceless advantages. We find in them the perfect opportunity to be as honest as we know how to be. We do not have to think of the possibility of damage to other people, nor need we fear ridicule or condemnation. Here, too, we have the best possible chance of spotting self-deception. Grapevine, August 1961 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Beating Depression_____ Emotional Fortitude If you're seeking a lively meeting discussion topic, bring up depression. It's so closely tied to alcoholism that some people even think alcoholics are attempting to "treat" depression when they drink. Others feel that depression shows they're not "working" the program. Overcoming depression is a monumental undertaking, but that doesn't mean it cannot be done. The dearly mistake is that believe your circumstances are so hopeless that there's no solution. Sometimes, as AA co-founder Bill Wilson contended (based on personal experience), depression actually corrects itself in time. Stay sober, live rightly, keep physically and mentally active, and in time some depressive mood swings will ease. Even more serious clinical depression can be treated. It's human to be temporarily depressed about a terrible failure or setback. The Twelve Steps are tools for coping with unpleasant situations, but we still might feel bad about tem for a time. The really good news is that enough fortitude will see us through for the long term. We have much experience to show that this is true. Whether today's mood is up or down, I'll hold to the view that the Twelve Steps will help me defeat mental depression in time. My Higher Power assures me that joy and peace are my rightful state of mind. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Life I love you, all is groovy.---Paul Simon Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me let go of my fears and enjoy life. I haven't always known how to enjoy life, but Working the Twelve Steps is more than recovery from alcohol or other drug addiction. It's also about how to enjoy life. Our illness pulled us toward death. Our spirits were dying, and maybe our bodies were dying. Now our spirits are coming to life. We feel more alive than ever before. Our feelings are coming alive. We feel hope and faith, love, and joy, and even hurt and fear. We notice the sunshine as well as the clouds. We know life needs both sunshine and rain, both joy and pain. We are alive. You can teach me. All life is from You, so teach me to be free in Your light and love. Action for the Day: Right now, I can think of at least three things in life that make me feel like sunshine. What are they? ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Make yourself a blessing to someone. Your kind smile or pat on the back just might pull someone back from the edge. --Carmelia Elliott Someone will be helped today by our kindness. Compassionate attention assures others that they do matter, and every one of us needs that reassurance occasionally. The program has given us the vehicle for giving and seeking the help we need--it's sponsorship. Not all of the people we encounter share our program, however. Sponsorship as we know it isn't a reality in their lives. Offering words of encouragement to them, or a willing ear, can be unexpected gifts. They will be deeply appreciated. The real gift, though, is to ourselves. Helping someone in need benefits the helper even more. Our own closeness to God and thus assurance about our own being is strengthened each time we do God's work--each time we do what our hearts direct. We are healed in our healing of others. God speaks to us through our words to others. Our own well-being is enhanced each time we put someone else's well-being first. We're all on a trip, following different road maps, but to the same destination. I will be ready to lend a helping hand to a troubled traveler today. It will breathe new life into my own trip. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards Family confidence in dad is rising high. The good old days will soon be back, they think. Sometimes they demand that dad bring them back instantly! God, they believe, almost owes this recompense on a long overdue account. But the head of the house has spent years in pulling down the structures of business, romance, friendship, health—these things are now ruined or damaged. It will take time to clear away the wreck. Though the old buildings will eventually be replaced by finer ones, the new structures will take years to complete. p. 123 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable." Why all this insistence that every A.A. must hit bottom first? The answer is that few people will sincerely try to practice the A.A. program unless they have hit bottom. For practicing A.A.'s remaining eleven Steps means the adoption of attitudes and actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking. Who wishes to be rigorously honest and tolerant? Who wants to confess his faults to another and make restitution for harm done? Who cares anything about a Higher Power, let alone meditation and prayer? Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry A.A.'s message to the next sufferer? No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn't care for this prospect--unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself. p. 24 ************************************************** ********* What matters is what's in our hearts. "The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly," G. K. Chesterton once wrote: Once you stop taking yourself so seriously and let go of the gravity of all that you do, you can learn to fly, too. God, help me lighten up. --Melody Beattie "Humility leads to strength and not to weakness. It is the highest form of self-respect to admit mistakes and to make amends for them." --John (Jay) McCloy Learning is an upward, ever-evolving process. We will never reach the point where we've learned all we need to know. Every aspect of life contains lessons. We can choose to discard them or to embrace them. Lessons embraced lead to wisdom. --Mary Manin Morrissey We can stop waiting for others to give us what we need and take responsibility for ourselves. When we do, the gates to freedom will swing wide. Walk through. --Melody Beattie Believe and the healing will come. --Gary Barnes Each of us is a unique expression of God's beauty. --Jane F. Maxwell ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation SUFFERING "Every man, on the foundation of his own sufferings and joys, builds for all. " --Albert Camus In my pain I am able to reach out to others. When I share my pain, I not only understand but I am understood. It is my pain and suffering that unites me with others. Other people become a part of my life and are involved in who I am. Through my shared feelings, other people begin to share. Trust develops across this bridge of understanding. Feelings unite the world. Lord, You created us in ONENESS - help us in our struggle to unite. ************************************************** ********* Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 John 4:7 "And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3 Pleasant words are a honeycomb sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Forget the hurts and unkindnesses of all yesterdays so that today you will have room to be joyful and at peace. Lord, bless me with the ability to let go of that which causes me pain so that I may not miss the great joys that today will bring. Small acts of kindness make lasting memories. Lord, help me to remember that it is a privilege to pause for those moment in which I can really make a difference. |
April 13
Daily Reflections THE FALSE COMFORT OF SELF-PITY Self-pity is one of the most unhappy and consuming defects that we know. It is a bar to all spiritual progress and can cut off all effective communication with our fellows because of its inordinate demands for attention and sympathy. It is a maudlin form of martyrdom, which we can ill afford. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 238 The false comfort of self-pity screens me from reality only momentarily and then demands, like a drug, that I take an ever bigger dose. If I succumb to this it could lead to a relapse into drinking. What can I do? One certain antidote is to turn my attention, however slightly at first, toward others who are genuinely less fortunate than I, preferably other alcoholics. In the same degree that I actively demonstrate my empathy with them, I will lessen my own exaggerated suffering. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Having found my way into this new world by the grace of God and the help of A.A., am I going to take that first drink, when I know that just one drink will change my whole world? Am I deliberately going back to the suffering of that alcoholic world? Or am I going to hang onto the happiness of this sober world? Is there any doubt about the answer? With God's help, am I going to hang onto AA. with both hands? Meditation For The Day I will try to make the world better and happier by my presence in it. I will try to help other people find the way God wants them to live. I will try to be on the side of good, in the stream of righteousness, where all things work for good. I will do my duty persistently and faithfully, not sparing myself. I will be gentle with all people. I will try to see other people's difficulty and help them to correct it. I will always pray to God to act as interpreter between me and the other person. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may live in the spirit of prayer. I pray that I may depend on God for the strength I need to help me to do my part in making the world a better place. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Principle Before Expediency, p. 103 Most of us thought good character was desirable. Obviously, good character was something one needed to get on with the business of being self-satisfied. With a proper display of honesty and morality, we'd stand a better chance of getting what we really wanted. But whenever we had to choose between character and comfort, character-building was lost in the dust of our chase after what we thought was happiness. Seldom did we look at character-building as something desirable in itself. We never thought of making honesty, tolerance, and true love of man and God the daily basis of living. << << << >> >> >> How to translate a right mental conviction into a right emotional result, and so into easy, happy and good living, is the problem of life itself. 1. 12 & 12, pp. 71-72 2. Grapevine, January 1958 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places No Conditional Sobriety Admission of Powerlessness Sobriety in AA is unconditional. This means that there’s never been a reason for drinking, no matter how bad our circumstances may become. As the AA pioneers were fond of saying, “THERE’S NOTHING THAT DRINKING WON'T MAKE WORSE.” How do we know if we've been setting conditions on sobriety? It’s revealed to us in our own thinking. If we believe, for example, that a certain setback such as the ending of a relationship is just cause for drinking, we have made our sobriety conditional. In such cases, what we need to do is clear up our own thinking on the subject. Maybe further inventory is needed, or perhaps we should let ourselves learn from the experience of others. Self-honesty is also important in getting priorities in order. The decision to choose unconditional sobriety brings additional benefits in helping us to organize our lives. Once we completely understand that sobriety is all-important, it becomes easier to make other decisions that bear on keeping sober. We find ourselves choosing the ideas and activities that enhance sobriety, while rejecting other things that could threaten it. I’ll never waver in a moment from my relief that I must continue to seek sobriety…… unconditionally. There is nothing that could ever justify my taking a drink. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple No labor, however humble, is dishonoring.---The Talmud Work is good for the heart. Work is good for our minds. It can give us something to focus on besides ourselves. Labor doesn't just mean having a job. It may mean planting a garden or helping a friend. It certainly means working our program. Hopefully, it's a labor of love. We can get into trouble if we have to much time on our hands. We can turn it into mischief or self-pity. We can get bored. Being bored is a matter of choice. We'll never be bored if we ask ourselves, "How can I make this world a better place?" We can turn our answers into action. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, teach me to use my time wisely. Help me be well-balanced between labor and fun. I need both. Action for the Day: I'll list five ways that labor and fun can help me get closer to my Higher Power. And I'll look for people and things to fill my time in positive ways. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning The world is a wheel always turning. Those who are high go down low, and those who've been low go up higher. --Anzia Yezierska Everything changes. Nothing stays the same. And letting go of the way things are, anticipating instead what they might become, frees us to live each moment more fully. Time marches on, and our destiny marches with it. There is purpose in how our lives unfold, the ups and downs serve our growth. We must neither resent the doldrums nor savor too long the elation. Giving too much attention to either state interferes with our awareness of the present. And the present has come to teach us. We must move with time. We must focus our attention on the moment and accept whatever feelings each experience elicits. Emotional maturity is accepting our feelings and letting them go and facing instead the next moment with fresh receptivity. Our lessons are many, and they accompany the lows as well as the highs. We can be grateful for both. The program has taught us freedom from lingering lows. It has given us the tools to move confidently forward, trusting that all is well. Nothing lasts forever, and within each struggle is the opportunity for real growth. The highs will pass away, just as will the lows. They visit us purposefully. I will give them their freedom and find mine as well. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards Father knows he is to blame; it may take him many seasons of hard work to be restored financially, but he shouldn’t be reproached. Perhaps he will never have much money again. But the wise family will admire him for what he is trying to be, rather than for what he is trying to get. p. 123 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step One - "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable." Under the lash of alcoholism, we are driven to A.A., and there we discover the fatal nature of our situation. Then, and only then, do we become as open-minded to conviction and as willing to listen as the dying can be. We stand ready to do anything which will lift the merciless obsession from us. p. 24 ************************************************** ********* According to my experience, the principal characteristic of genuine happiness is peace, inner peace. --His Holiness the Dalai Lama God, help me remember to be peaceful first, no matter what situation I face. --Melody Beattie "When human beings stand by one another, testify to their faith, and witness each other's pain, miracles happen. If we are loved enough, we are emotionally healed and spiritually made whole." --Marianne Williamson God, teach me to let go of worry about money. --Melody Beattie "Don't go through life, GROW through life." --Eric Butterworth Let those whom you care about know how much you appreciate them, right now! Look for opportunities to speak words that help and heal. --Roy Shaver ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation REALITY "I tend to be suspicious of people whose love of animals is exaggerated; they are often frustrated in their relationship with humans." --Yila (Camilla Koffler) Anything can be used to avoid dealing with reality. People can use alcohol, food, drugs, people, sex, gambling - and yes, even animals - to avoid dealing with their loneliness and feelings of isolation. The key to addiction is to be found in the obsessive and compulsive behavior patterns that stop us from reaching our full potential as human beings. We cannot relax with who we are because of our exaggerated and painful lifestyles. We cannot truly love ourselves because of our obsession with the "it" that seems to be controlling us. At some point we need to see the obsession and begin to talk about it. In order for me to be a spiritual person I must free myself from compulsive attitudes. God, I meditate on the "comfortableness" of freedom. ************************************************** ********* "From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." John 1:16 "When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them." Psalm 91:15 "Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." Luke 6:37 I lift up my eyes to the hills--where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Grow and learn from every situation no matter how insignificant because to stand still is really going backwards. Lord, may my spirit always remain young and vibrant and my enthusiasm for each new day remain alive. It is the optimist that opens new doors and takes advantage of even the smallest of life's opportunities. Lord, may my spirit shine and my eyes be open so that I may discover all that life offers. |
April 14
Daily Reflections THE "NUMBER ONE OFFENDER" Resentment is the "number one" offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 64 As I look at myself practicing the Fourth Step, it is easy to gloss over the wrong that I have done, because I can easily see it as a question of "getting even" for a wrong done to me. If I continue to relive my old hurt, it is a resentment and resentment bars the sunlight from my soul. If I continue to relive hurts and hates, I will hurt and hate myself. After years in the dark of resentments, I have found the sunlight. I must let go of resentments; I cannot afford them. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day A police captain once told about certain cases he had come across in his police work. The cause of the tragedy in each case was drunkenness. He told his audience about a man who got into an argument with his wife while he was drunk and beat her to death. Then he went out and drank some more. The police captain also told about a woman who got too near the edge of an old quarry hole when she was drunk and fell one hundred and fifty feet to her death. When I read or hear these stories, do I think about our motto: "But for the grace of God"? Meditation For The Day I must keep balance by keeping spiritual things at the center of my life. God will give me this poise and balance if I pray for it. This poise will give me power in dealing with the lives of others. This balance will manifest itself more and more in my own life. I should keep material things in their proper place and keep spiritual things at the center of my life. Then I will be at peace amid the distractions of everyday living. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may dwell with God at the center of my life. I pray that I may keep that inner peace at the center of my being. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Our New Employer, p. 104 We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well. Established on such a footing, we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs. More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life. As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow, or the hereafter. We were reborn. Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 63 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places What causes a binge? Understanding honesty. In the foggy world of drinking, we were sometimes confused about cause and effect. A person might think of a binge as having been caused by a fight with his or her spouse. The real truth, however, is that he or she provoked the fight in order to get out of the house to launch a drinking spree. It was really the need to drink that caused the fight, and not the reverse, as the alcoholic believes. We must always understand that the compulsion to drink is the root cause of every binge. We may blame certain things that seemed to trigger a drunk, but it is always our own compulsion that gives force to such an action. Nonalcoholics have the same human experiences we do, but such things do not cause them to have binges. Seasoned AA members are trained by their experience to detect and defuse these false causes. "There are excuses but never good reasons for drinking," they say. We always drink because we want to drink, not because another's actions forced us into it. Once we've established real sobriety, we also learn to identify the excuses and devices that helped us blame our binges on other people and conditions. We learn that we are always responsible for maintaining our own sobriety. I intend to get along with everybody today and to meet all conditions and circumstances in a mature manner. Nothing can trigger a binge but my own desire to take a drink. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple It is enough that I am of value to somebody today.---Hugh Prather Even in recovery, we addicts often feel we are not enough. Maybe it's leftover shame from our using days. But we are enough. We are of great value. We all need each other to stay sober. Each of us needs other recovering people to help us remember the hell of addiction. We can forget how bad it was, but telling our stories makes us remember. When you feel you don't want to stay sober for yourself, then stay sober for your brothers and sisters in the program. They need you. You're their recovery, as they're yours. There may be days you don't feel glad to be sober. But your friends in this fellowship are glad you're sober. They thank-you for your sobriety Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, may Your will, not mine, be done. Action For the Day: I'll stop and think of all the people I'm glad for. I'll start telling them today. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Only those who dare, truly live. --Ruth P. Freedman We receive from life, from every experience, from each interaction according to what we have given. When we commit ourselves fully to an experience, it will bless us. When we give ourselves wholly to any moment, our awareness of reality will be heightened. When we risk knowing someone else, truly knowing them, we will find ourselves. How common, and how unfortunate, that so many of us "escape" life! We escape through hiding, hiding from ourselves and others. We fear self-disclosure, our own and someone else's. Before choosing abstinence, our escape was easier. Now, the Steps make escape hard, fortunately. Having a sponsor--and being one--helps. Taking a Fifth and working the Twelfth helps. Going to meetings and sharing helps. Our experiences today won't come around again---in just the same way. The people in our lives won't say again just what they'll say today. We must not miss out on what life offers. We can risk feeling it all, hearing it all, seeing it all. The riches of a full life are so easily mine, and so deservedly mine. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards Now and then the family will be plagued by spectres from the past, for the drinking career of almost every alcoholic has been marked by escapades, funny, humiliating, shameful or tragic. The first impulse will be to bury these skeletons in a dark closet and padlock the door. The family may be possessed by the idea that future happiness can be based only upon forgetfulness of the past. We think that such a view is self-centered and in direct conflict with the new way of living. pp. 123-124 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." The moment they read Step Two, most A.A. newcomers are confronted with a dilemma, sometimes a serious one. How often have we heard them cry out, "Look what you people have done to us! You have convinced us that we are alcoholics and that our lives are unmanageable. Having reduced us to a state of absolute helplessness, you now declare that none but a Higher Power can remove our obsession. Some of us won't believe in God, others can't, and still others who do believe that God exists have no faith whatever He will perform this miracle. Yes, you've got us over the barrel, all right--but where do we go from here?" p. 25 ************************************************** ********* May I sit comfortably in silence, so that I can hear Gods words. --SweetyZee Be thankful for each and every morning. Enjoy life and don't worry about things that won't matter in 10 years anyway. When the solution is simple, God is answering. --Albert Einstein And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. --Abraham Lincoln "One of the greatest gifts you can give to anyone is the gift of attention." --Jim Rohn "Put duties aside at least an hour before bed and perform soothing, quiet activities that will help you relax." --Dianne Hales "If you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?" --Dolores Huerta "Minutes are worth more than money. Spend them wisely." --Thomas P. Murphy "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, but expecting a different result." --Albert Einstein ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation LIFE "May you live all the days of your life." --Jonathan Swift I heard a story that offers a key to the meaning of spirituality: Two little fish were huddled together, afraid to move. A large fish swam by them, confident and strong. The big fish shouted out to the two little fish, "Why don't you swim out and enjoy the beautiful ocean?" The two little fish looked at each other and asked, "Where is the ocean?" They were in it but they didn't know it! As an alcoholic I existed in life but I didn't live: I missed vacations, people, friendships, feelings, nature, sunsets and God. Like so many addicts, I was numbered amongst the "walking dead". Today I continue to make a spiritual choice that avoids alcohol and I am able to feel again. Today I am alive. In You I live to love and love to live. ************************************************** ********* "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man." Psalms 118:8 "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." I Timothy 4:12 You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Start the day with prayer and a commitment to conquer any difficulties that happen and a firmer commitment to not let them conquer you. Lord, bless me with all that I need to make the best of every situation. Celebrate your creativity. You are a child of the Great Creator, created in His image. Lord, may I touch others because of the gifts with which you have blessed me. |
April 15
Daily Reflections THE BONDAGE OF RESENTMENTS . . . harboring resentment is infinitely grave. For then we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the spirit. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 5 It has been said, "Anger is a luxury I cannot afford." Does this suggest I ignore this human emotion? I believe not. Before I learned of the A.A. program, I was a slave to the behavior patterns of alcoholism. I was chained to negativity, with no hope of cutting loose. The Steps offered me an alternative. Step Four was the beginning of the end of my bondage. The process of "letting go" started with an inventory. I needed not be frightened, for the previous Steps assured me I was not alone. My Higher Power led me to this door and gave me the gift of choice. Today I can choose to open the door to freedom and rejoice in the sunlight of the Steps, as they cleanse the spirit within me. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Terrible things could have happened to any one of us. We never will know what might have happened to us when we were drunk. We usually thought: "That couldn't happen to me." But any one of us could have killed somebody or have been killed ourselves, if we were drunk enough. But fear of these things never kept us from drinking. Do I believe that in A.A. we have something more effective than fear? Meditation For The Day I must keep calm and unmoved in the vicissitudes of life. I must go back into the silence of communion with God to recover this calm when it is lost even for one moment. I will accomplish more by this calmness than by all the activities of a long day. At all cost I will keep calm. I can solve nothing when I am agitated. I should keep away from things that are upsetting emotionally. I should run on an even keel and not get tipped over by emotional upsets. I should seek for things that are calm and good and true and stick to those things. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may not argue nor contend, but merely state calmly what I believe to be true. I pray that I may keep myself in that state of calmness that comes from faith in God's purpose for the world. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Move Ahead, p. 105 To spend too much time on any one alcoholic is to deny some other an opportunity to live and be happy. One of our Fellowship failed entirely with his first half-dozen prospects. He often says that if he had continued to work on them, he might have deprived many others, who have since recovered, of their chance. << << << >> >> >> "Our chief responsibility to the newcomer is an adequate presentation of the program. If he does nothing or argues, we do nothing but maintain our own sobriety. If he starts to move ahead, even a little, with an open mind, we then break our necks to help in every way we can." 1. Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 96 2. Letter, 1942 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places When Things are Not humanly possible._____ Facing Difficulties We're reminded again and again that "No human power could have relieved our alcoholism." Whatever it is that keeps us sober must come from a Higher Power … God as we understand Him. This fact about our alcoholism also has broader application to the general conditions of life. There's an almost endless list of conditions that are not humanly possible to change. Some of these conditions apply only to us; others, such as war and disease, cruelly afflict all of humankind. Looking at this sorry picture, many of us wish we had the power to apply Twelve Step principles to all human problems. While we don't have such power at the moment, we do have the power to take a spiritual view of all seemingly hopeless conditions. This includes trying to do whatever we can about any problem, while recognizing that the real solution must eventually come from a Higher Power. We must never lose hope that God will cork with us and through us to create a better world. In a small way, we can help by sharing what happened to us in our recovery from alcoholism. No human power could have relieved our alcoholism, but God could and did. Though I live and work with people who may be frightened and cynical, I'll hold to the idea that a Higher Power is working ceaselessly to improve the human condition in general. There is no reason why the miraculous healing power that relieved my alcoholism should not apply to other problems in my life. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple That day is lost on which one has not laughed. ---French proverb For a long time, we didn't really laugh. It's surprising when we think about it: We hadn't really laughed for so long . . . we almost forgot how good we could feel. It feels so good to laugh again! Now our spirits come more alive each day. Now we feel what alcohol and other drugs stuffed deep inside us. Pain, fear and anger come up. But so do happiness and joy, thankfulness and a sense of humor. In early recovery, we work through the hard feelings. As we grow in the program, we have more and more room for happiness. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, wake me up to the joy and laughter that today holds for me. Don't let me miss it! Action for the Day: Today, I'll spread some laughter. I will learn a joke and tell it to three people. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning It seems to me that I have always been waiting for something better - sometimes to see the best I had snatched from me. --Dorothy Reed Mendenhall Gratitude for what is prepares us for the blessings just around the corner. What is so necessary to understand is that our wait for what's around the corner closes our eyes to the joys of the present moment. We have only the 24 hours ahead of us. In fact, all we can be certain of having is the moment we are presently experiencing. And it is a gift to be enjoyed. There is no better gift just right for us than this moment, at this time. We can, each of us, look back on former days, realizing that we learned too late the value of a friend or an experience. Both are now gone. With practice and a commitment to ourselves, we can learn to reap the benefits of today, hour by hour. When we detach from the present and wait for tomorrow, or next week, or look to next year, we are stunting our spiritual growth. Life can only bless us now, one breath at a time. I can live in the present if I choose to. Gentle reminders are often necessary, however. I will step into my life, today. It can become a habit, one I will never want to break. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards Henry Ford once made a wise remark to the effect that experience is the thing of supreme value is life. That is true only if one is willing to turn the past to good account. We grow by our willingness to face and rectify errors and convert them into assets. The alcoholic’s past thus becomes the principal asset of the family and frequently it is almost the only one! p. 124 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Let's look first at the case of the one who says he won't believe--the belligerent one. He is in a state of mind which can be described only as savage. His whole philosophy of life, in which he so gloried, is threatened. It's bad enough, he thinks, to admit alcohol has him down for keeps. But now, still smarting from that admission, he is faced with something really impossible. How he does cherish the thought that man, risen so majestically from a single cell in the primordial ooze, is the spearhead of evolution and therefore the only god that his universe knows! Must he renounce all this to save himself? p. 25 ************************************************** ********* To give without any reward, or any notice, has a special quality of its own. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh Listen to your feelings. They tell you when you need to take care of yourself, like finding a friend if you feel lonely, crying if you feel sad, singing and smiling if you feel happy, and acting frisky if you feel good. --Pat Palmer Being happy doesn't mean everything's perfect, it just means you've decided to see beyond the imperfections. "The spiritual journey, the path of recovery and personal growth, is a detoxification process in which we bring up and out the negative beliefs we have carried with us from the past and that now poison the present." --Marianne Williamson "Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out." --Art Linkletter As long as you're recreating yourself, why not start by simply being GLAD! to be alive? --LUMPYSEZ "He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away." --Raymond Hull "God doesn't play dice." --Albert Einstein God always leads us toward life. --Gracie M. Willingham ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation SOLITUDE "People who take time to be alone usually have depth, originality and quiet reserve." --John Miller I need to be alone. I need time to listen to my thoughts, consider my opinions and strengthen my body. I need to pull away from my hectic life to be alone with me. As a drinking alcoholic I hated to be alone. I became paranoiac about "leaving the fort" - today I accept that nobody is indispensable and that the world will still be there when I return from the desert! Today I grow in the stillness of solitude. I can rest in that "still" part of me that is the essential me. God is very close to me in the silence of self. Lord, in the stillness of Your life, I am healed and rejuvenated. ************************************************** ********* "He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now." 1 John 2:9 "Whoever trusts in the Lord will be enriched." Proverbs 28:25 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Never give up on yourself because God never gives up on you. Lord, You forgive me. Who am I not to forgive myself too? God is always doing new things in our lives. Lord, help me to close the door to my past and take the time to notice and enjoy the newness I am experiencing right now. |
April 16
Daily Reflections ANGER: A "DUBIOUS LUXURY" If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of the normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 66 "Dubious luxury." How often have I remembered those words. It's not just anger that's best left to nonalcoholics; I built a list including justifiable resentment, self-pity, judgmentalism, self-righteousness, false pride and false humility. I'm always surprised to read the actual quote. So well have the principles of the program been drummed into me that I keep thinking all of these defects are listed too. Thank God I can't afford them--or I surely would indulge in them. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day In A.A. we have insurance. Our faith in God is a kind of insurance against the terrible things that might happen to us if we ever drink again. By putting our drink problem in the hands of God, we've taken out a sort of insurance policy, which insures us against the ravages of drink, as our homes are insured against destruction by fire. Am I paying my A.A. insurance premiums regularly? Meditation For The Day I must try to love all humanity. Love comes from thinking of every man or woman as your brother or sister, because they are children of God. This way of thinking makes me care enough about them to really want to help them. I must put this kind of love into action by serving others. Love means no severe judging, no resentments, no malicious gossip, and no destructive criticism. It means patience, understanding, compassion, and helpfulness. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may realize that God loves me, since He is the Father of us all. I pray that I in turn may have love for all of His children. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It "Perfect" Humility, p. 106 For myself, I try to seek out the truest definition of humility that I can. This will not be the perfect definition, because I shall always be imperfect. At this writing, I would choose one like this: "Absolutely humility would consist of a state of complete freedom from myself, freedom from all the claims that my defects of character now lay so heavily upon me. Perfect humility would be a full willingness, in all times and places, to find and to do the will of God." When I meditate upon such a vision, I need not be dismayed because I shall never attain it, nor need I swell with presumption that one of these days its virtues shall all be mine. I only need to dwell on the vision itself, letting it grow and ever more fill my heart. This done, I can compare it with my last-taken personal inventory. Then I get a sane and healthy idea of where I stand on the highway to humility. I see that my journey toward God has scarce begun. As I thus get down to my right size and stature, my self-concern and importance become amusing. Grapevine, June 1961 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Fix the Need Taking Inventory Recovering users have a saying: "Need a fix? Fix the need" It's great advice, if we combine it with our daily inventory. In good behavior and bad, we're always trying to meet our needs. As compulsive people, we have lots of experience with destructive ways of meeting them. Driven by nameless hungers, we tried desperately to combat boredom, to raise our low self-esteem, to find companionship. What we actually did was place more distance between ourselves and the true satisfying of our needs. On the new path, one way of fixing needs is to come to terms with them. Maybe we had a need for success that was really a frantic effort to "show others" that we were all right. We should want to succeed, but let's begin by exchanging any false goal for one that's right for us. Maybe we have other needs that are based on defective principles and immature hopes. What do we rally need? All of us need self-honesty, self-worth, friendship, and purpose.... all available in the AA program as part of sober living. Finding these, we'll gain insight that will enable to sort out and understand other needs,..... and perhaps find those that correspond to our heart's desire and bring real happiness. It's something we can turn over, because God knows our needs before we even ask. I'll remember today that my needs exist to serve my way of life, and that I must never be a slave to them. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple No human creature can give order to love.George Sand If we are trying to get others to love us, all we’re really doing is trying to be in control. Trying to control others can be a powerful drug. Remember, we can’t control others. We can’t make others love us. Our Higher Power has control, not us. So, what do we need to do? Turn things over to our Higher Power and just be ourselves. Sure, it can scare us to just be ourselves. The truth is, not everyone will love us. But if we’re honest about who we are, others will respect us. We’ll like ourselves better. And we’ll have a better chance of loving others and being loved. Prayer for the Day: I pray to have my need for control lifted from me. I pray to be rid of self-will. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll list five ways my self-will---my need to control---has gotten me in trouble. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid. --Simone de Beauvoir Sudden obstacles, barriers in the way of our progress, doors that unexpectedly close, may confuse, frustrate, even depress us. The knowledge that we seldom understand just what is best for us, comes slowly. And we generally fight it, even after we've begun to understand. Fortunately, the better path will keep drawing us to it. We may wonder why a door seems to have closed. Our paths are confounded only when our steps have gone astray. Doors do not close unless a new direction is called for. We must learn to trust that no obstacle is without its purpose, however baffling it may seem. The program can help us understand the unexpected. We perhaps need to focus on the first three Steps when an obstacle has surfaced. We may need to accept our powerlessness, believe there is a higher power in control, and look to it for guidance. We may also need to remind ourselves that fighting an obstacle, pushing against a closed door, will only heighten our frustration. Acceptance of what is will open our minds and our hearts to the better road to travel at this time. The obstacles confronting me invite me to grow, to move beyond my present self. They offer me chances to be the woman I always dreamed of being. I will be courageous. I am not alone. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards This painful past may be of infinite value to other families still struggling with their problem. We think each family which has been relieved owes something to those who have not, and when the occasion requires, each member of it should be only too willing to bring former mistakes, no matter how grievous, out of their hiding places. Showing others who suffer how we were given help is the very thing which makes life seem so worth while to us now. Cling to the thought that, in God’s hands, the dark past is the greatest possession you have—the key to life and happiness for others. With it you can avert death and misery for them. p. 124 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." At this juncture, his A.A. sponsor usually laughs. This, the newcomer thinks, is just about the last straw. This is the beginning of the end. And so it is: the beginning of the end of his old life, and the beginning of his emergence into a new one. His sponsor probably says, "Take it easy. The hoop you have to jump through is a lot wider than you think. At least I've found it so. So did a friend of mine who was a one-time vice-president of the American Atheist Society, but he got through with room to spare." p. 26 ************************************************** ********* "One of the tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon, instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today." --Dale Carnegie The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. --Oprah Winfrey Deep, abiding joy is available to anyone who learns the secret of pursuing every task with energy and dedication, as though it were a calling. --Thomas Kinkade The value of life lies, not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them: a man may live long, yet live very little. --Michel de Montaigne It is not length of life, but depth of life. --Ralph Waldo Emerson Do not return hurt for hut. --Jerry C. Whybrew ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation LAUGHTER "You grow up the day you have the first real laugh - at yourself." --Ethel Barrymore Today I can laugh at myself. I do not take myself too seriously and I am beginning to grow. I used to be so serious. Having the "poor me's", sitting on my pity pot demanding attention; I was so unhappy. And I was causing my unhappiness. Then a friend listened to my complaints for half an hour and then began to laugh, giving out a real belly-laugh and at that point I began to laugh, too! My attitude was so stupid, selfish and futile that it demanded a laugh to shake me out of it - at that point I began to grow. Today I laugh at my funny little ways, my funny little walk, my ridiculous pretensions, my grandiose behavior. Today with the laughter comes humility. O Lord, let me experience the miracle of laughter. ************************************************** ********* "Peace be with you. John 20:21a "If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another." 1 John 1:7 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Don't spend a lot of time second guessing yourself because often times our first choice is the best choice and, if it isn't, we are free to choose again. Lord, guide me through all of my decisions and help me to be flexible enough to change my mind when necessary. Never let the abundance of gifts from God cause you to forget the Giver. Lord, may I start and end each day with a thank you to You for all of my blessings including those which I take for granted. |
April 17
Daily Reflections LOVE AND FEAR AS OPPOSITES All these failings generate fear, a soul-sickness in its own right. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 49 "Fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there." I don't know to whom this quote should be attributed, but it certainly indicates clearly that fear is an illusion. I create the illusion myself. I experienced fear early in my life and I mistakenly thought that the mere presence of it made me a coward. I didn't know that one of the definitions of "courage" is "the willingness to do the right thing in spite of fear." Courage, then, is not necessarily the absence of fear. During the times I didn't have love in my life I most assuredly had fear. To fear God is to be afraid of joy. In looking back, I realize that, during the times I feared God most, there was no joy in my life. As I learned not to fear God, I also learned to experience joy. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Every time we go to an A.A. meeting, every time we say the Lord's Prayer, every time we have a quiet time before breakfast, we're paying a premium on our insurance against taking that first drink. And every time we help another alcoholic, we're making a large payment on our drink insurance. We're making sure that our policy doesn't lapse. Am I building up an endowment in serenity, peace, and happiness that will put me on easy street for the rest of my life? Meditation For The Day I gain faith by my own experience of God's power in my life. The constant, persistent recognition of God's spirit in all my personal relationships, the ever accumulating weight of evidence in support of God's guidance, the numberless instances in which seeming chance or wonderful coincidence can be traced to God's purpose in my life. All these things gradually engender a feeling of wonder, humility, and gratitude to God. These in turn are followed by a more sure and abiding faith in God and His purposes. Prayer For The Day I pray that my faith may be strengthened every day. I pray that I may find confirmation of my life in the good things that have come into my life. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Learn in Quiet, p. 108 In 1941, a news clipping was called to our attention by a New York member. In an obituary notice from a local paper, there appeared these words: "God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Never had we seen so much A.A. in so few words. With amazing speed the Serenity Prayer came into general use. << << << >> >> >> In meditation, debate has no place. We rest quietly with the thoughts or prayers of spiritually centered people who understand, so that we may experience and learn. This is the state of being that so often discovers and deepens a conscious contact with God. 1. A.A. Comes Of Age, p. 196 2. 12 & 12, pp. 101-100 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places We can't go home again…. Living here and now. Despite all evidence that we must live for today, some of us persist in trying to recapture the past. We may be holding a few good memories that we would like to bring alive today. More likely, we may also be re-fighting old battles in the hope that this time we'll come out winners. But since change is taking place everywhere at every moment, we can never return to any previous place or time. Time does march on, and we are part of the parade. Whether we were winners or losers in the past, we can live only in the here and now. The good news is that we can retain any lessons from the past and put them to use today. If we have scalding memories of twisted relationships, we can remind ourselves that growth and understanding now place us out of harm’s way. And if we remember the things that did turn our right even in the confused past, we can reflect that even greater good is possible today. Our home is never in the past. It is in the time and place where we are today. As we make the best of it, all of our future homes in place and time will improve, for “in God’s house are many mansions.” Accepting the value of all of its lessons, I will close the door firmly on the past, knowing that I must devote all of my interest and energies to the present moment. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple We create revolution by living it.---Jerry Rubin There’s a lot wrong in the world---Child abuse, homeless and hungry people, pollution. Our old way of dealing with these troubles was to break the rules or to “drop out” by using chemicals. Now we have a new way to change the world. We’re changing ourselves. One Day at a Time, we’re acting like the caring , responsible people we want to be. We use the ideas of the program in our lives. We’re kinder. We’re more honest. We stand up for ourselves and for others who need our help. What if the whole world started working the Steps? What a wonderful world this would be! Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, please work through me today. Help me make the world a little better place. Action for the Day: I’ll list one thing that brothers me about the world today. How can using the ideas of the program help solve that problem? Remember, the program tells us to look at our own behavior. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning I can stand what I know. It's what I don't know that frightens me. --Frances Newton Fear of the unknown, often referred to as free-floating anxiety, catches up to us on occasion. But it needn't. The program offers us strength whenever we need it, and faith diminishes all fear. It is said that fear cannot exist where there is faith. We have many days when we feel strong, in touch with our higher power, able to meet all situations. On those days, we are seldom conscious of how our faith is guiding us. But the hours of fear that we experience on other days make us aware of faith's absence. There is a simple solution: We can reach out to a friend. We can be attentive to her needs, and the connection to God will be made. Shifting our focus, from self-centered fears to another person's needs, offers us a perspective on our own life. It also offers us a chance to let God work through us. Our own faith is strengthened each time we offer our services to God and to a friend in need. What may frighten us seems less important the closer we are to the people in our lives. When I touch someone else, God touches me in return. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards It is possible to dig up past misdeeds so they become a blight, a veritable plague. For example, we know of situations in which the alcoholic or his wife have had love affairs. In the first flush of spiritual experience they forgave each other and drew closer together. The miracle of reconciliation was at hand. Then, under one provocation or another, the aggrieved one would unearth the old affair and angrily cast its ashes about. A few of us have had these growing pains and they hurt a great deal. Husbands and wives have sometimes been obliged to separate for a time until new perspective, new victory over hurt pride could be rewon. In most cases, the alcoholic survived this ordeal without relapse, but not always. So we think that unless some good and useful purpose is to be served, past occurrences should not be discussed. pp. 124-125 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." "Well," says the newcomer, "I know you're telling me the truth. It's no doubt a fact that A.A. is full of people who once believed as I do. But just how, in these circumstances, does a fellow `take it easy'? That's what I want to know." "That," agrees the sponsor, "is a very good question indeed. I think I can tell you exactly how to relax. You won't have to work at it very hard, either. Listen, if you will, to these three statements. First, Alcoholics Anonymous does not demand that you believe anything. All of its Twelve Steps are but suggestions. Second, to get sober and to stay sober, you don't have to swallow all of Step Two right now. Looking back, I find that I took it piecemeal myself. Third, all you really need is a truly open mind. Just resign from the debating society and quit bothering yourself with such deep questions as whether it was the hen or the egg that came first. Again I say, all you need is the open mind." p. 26 ************************************************** ********* See with your heart not with your eyes for beauty lies everywhere. The mind reasons. The heart knows. Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. --Martin Luther King Jr. God, help me take guided action, then surrender to your will. Help me remember that true power comes from aligning my will, intentions, and desires with you. --Melody Beattie God, help me learn to take care of myself and live with passion, compassion, and an open heart. --Melody Beattie Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you'll be a mile away and have his shoes. --Unknown Compromise often leads to the solution to a problem, so keep your heart open to it. God is with us through all the changes in our lives. --Greg Faggart ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation POWER "Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts, perhaps the fear of loss of power." --John Steinbeck In my recovery I am beginning to understand that so much "power" in the world is really fear. The power that seeks to attack first in order to feel secure is really fear. The power that always has to have an answer is really fear. The power that arrogantly refuses to listen is really fear. So much power is "fear" dressed in illusion! Spiritual power has the ability to be vulnerable. It can live with confusion. It can stand alone. It allows others to walk away to pursue their happiness. Spiritual power can exist in suffering and loneliness, and it does not expect perfection. My recovery is teaching me to live and let others live, too. My freedom must respect the freedom of others; respect is a two-way street! Give me the power that can rest in imperfection. ************************************************** ********* "My child, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare they will give you." Proverbs 3:1 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration It's very possible that our problems may not be as big as they seem and could sometimes actually be a blessing. Lord, I place my trust in You to see me through my trials and help me to become a stronger and wiser person because of them. Enthusiasm will be yours if you love God, love people, and love life. Lord, the nearer I follow Your way, the happier I become. |
April 18
Daily Reflections SELF-HONESTY The deception of others is nearly always rooted in the deception of ourselves. . . . When we are honest with another person, it confirms that we have been honest with ourselves and with God. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 17 When I was drinking, I deceived myself about reality, rewriting it to what I wanted it to be. Deceiving others is a character defect--even if it is just stretching the truth a bit or cleaning up my motives so others would think well of me. My Higher Power can remove this character defect, but first I have to help myself become willing to receive that help by not practicing deception. I need to remember each day that deceiving myself about myself is setting myself up for failure or disappointment in life and in Alcoholics Anonymous. A close, honest relationship with a Higher Power is the only solid foundation I've found for honesty with self and with others. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day As I look back over my drinking career, have I learned that you take out of life what you put into it? When I put drinking into my life, did I take out a lot of bad things? Hospitals with the D.T.'s? Jails for drunken driving? Loss of job? Loss of home and family? When I put drinking into my life, was almost everything I took out bad? Meditation For The Day I should strive for a friendliness and helpfulness that will affect all who come near to me. I should try to see something to love in them. I should welcome them, bestow little courtesies and understandings on them, and help them if they ask for help. I must send no one away without a word of cheer, a feeling that I really care about them. God may have put the impulse in some despairing one's mind to come to me. I must not fail God by repulsing that person. They may not want to communicate with me unless they are sure of a warm welcome. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may warmly welcome all who come to me for help. I pray that I may make them feel that I really care. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Freedom Through Acceptance, p. 109 We admitted we couldn't lick alcohol with our own remaining resources, and so we accepted the further fact that dependence upon a Higher Power (if only our A.A. group) could do this hitherto impossible job. The moment we were able to accept these facts fully, our release from the alcohol compulsion had begun. For most of us, this pair of acceptances had required a lot of exertion to achieve. Our whole treasured philosophy of self-sufficiency had to be cast aside. This had not been done with sheer will power; it came instead as the result of developing the willingness to accept these new facts of living. We neither ran nor fought. But accept we did. And then we begun to be free. Grapevine, March 1962 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Mistakes are for learning_____Personal growth. One sign of an alcoholic's immaturity is revealed in responses to personal mistakes. We take each simple mistake as further proof of our inadequacy. As one person observed, "I can handle a general catastrophe, but running my nylons can ruin my day." Some of us may feel we're victims of past conditioning… a parent, for example, who berated us when the slightest thing went wrong. But we're at fault if we continue to let ourselves be victimized by such experience. We should give no person.. past, present, or future---the right to set the level of our self-esteem . Properly viewed, all mistakes are for learning purposes. We often have to make a few mistakes before we can learn anything. Sometimes a mistake can occur simply to teach us one basic lesson… that we are human and cannot be perfect in everything we do. Above, all, we should never condemn ourselves for the countless mistakes that occurred while we were drinking. Our alcoholism, a terrible mistake in the sight of many, led to the deep learning we find in AA. Nothing that brings us this far can really be a mistake in the sight of God. In sobriety, I'm learning tolerate the shortcomings and mistakes of others. I will extend the same grace to myself today if I make a simple mistake. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Patience is needed with everyone, but first of all with ourselves. ---St. Francis de Sales How do you treat yourself? Do you talk to yourself in a kind and loving voice? We can’t be kind and loving to others until we learn to be kind and loving with ourselves. To live this way, we must give ourselves the gift of patience. Let’s practice patience with ourselves daily. Practice talking to yourself in a kind, loving voice. Your voice will be that of a loving parent who helps a child with a new task. Your Higher Power Is willing to be patient with you. Give yourself the same gift. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I pray that I’ll treat myself and others with the same loving patience You’ve shown me. Action for the Day: I will listen to how I talk to myself. I will practice talking to myself with a kind, loving, and patient voice. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning To oppose something is to maintain it. --Ursula K. LeGuin Most of our struggles are with other persons or perhaps situations we want to change. We discover that our continual opposition adds fuel to the fires (at least our own internal ones). But can we turn our backs when we feel justified in our opposition? There's perhaps no more difficult action to take than to walk away from those situations we feel so strongly about, but the wisdom of this program says, "Let go and let God." And when we do let go, as if by magic, relief comes. The fires die out. That which we opposed is less troubling, maybe even gone. We no longer feel the need to struggle today. The need may rise again, but again we can turn to our higher power. Trusting that relief awaits us, ensures its arrival. As women we discover many opportunities for opposition, too many persons and situations that make difficult our changing roles--too many persons who don't easily accept our changing characters. The strength to let go and let God we must share with one another. I maintain my struggles with righteous behavior. They lose their sting when they lose my opposition. I will step aside and let God. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards We families of Alcoholics Anonymous keep few skeletons in the closet. Everyone knows about the others’ alcoholic troubles. This is a condition which, in ordinary life, would produce untold grief; there might be scandalous gossip, laughter at the expense of other people, and a tendency to take advantage of intimate information. Among us, these are rare occurrences. We do talk about each other a great deal, but we almost invariably temper such talk by a spirit of love and tolerance. p. 125 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." The sponsor continues, "Take, for example, my own case. I had a scientific schooling. Naturally I respected, venerated, even worshipped science. As a matter of fact, I still do--all except the worship part. Time after time, my instructors held up to me the basic principle of all scientific progress: search and research, again and again, always with the open mind. When I first looked at A.A. my reaction was just like yours. This A.A. business, I thought, is totally unscientific. This I can't swallow. I simply won't consider such nonsense. pp. 26-27 ************************************************** ********* Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. --Michael Jordan Live For Today. . . Yesterday's History. . . And Tomorrow Belongs To God The will of God will never take you to where the grace of God will not protect you. To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else. --Bernadette Devlin A good mountain climber never looks up to see how far he has to go............ He looks down to see how far he's come. --Mark Kostew The difficulties of life are intended to make us better not bitter. "Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see a bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses." --Dale Carnegie ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation GOD "Any God I ever felt in Church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did, too. They come to Church to share God, not find God." --Alice Walker God is within us! At one time I would find that statement blasphemous or incomprehensible. I always thought God was a long way off - separate, unknowable and judgmental. He was much more a judge than a friend. I saw myself more the sinner than the son. Naturally, with such a low self-esteem it was hard to associate God with my life, let alone consider God existing within me! Then I began to search for the spiritual path that leads to a deeper understanding of self - and I found a loving, gentle and friendly God. His love was so pervasive in His world that I was able to discover Him in my life and the lives of others. The concept of meeting together to share God made sense. The concept of discovering a God within and without made God knowable and comprehensible. Because God lives in me, I am alive. Master, in the breaking of the bread, may I share Your life in my world. ************************************************** ********* "Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles." Isaiah 40:31 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9 "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?" Matthew 6:25 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Spend some of your time in prayer just being with God. Lord, for the moment I am letting go of my concerns so that I can feel Your presence in my life. Thoughts are powerful, so pay close attention to what you think about. Lord, help me to think thoughts of love, peace and abundance so that this becomes my experience. |
April 19
Daily Reflections BROTHERS IN OUR DEFECTS We recovered alcoholics are not so much brothers in virtue as we are brothers in our defects, and in our common strivings to overcome them. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 167 The identification that one alcoholic has with another is mysterious, spiritual--almost incomprehensible. But it is there. I "feel" it. Today I feel that I can help people and that they can help me. It is a new and exciting feeling for me to care for someone; to care what they are feeling, hoping for, praying for; to know their sadness, joy, horror, sorrow, grief; to want to share those feelings so that someone can have relief. I never knew how to do this--or how to try. I never even cared. The Fellowship of A.A., and God, are teaching me how to care about others. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Since I've been putting sobriety into my life, I've been taking out a lot of good things. I can describe it best as a kind of quiet satisfaction. I feel good. I feel right with the world, on the right side of the fence. As long as I put sobriety into my life, almost everything I take out is good. The satisfaction you get out of living a sober life is made up of a lot of little things. You have the ambition to do things you didn't feel like doing when you were drinking. Am I getting satisfaction out of living a sober life? Meditation For The Day It is a glorious way - the upward way. There are wonderful discoveries in the realm of the spirit. There are tender intimacies in the quiet times of communion with God. There is an amazing, almost incomprehensible understanding of the other person. On the upward way, you can have all the strength you need from that Higher Power. You cannot make too many demands on Him for strength. He gives you all the power you need, as long as you are moving along the upward way. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may see the beautiful horizons ahead on the upward way. I pray that I may keep going forward to the more abundant life. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Trouble: Constructive or Destructive?, p. 110 "There was a time when we ignored trouble, hoping it would go away. Or, in fear and in depression, we ran from it, but found it was still with us. Often, full of unreason, bitterness, and blame, we fought back. These mistaken attitudes, powered by alcohol, guaranteed our destruction, unless they were altered. "Then came A.A. Here we learned that trouble was really a fact of life for everybody--a fact that had to be understood and dealt with. Surprisingly, we found that our troubles could, under God's grace, be converted into unimagined blessings. "Indeed, that was the essence of A.A. itself: trouble accepted, trouble squarely faced with calm courage, trouble lessened and often transcended. This was the A.A. story, and we became a part of it. Such demonstrations became our stock in trade for the next sufferer." Letter, 1966 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Who pushes my buttons? Personal Relations AA old-timers would be mystified today to hear program members talk about people “pushing their buttons.” (They can't get your goat if they don't know where it is tied) This expression wasn't around when the early AA members pulled themselves out of the swamp and began their long journey to sobriety. But they had their buttons pushed aplenty. Dr. Bob, treating alcoholics at St. Thomas Hospital; heard snide comments from other physicians who resented giving bed space to drunks. Bill W. struggling to launch a worldwide movement, took most every alcoholic, then and now, gets some heavy kidding from the world of drinkers. What is the real problem in these instances? Are others pushing our buttons, or do we set ourselves up for this by being sensitive and vulnerable? Nobody could push our buttons if we didn't have buttons to push. We no longer have to worry about button-pushers if we accept them as they are, realizing that we don't need their approval and can't really be hurt by anything they do or say. Our serenity in the face of such problems may actually serve to attract people to AA. Nobody can push my buttons unless I let them. Today I'll be serene and clam no matter what others say and do. Thanks to the program, I'll not worry about certain individuals who try to get under my skin. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning In the process of defining myself, I have a tendency to set up rules and boundaries and then forget that rules are made to be broken, as are boundaries to be expanded and crossed. --Kathleen Casey Theisen Recovery has given us the freedom to address life honestly, with forethought and a certainty about the rightness of our actions. We need be mindful that what is right today may not be right tomorrow or thereafter. As we move through our experiences, we are changed, and then we look with a new perspective on old conditions. Our new perspective hones our value systems, and yesterday's rules and boundaries no longer fit today's situations. Our growth as women is an unending process. What we confront today with assurance, we prepared for yesterday. And tomorrow will be eased by our definition of today. The program has gifted us with clarity - clarity about ourselves, clarity regarding others, and clarity on how to continue our growth. My value system awaits finer definition, and every experience, today, presents me with an opportunity for that definition. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple We give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. Sacred ritual chant. Good things keep happening to us. We are sober. We can think clearly. We can see progress on how we handle our problems. We have friends. We have love. We have hope. We are starting to feel joy. Our fears are getting smaller. We are starting to trust our new way of life. Our new life brings good things to us. It brings blessings every day. We are beginning to expect them. But we’re still surprised at how good life can be. What a difference from the days before we entered our program! Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for the blessings You keep on giving. And thanks for whatever today will bring. Action for the Day: One way to give thanks for my blessings is to share them with others. How can I share my recovery today? ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards Another principle we observe carefully is that we do not relate intimate experiences of another person unless we are sure he would approve. We find it better, when possible, to stick to our own stories. A man may criticize to laugh at himself and it will affect others favorably, but criticism or ridicule coming from another often produce the contrary effect. Members of a family should watch such matters carefully, for one careless, inconsiderate remark has been known to raise the very devil. We alcoholics are sensitive people. It takes some of us a long time to outgrow that serious handicap. p. 125 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." "Then I woke up. I had to admit that A.A. showed results, prodigious results. I saw that my attitude regarding these had been anything but scientific. It wasn't A.A. that had the closed mind, it was me. The minute I stopped arguing, I could begin to see and feel. Right there, Step Two gently and very gradually began to infiltrate my life. I can't say upon what occasion or upon what day I came to believe in a Power greater than myself, but I certainly have that belief now. To acquire it, I had only to stop fighting and practice the rest of A.A.'s program as enthusiastically as I could. p. 27 ************************************************** ********* Time is the greatest gift of all. --Cited in Even More of...The Best of BITS & PIECES Gifts are for giving. --Ian and Sylvia Tyson "Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." --John Wooden "A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes." -Scottish Proverb My sponsor pointed out that now that I've been around the program for awhile there is no denial . . . there is only refusal. --Anonymous With accepting God in my life each day, Through the trials and triumphs, I rest in comfort knowing God is leading me to Him. --Tammy B. You'll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind. --Irish Proverb ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation FREEDOM "Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for yourself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice and the exercise of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing ..." --Archibald MacLeish Spirituality involves the freedom to change; it requires the variety of choice in order to grow. My past addiction was a life of slavery because it removed from me creative choice and left me obsessing about drugs and alcohol. My life, conversation and thoughts revolved around the bottle, and I was oblivious to the true meaning of life. I could not "do better" in my life because I was addicted not only to drugs but to the destructive lifestyle that goes with them. My freedom to experience the spiritual power of God's creativity was lost to a mindless craving for drugs; in this sense, drug addiction is slavery. Today I am free to see God's world in people, places and things and I make a choice to live, love and laugh. I am growing in the awareness of Your multifaceted love for me. ************************************************** ********* Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Peace is one of our greatest needs because it provides for the strength we need in times of turmoil. Lord, I turn to You because You are my source of peace. Stand tall and smile often and it will be very difficult to be unhappy. Lord, may my disposition reflect the joy and peace that is Your Will. |
April 20
Daily Reflections SELF-EXAMINATION . . . we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 86 When said sincerely, this prayer teaches me to be truly unselfish and humble, for even in doing good deeds I often used to seek approval and glory for myself. By examining my motives in all that I do, I can be of service to God and others, helping them do what they want to do. When I put God in charge of my thinking, much needless worry is eliminated and I believe He guides me throughout the day. When I eliminate thoughts of self-pity, dishonesty and self-centeredness as soon as they enter my mind, I find peace with God, my neighbor and myself. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day The satisfaction you get out of living a sober life is, made up of a lot of little things, but they add up to a satisfactory and happy life. You take out of life what you put into it. So I'd say to people coming into A.A.: "Don't worry about what life will be like without liquor. just hang in there and a lot of good things will happen to you. And you'll have that feeling of quiet satisfaction and peace and serenity and gratitude for the grace of God." Is my life becoming really worth living? Meditation For The Day There are two paths, one up and one down. We have been given free will to choose either path. We are captains of our souls to this extent only. We can choose the good or the bad. Once we have chosen the wrong path, we go down and down, eventually to death. But if we choose the right path, we go up and UP, until we come to the resurrection day. On the wrong path, we have no power for good because we do not choose to ask for it. But on the right path, we are on the side of good and we have all the power of God's spirit behind us. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be in the stream of goodness. I pray that I may be on the right side, on the side of all good in the universe. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Surveying the Past, p. 111 We should make an accurate and really exhaustive survey of our past life as it affected other people. In many instances we shall find that, though the harm done others has not been great, we have nevertheless done ourselves considerable emotional injury. Then, too, damaging emotional conflicts persist below the level of consciousness, very deep, sometimes quite forgotten. Therefore, we should try hard to recall and review those past events which originally induced these conflicts and which continue to give our emotions violent twists, thus discoloring our personalities and altering our lives for the worse. << << << >> >> >> "We reacted more strongly to frustrations than normal people. By reliving these episodes and discussing them in strict confidence with somebody else, we can reduce their size and therefore potency in the unconsciousness." 1. 12 & 12, pp. 79-80 2. Letter, 1957 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Avoiding emotional whirlpools Serenity If we were rattling down a rough river, we would try to steer away from whirlpools and rocky rapids. Living each day requires the same alertness. We're asking for trouble if we drift into malicious discussions about other people… even those who seem to deserve it. We're also sliding into rocky rapids if we get into supercharged arguments about political and religious issues. How do we avoid touchy situations that can lead to violent arguments or terrible breakdowns in personal relationships? We can begin by recognizing that we're not on this earth to judge, manipulate, or control other people. We'll do well today to keep our own performance up to a good standard. We can also respond correctly to people who seem hopelessly wrong. Borrowing an idea from one Twelve Step program, we can detach from such people with love, even if circumstances require continuing contact with them. At whatever cost, we must avoid emotional whirlpools and rocky rapids in life. Looking ahead at the things might happen today. I'll adjust my thinking for situations that could be troublesome or destructive. I will try especially hard to avoid trouble with my fellow workers. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness.---Fontenelle Our disease is sometimes call the disease of “always wanting more.” We push ourselves to get as much pleasure as we could. If one was good , two was better. We didn’t see that what we were lacking was faith. At times in recovery, we still crave “more.” We must pay attention to these cravings. When we have a craving, maybe we’re scared, and our Higher Power is trying to tell us that, if we have faith, we’ll be taken care of. Perhaps our Higher Power just has a message of love for us. All we need to do is listen. It may be that this is only “more” we really need. Prayer for the Day: I pray to see my as spiritual needs. I pray to turn to my Higher Power instead of to alcohol or other drugs. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll think about how much recovery has given me. I will share this with a friend and with my Higher Power. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning One has to grow up with good talk in order to form the habit of it. --Helen Hayes Our habits, whatever they may be, were greatly influenced, if not wholly formed, during childhood. We learned our behavior through imitation, imitation of our parents, our siblings, our peer group. But we need not be stuck in habits that are unhealthy. The choice to create new patterns of behavior is ours to make--every moment, every hour, every day. However, parting with the old pattern in order to make way for the new takes prayer, commitment, determination. All of us who share these Steps have broken away from old patterns. We have chosen to leave liquor and pills alone. We may have chosen to leave unhealthy relationships. And we are daily choosing to move beyond our shortcomings. But not every day is a successful one. Our shortcomings have become ingrained. Years of pouting, or lying, or feeling fearful, or overeating, or procrastinating beckon to us; the habit invites itself. We can find strength from the program and one another to let go of the behavior that stands in the way of today's happiness. And we can find in one another a better, healthier behavior to imitate. The program is helping me to know there is a better way, every day, to move ahead. I am growing up again amidst the good habits of others, and myself. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards Many alcoholics are enthusiasts. They run to extremes. At the beginning of recovery a man will take, as a rule, one of two directions. He may either plunge into a frantic attempt to get on his feet in business, or he may be so enthralled by his new life that he talks or thinks of little else. In either case certain family problems will arise. With these we have had experience galore. pp. 125-126 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." "This is only one man's opinion based on his own experience, of course. I must quickly assure you that A.A.'s tread innumerable paths in their quest for faith. If you don't care for the one I've suggested, you'll be sure to discover one that suits if only you look and listen. Many a man like you has begun to solve the problem by the method of substitution. You can, if you wish, make A.A., itself your `higher power.' Here's a very large group of people who have solved their alcohol problem. In this respect they are certainly a power greater than you, who have not even come close to a solution. Surely you can have faith in them. Even this minimum of faith will be enough. You will find many members who have crossed the threshold just this way. All of them will tell you that, once across, their faith broadened and deepened. Relieved of the alcohol obsession, their lives unaccountably transformed, they came to believe in a Higher Power, and most of them began to talk of God." pp. 27-28 ************************************************** ********* You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. --Les Brown You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old. --George Burns Make your life's goal to learn and become a better person. --Anonymous How can we possibly describe feeling the Presence of God? It is the difference between being a child left alone in an empty house at night and a child who knows that her mother is in the next room. Even though she can't see or hear her mother, she feels comforted by her warm, loving, protective presence. And while a human parent can't always be with us, our spiritual parent will never abandon us. --Mary Manin Morrissey "Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future." --Paul Boese The heart has eyes that the brain knows nothing of. --American Proverb ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation CHANGE "There is nothing permanent except change." --Heraclitus Today I know that I need to change. I accept that my behavior and attitude was negative and destructive. Today I make a choice to work on my addiction. I was changing before I embraced a spiritual program but the change was for the worse. Each day I grew more dependent, more isolated, more angry and depressed. I felt I was a hopeless case! Today I am working on my anger and loneliness. I talk about those things that cause me pain and distress. I express my fears and resentments - and it is getting better. God created this world in perpetual change and I believe that He is to be discovered in the change. I am evolving into Truth with my small steps towards recovery. The steps I take towards recovery are my "yes" to God. In the daily changes I discover the stability of God. ************************************************** ********* "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life...." Psalm 23:6 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration We are not given peace of mind. We must trust in God and He will be our peace of mind. Lord, You are within my heart and therefore I need look no farther to find my peace. There is a time for everything. Take time to pray, to sing, to laugh, to work and to touch the hearts of others. Lord, help me be aware that today will never return so that I will not misuse my time or waste it unwisely. |
April 21
Daily Reflections CULTIVATING FAITH "I don't think we can do anything very well in this world unless we practice it. And I don't believe we do A.A. too well unless we practice it. . . . We should practice . . . acquiring the spirit of service. We should attempt to acquire some faith, which isn't easily done, especially for the person who has always been very materialistic, following the standards of society today. But I think faith can be acquired; it can be acquired slowly; it has to be cultivated. That was not easy for me, and I assume that it is difficult for everyone else . . . . " DR. BOB AND THE GOOD OLDTIMERS, pp. 307-08 Fear is often the force that prevents me from acquiring and cultivating the power of faith. Fear blocks my appreciation of beauty, tolerance, forgiveness, service, and serenity. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day After we've been in A.A. for a while, we find out that if we're going to stay sober, we have to be humble people. The men and women in A.A. who have achieved sobriety are all humble people. When I stop to think that but for the grace of God I might be drunk right now, I can't help feeling humble. Gratitude to God for His grace makes me humble. When I think of the kind of person I was not so long ago, when I think of the person I left behind me, I have nothing to be proud of. Am I grateful and humble? Meditation For The Day I must arise from the death of sin and selfishness and put on a new life of integrity. All the old sins and temptations must be laid in the grave and a new existence rise from the ashes. Yesterday is gone. All my sins are forgiven if I am honestly trying to do God's will today. Today is here, the time of resurrection and renewal. I must start now, today, to build a new life of complete faith and trust in God and a determination to do His will in all things. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may share in making the world a better place to live in. I pray that I may do what I can to bring goodness a little nearer to the earth. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Complete Security?, p. 112 Upon entering A.A., the spectacle of years of waste threw us into panic. Financial importance was no longer our principal aim; we now clamored for material security. Even when we were re-established in our business, terrible fears often continued to haunt us. This made us misers and penny-pinchers all over again. Complete financial security we must have--or else. We forgot that most alcoholics in A.A. have an earning power considerably above average; we forgot the immense good will of our brother A.A.'s who were only too eager to help us to better jobs when we deserved them; we forgot the actual or potential financial insecurity of every human being in the world. And, worst of all, we forgot God. In money matters we had faith only in ourselves, and not too much of that. 12 & 12, pp. 120-121 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places The Good that I do____ Action Why do we hold back when we're offered the opportunity to help others or to do something unusually kind? Why is it that many people are reluctant to give of themselves unless rewarded with recognition or praise? We may hold back because we do not understand that any good action always brings its own reward. Despite Shakespeare's timeless saying, the good we do is not "interred with our bones"… it does survive, now and in the future. We've learned in Twelve Step programs that it's not really satisfying to work only for recognition and praise. There also has to be a confident feeling that our efforts are contributing to a large good with a worthwhile purpose. That's what makes AA so special to people who are completely devoted to it… we know that anything done for AA makes the world a better place. We should also know that those who can help others are fortunate, well-favored people. Others may want to help, but lack the tools. We have the tools to give the help that changes lives---- and the world. The good that I do today is a treasure I'll always possess. I need not fear the act of letting my higher self take over and guide me. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple One of the most important parts of the AA program is to give our drinking problem to God honestly and fully… Twenty-Four Hour a Day, March 1 We don’t handle our drinking or other drug problem. We don’t take care of this problem by ourselves. We turn our problem over to God as we understand Him. We need to be very clear about this. We can’t handle our drinking or other drug problem! Our Higher Power keeps us sober through the Steps and the fellowship of the program. Our job is to hand over our problem to our Higher Power. We do this daily by acting like sober people. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I know I can’t handle drinking and using other drugs. I turn my problem over to you. Please take from me the urge to drink or use. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll remember why I can’t handle or take care of my problem with alcohol or other drugs. And I’ll remember why my Higher Power can. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward. --Margaret Fairless Barber When we contemplate last month, last year, the period of time just before we came into this Twelve Step program, we can see many changes, good changes, have come our way. But we take the changes for granted sometimes. Or maybe we fail to reflect on them at all. We get caught up in the turmoil of the present, believing it will last forever, forgetting that yesterday's turmoil taught us much that we needed to know. The past, for most of us, was rife with pain. But now we have hope. We have gained on life. We may be back in the good graces of our family. Perhaps we have patched up some failed relationships. A career has beckoned to us. Good experiences have come to pass. But we aren't free of difficulties. They need not get us down again. Hindsight assures us that this, too, will pass. It also guarantees that we will move forward, just as we have again and again, if we have but faith. I will take this moment to look back at last year or the last binge. I can rest assured that I am moving forward. I will continue to do so. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards We think it dangerous if he rushes headlong at his economic problem. The family will be affected also, pleasantly at first, as they feel their money troubles are about to be solved, then not so pleasantly as they find themselves neglected. Dad may be tired at night and preoccupied by day. He may take small interest in the children and may show irritation when reproved for his delinquencies. If not irritable, he may seem dull and boring, not gay and affectionate as the family would like him to be. Mother may complain of inattention. They are all disappointed, and often let him feel it. Beginning with such complaints, a barrier arises. He is straining every nerve to make up for lost time. He is striving to recover fortune and reputation and feels he is doing very well. Sometimes mother and children don’t think so. Having been neglected and misused in the past, they think father owes them more than they are getting. They want him to make a fuss over them. They expect him to give them the nice times they used to have before he drank so much, and to show his contrition for what they suffered. But dad doesn’t give freely of himself. Resentment grows. He becomes still less communicative. Sometimes he explodes over a trifle. The family is mystified. They criticize, pointing out how he is falling down on his spiritual program. p. 126 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Consider next the plight of those who once had faith, but have lost it. There will be those who have drifted into indifference, those filled with self-sufficiency who have cut themselves off, those who have become prejudiced against religion, and those who are downright defiant because God has failed to fulfill their demands. Can A.A. experience tell all these they may still find a faith that works? p. 28 ************************************************** ********* The only thing you get from sitting on the pity pot is a ring around your butt and nobody to show it to! --Anonymous "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." --John Wooden "Simmering resentment saps energy." --Nido Qubein "Pain is an experience. Suffering is a choice." --Jeff Alexander Open to a larger, more abundant source. That source is God. And God's supply is the universe. When we look to God and the universe, we open ourselves to a never-ending supply of what we need--love, energy, teaching, support, information, guidance, and nurturing. Certain people and places may help us along the way, but God is our source for love. --Melody Beattie ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation VALUES "A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life." --Charles Darwin Life is not to be wasted. Time is not to be wasted. Friends, relationships, opportunities are not to be wasted. Why? Because as vulnerable human beings we do not have the ultimate control of our lives and none of us know when our lives will end, when we shall die, when time and opportunity will be no more! Life is too precious to waste. During my years as an addict I did not value my life. I did not value time. I did not value friends and relationships. Nothing was valued except the alcohol! Life was meaningless. God was absent and I felt nothing - just a "dullness" at the center of my being. Today this is not the case. Through my pain I have found the value of life and I have discovered a God as I understand Him. God, let me value what I have while I have it. ************************************************** ********* "Without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists, and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him." Hebrews 11:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Don't allow the difficult people around you to get you down. Lord, may I not make other people's problems my own and take on things that I can't do anything about anyway. There is light behind every shadow. Lord, You are the light of the world. May I never forget to turn to You when my life fills with shadows. |
April 22
Daily Reflections NEW SOIL . . . NEW ROOTS Moments of perception can build into a lifetime of spiritual serenity, as I have excellent reason to know. Roots of reality, supplanting the neurotic underbrush, will hold fast despite the high winds of the forces which would destroy us, or which we would use to destroy ourselves. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 173 I came to A.A. green--a seedling quivering with exposed taproots. It was for survival but it was a beginning. I stretched, developed, twisted, but with the help of others, my spirit eventually burst up from the roots. I was free. I acted, withered, went inside, prayed, acted again, understood anew, as one moment of perception struck. Up from my roots, spirit-arms lengthened into strong, green shoots: high-springing servants stepping skyward. Here on earth God unconditionally continues the legacy of higher love. My A.A. life put me "on a different footing . . . [my] roots grasped a new soil." (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 12). ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day People believe in A.A. when they see it work. An actual demonstration is what convinces them. What they read in books, what they hear people say doesn't always convince them. But when they see a real honest-to-goodness change take place in a person, a change from a drunkard to a sober, useful citizen, that's something they can believe because they can see it. There's really only one thing that proves to me that A.A. works. Have I seen the change in people who come into A.A.? Meditation For The Day Divine control and unquestioning obedience to God are the only conditions necessary for a spiritual life. Divine control means absolute faith and trust in God, a belief that God is the Divine Principle in the universe and that He is the intelligence and the Love that controls the universe. Unquestioning obedience to God means living each day the way you believe God wants you to live, constantly seeking the guidance of God in every situation and being willing to do the right thing at all times. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may always be under Divine Control and always practice unquestioning obedience to God. I pray that I may be always ready to serve Him. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It To Be Fair-Minded, p. 113 Too often, I think, we have deprecated and even derided projects of our friends in the field of alcoholism just because we do not always see eye to eye with them. We should very seriously ask ourselves how many alcoholics have gone on drinking simply because we have failed to cooperate in good spirit with these many agencies--whether they be good, bad, or indifferent. No alcoholics should go mad or die merely because he did not come straight to A.A. at the beginning. << << << >> >> >> Our first objective will be the development of self-restraint. This carries a top-priority rating. When we speak or act hastily or rashly, the ability to be fair-minded and tolerant evaporates on the spot. 1. Grapevine, July 1963 2. 12 & 12, p. 91 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Faking it, and then making it. Finding the Spirit of the Thing. We're sometimes advised to "fake it until you make it." But how can anything false really lead us to recovery? Aren't we told that this is an honest program? We're not being dishonest by pushing ourselves to become actively involved in AA. The self-help movements have told us for years that we have to form an image of what we want to be in order to reach our goals. We are forming an image that corresponds to the sober people we want to be. We are actually rehearsing sober living and working to accept a picture of sobriety in our heart of hearts. There's also much to be said for "faking it" enough to attend meetings and try to benefit from association with people….. even those we don't like. This puts us in line for the change we really need. A lot of members say that they "white-knuckled it" during the first months or years of sobriety. If this worked to bring recovery, it had to be the right approach. Even if there is rebellion within, today I'll talk and act like the sober person I want to be. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple One meets his destiny often on the road one takes to avoid it.---French proverb None of us, perhaps, ever thought we'd end up in recovery. But we were working at joining recovery years before we got here! Maybe recovery was our fate from the day we first took a drink or a pill. Others around us could see the writing on the wall, but we couldn't. We were to busy trying to avoid the pain. Alcoholism and other drug abuse have to do with us trying to find spiritual wholeness--- the kind of spiritual wholeness we're finding now. . .in recovery. So, let's welcome recovery into our lives. We have found our spiritual home. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, I got lost because I acted like I knew the way to a good life. You lead the way. Thank-you for putting me on the right track. Action for the Day: Today, I'll think about why it's my fate to be in recovery. I will list ways that I try to avoid my fate. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Our own rough edges become smooth as we help a friend smooth her edges. --Sue Atchley Ebaugh Focusing on a good point in every person we encounter today will benefit us in untold ways. It will smooth our relations with that person, inviting her to respond kindly also. It will increase our awareness of the goodness all around us. It will help us realize that if everyone around us has positive traits, then we must also have them. But perhaps the greatest benefit of focusing on good points is that it enhances us as women; a healthy, positive attitude must be cultivated. Many of us had little experience with feeling positive before the turning point, recovery. Recovery is offering us a new lease on life every moment. We are learning new behaviors, and we are learning that with the help of a higher power and one another, all things that are right for us are possible. It is energizing, focusing on the good points of others, knowing that their good points don't detract from our own. In the past, we may have secretly hated other women's strengths because we felt inferior. We are free from that hate now, if we choose to be. A strength we can each nurture is gratitude for being helped by, and privy to, the strengths of our friends and acquaintances. Bad points get worse with attention. My good points will gain strength. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards This sort of thing can be avoided. Both father and the family are mistaken, though each side may have some justification. It is of little use to argue and only makes the impasse worse. The family must realize that dad, though marvelously improved, is still convalescing. They should be thankful he is sober and able to be of this world once more. Let them praise his progress. Let them remember that his drinking wrought all kinds of damage that may take long to repair. If they sense these things, they will not take so seriously his periods of crankiness, depression, or apathy, which will disappear when there is tolerance, love, and spiritual understanding. pp. 126-127 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Sometimes A.A. comes harder to those who have lost or rejected faith than to those who never had any faith at all, for they think they have tried faith and found it wanting. They have tried the way of faith and the way of no faith. Since both ways have proved bitterly disappointing, they have concluded there is no place whatever for them to go. The roadblocks of indifference, fancied self-sufficiency, prejudice, and defiance often prove more solid and formidable for these people than any erected by the unconvinced agnostic or even the militant atheist. Religion says the existence of God can be proved; the agnostic says it can't be proved; and the atheist claims proof of the nonexistence of God. Obviously, the dilemma of the wanderer from faith is that of profound confusion. He thinks himself lost to the comfort of any conviction at all. He cannot attain in even a small degree the assurance of the believer, the agnostic, or the atheist. He is the bewildered one. p. 28 ************************************************** ********* "Spiritual growth results from absorbing and digesting truth and putting it to practice in daily life." --White Eagle There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. --John Andrew Holmes "Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." --Carl Sandburg >From that place of stillness, the right action will emerge and you will find your next step. From that place of stillness, you can move into the present moment. There you will find your power, and there you will find God. --Melody Beattie You don't have to wait for Christmas to give gifts of love and joy. Give that love to others and yourself. Give it often. Give it freely. Give it all year round. --Melody Beattie When we listen, God speaks and guides. --Paul K. McAfee ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation MUSIC "I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality." --H. A. Overstreet A language for the world is music. It unites all peoples, cultures, religions and backgrounds; it points man beyond himself, while at the same time breathing through him God's glory. Music makes man wonder, enables him to dream, allows him to rest in the miracle of creativity. Drugs stopped me from appreciating the gift of music. They twisted and corrupted sounds and made them destructive and coarse. Drugs took from me so much and left me with a feeling of utter emptiness. In my recovery I can hear again. My spiritual program incorporates music, different types of music, the inexhaustible joys of melody. I can feel in it, through it, with it - another miracle. Thank You for the gift of music that enables me to grow in my understanding of self and my need of others. ************************************************** ********* "But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." Matthew 6:3 "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was." James 1:22-24 "I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right.... Let your steadfast love become my comfort.... For your law is my delight." Psalm 119:75-77 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration When you feel the need to tell someone how bad your day has been, tell them how good it's been instead. Lord, help me to highlight the parts of my day that will bring me to a peaceful and joyful place. There is always a reason why people act as they do. Lord, help me to be more patient and understanding. |
April 23
Daily Reflections A.A. IS NOT A CURE-ALL It would be a product of false pride to claim that A.A. is a cure-all, even for alcoholism. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 285 In my early years of sobriety I was full of pride, thinking that A.A. was the only source of treatment for a good and happy life. It certainly was the basic ingredient for my sobriety and even today, with over twelve years in the program, I am very involved in meetings, sponsorship and service. During the first four years of my recovery, I found it necessary to seek professional help, since my emotional health was extremely poor. There are those folks too, who have found sobriety and happiness in other organizations. A.A. taught me that I had a choice: to go to any lengths to enhance my sobriety. A.A. may not be a cure-all for everything, but it is the center of my sober living. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Men and women keep coming into A.A., licked by alcohol, often given up by doctors as hopeless cases, they themselves admitting they're helpless to stop drinking. When I see these men and women get sober and stay sober over a period of months and years, I know that A.A. works. The change I see in people who come into A.A. not only convinces me that A.A. works, but it also convinces me that there must be a Power greater than ourselves which helps us to make that change. Am I convinced that a Higher Power can help me to change? Meditation For The Day Cooperation with God is the great necessity for our lives. All else follows naturally. Cooperation with God is the result of our consciousness of His presence. Guidance is bound to come to us as we live more and more with God, as our consciousness becomes more and more attuned to the great Consciousness of the universe. We must have many quiet times when we not so much ask to be shown and led by God, as to feel and realize His presence. New spiritual growth comes naturally from cooperation with God. Prayer For The Day I pray that God may supply me with strength and show me the direction in which He wants me to grow. I pray that these things may come naturally from my cooperation with Him. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It No Personal Power, p. 114 "At first, the remedy for my personal difficulties seemed so obvious that I could not imagine any alcoholic turning the proposition down were it properly presented to him. Believing so firmly that Christ can do anything, I had the unconscious conceit to suppose that He would do everything through me--right then and in the manner I chose. After six long months, I had to admit that not a soul had surely laid hold of the Master--not excepting myself. "This brought me to the good healthy realization that there were plenty of situations left in the world over which I had no personal power--that if I was so ready to admit that to be the case with alcohol, so I must make the same admission with respect to much else. I would have to be still and know that He, not I, was God." Letter, 1940 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places When am I manipulative? Personal relations. Without understanding our motives, we can easily lapse into behavior aimed at manipulating others. Sulking is a means of letting others know we are displeased and forcing them to attempt to win our approval. Flattery is a false expression of approval that we don't really feel…. Giving others good strokes for our own purpose. Withholding deserved praise is a means of putting others down, something we're likely to do because of our jealousy. Manipulative behavior is almost always selfish behavior. IT is usually a false means of trying to get our own way. It is certainly an immature way of dealing with people and situations. The best way to avoid being manipulative is to be ourselves at all times. We have neither the right nor the responsibility to control or regulate other people. Our best approach, in trying to influence others' actions, is simply to state our own case with sincerity and honest. Others must be free to act, free to choose, and free to make their own decisions without manipulative interference on our part. I will be myself at all times today. I will not assume false roles simply for the purpose of bending others to my own will. Manipulative behavior is controlling behavior, which I must avoid. The door to the human heart can only be opened from the INSIDE. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen. --- Ernest Hemingway It's hard to listen in a complete way. Often we listen, but we're still thinking about ourselves. We wonder, "How do their words relate to me? Do I have anything to add?" Often, fear is behind these questions. We fear saying the wrong thing. We fear looking stupid. Good listeners know how to let go of their fears. To listen completely, we step outside ourselves, and we're totally there for someone else. Sometimes we listen for only a few moments. Sometimes we don't even agree with the people we're listening to. But we let them know that they count. What a gift we give when we listen in a complete way! Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, teach me to listen in a complete way. Teach me to step outside myself and be their for others. Action for the Day: Today, I'll listen to what the person says. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. --Eleanor Roosevelt We need to take note, today, of all the opportunities we have to offer a helping hand to another person. We can notice too, the many times a friend, or even a stranger, reaches out to us in a helpful way. The opportunities to contribute to life's flow are unending. Our own vibrancy comes from involvement with others, from contributing our talents, our hearts to one another's daily travels. The program helps us to know that God lives in us, among us. When we close ourselves off from our friends, our fellow travelers, we block God's path to us and through us. To live means sharing one another's space, dreams, sorrows, contributing our ears to hear, our eyes to see, our arms to hold, our hearts to love. When we close ourselves off from each other--we have destroyed the vital contribution we each need to make and to receive in order to nurture life. We each need only what the other can give. Each person we meet today needs our special contribution. What a wonderful collection of invitations awaits me today! ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards The head of the house ought to remember that he is mainly to blame for what befell his home. He can scarcely square the account in his lifetime. But he must see the danger of over-concentration on financial success. Although financial recovery is on the way for many of us, we found we could not place money first. For us, material well-being always followed spiritual progress; it never preceded. p. 127 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Any number of A.A.'s can say to the drifter, "Yes, we were diverted from our childhood faith, too. The overconfidence of youth was too much for us. Of course, we were glad that good home and religious training had given us certain values. We were still sure that we ought to be fairly honest, tolerant, and just, that we ought to be ambitious and hardworking. We became convinced that such simple rules of fair play and decency would be enough. pp. 28-29 ************************************************** ********* All I have is today, this moment, now. I can spend this moment making it the best moment yet with fearlessness, trust, courage, confidence, faith and love or I can waste it with doubt, anxiety, worry, regret, anger, fear, distress and hurt. Knowing that whichever way I choose determines the experiences I will have, I choose to use the opportunity of each moment to live my life to the fullest, always choosing love. --Carol A James Those who enjoy the greatest lives are not extraordinary people, or even ordinary people with something added. They are not necessarily the wealthiest or most professionally acclaimed. Those who sparkle with aliveness are ordinary people with nothing taken away. They have not lost their wonder of the moment. They cherish the presence of a friend; they marvel when a child takes their hand. They find a gift in each moment of living. --Mary Manin Morrissey I choose to love others, as God would. This means no severe judging, no resentments, no malicious gossip, no destructive criticism. --SweetyZee Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud. Any of us will put out more and better ideas if our efforts are appreciated. --Alexander F. Osborn Forgiveness is a not a gift we give to the other person, rather, God's gift to us. God goes ahead of us, preparing the way. --Jean A Samples ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation DIVINITY "To say that a man is made up of certain chemical elements is a satisfactory description only for those who intend to use him as a fertilizer." --Herbert J. Muller Man is more than chemicals. Man is more than an animal. Man is a human being, carrying the image of God, the imprint of Divinity, the power of the creative God. As an addict I doubted myself, only adding to my "powerlessness" and "unmanageability". I internally said, "I can't" before I tried. My low self-esteem was evident long before I took a drink. I was always trying to get my "outsides" to match what I imagined your "insides" to be like. When I accepted my alcoholism I was able to discover God in my life. Today I am able to create through Him and in Him. Spirituality comes with the awareness of our God-given divinity. May I never cease to see You in my life. ************************************************** ********* "Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him." James 1:12 Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Matthew 6:12 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:4-9 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration We have the ability to influence those around us and therefore it is necessary to think of ourselves as the center of peace so that we may bring calm to those who need it. Lord, may I bring Your peace to everyone I am with today. God promises His forgiveness to those who repent. Lord, I am sorry for all that I have done wrong this day and all the days of my life. |
April 24
Daily Reflections LEARNING TO LOVE OURSELVES Alcoholism was a lonely business, even though we were surrounded by people who loved us... We were trying to find emotional security either by dominating or by being dependent upon others . . . We still vainly tried to be secure by some unhealthy sort of domination or dependence. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 252 When I did my personal inventory I found that I had unhealthy relationships with most people in my life- my friends and family, for example. I always felt isolated and lonely. I drank to dull emotional pain. It was through staying sober, having a good sponsor and working the Twelve Steps that I was able to build up my low self-esteem. First the Twelve Steps taught me to become my own best friend, and then, when I was able to love myself, I could reach out and love others. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day It's been proved that we alcoholics can't get sober by our willpower. We've failed again and again. Therefore I believe there must be a Higher Power which helps me. I think of that power as the grace of God. And I pray to God every morning for the strength to stay sober today. I know that power is there because it never fails to help me. Do I believe that AA. works through the grace of God? Meditation For The Day Once I am "born of the spirit," that is my life's breath. Within me is the life of life, so that I can never perish. The life that down the ages has kept God's children through peril, adversity, and sorrow. I must try never to doubt or worry, but follow where the life of the spirit leads. How often, when little I know it, God goes before me to prepare the way, to soften a heart, or to overrule a resentment. As the life of the spirit grows, natural wants become less important. Prayer For The Day I pray that my life may become centered in God more than in self. I pray that my will may be directed toward doing His will. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Essence of Growth, p. 115 Let us never fear needed change. Certainly we have to discriminate between changes for better. But once a need becomes clearly apparent in an individual, in a group, or in A.A. as a whole, it has long since been found out that we cannot stand still and look the other way. The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails. Grapevine, July 1965 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Do I trigger gossip? ______ Personal inventory. There is a saying that "listening to gossip is gossip". How true! If there were no listeners, there would never be any gossip. Some of us who pride ourselves in refraining from gossip may still have a problem with it. It's possible we still keep our ears open for any juicy gossip that could fall our way. We might also "shake the tree" if we believe another person has some gossip to share with us. This is done in seemingly innocent ways, sometimes just by mentioning the name of a person to another who may have strong opinions to express. The harm of gossip lies in what we do to ourselves when we engage in it. There is no way we can continue to have spiritual growth if we practice gossip, even as passive listeners. Spiritual growth takes place within us, and it needs an environment completely free of an ill will. Let's beware of any tendency to say things that induce others to gossip. At the same time, let's tune out gossip that seems to occur spontaneously. Gossip is the enemy of the growth we desire. It is a real relief to know that today I have no desire to spread gossip or listen to it. This includes things I might read in magazines or newspapers. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which bridge to burn.---David Russell Making big decisions is like crossing bridges. Sometimes, these decisions change our lives. We find that turning back will be very hard. This is why we have to be very careful when we decide to burn bridges. When we decide to make changes, we act carefully. We don't want to make decisions out of anger or envy. Instead , we can think about what we want and how our program can help us make wise decisions. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me cross those bridges that are on my path. Action for the Day: What do I really want in life? What decisions do I need to make to get there? ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning She knows omnipotence has heard her prayer and cries "it shall be done--sometime, somewhere." --Ophelia Guyon Browning Patience is a quality that frequently eludes us. We want what we want when we want it. Fortunately, we don't get it until the time is right, but the waiting convinces us our prayers aren't heard. We must believe that the answer always comes in its own special time and place. The frustration is that our timetable is seldom like God's. When we look back over the past few weeks, months, or even years, we can recall past prayers. Had they all been answered at the time of request, how different our lives would be. We are each on a path unique to us, offering special lessons to be learned. Just as a child must crawl before walking, so must we move slowly, taking the steps in our growth in sequence. Our prayers will be answered, sometime, somewhere. Of that we can be sure. They will be answered for our greater good. And they will be answered at the right time, the right place, in the right way. I am participating in a much bigger picture than the one in my individual prayers. And the big picture is being carefully orchestrated. I will trust the part I have been chosen to play. And I can be patient. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards Since the home has suffered more than anything else, it is well that a man exert himself there. He is not likely to get far in any direction if he fails to show unselfishness and love under his own roof. We know there are difficult wives and families, but the man who is getting over alcoholism must remember he did much to make them so. p. 127 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." "As material success founded upon no more than these ordinary attributes began to come to us, we felt we were winning at the game of life. This was exhilarating, and it made us happy. Why should we be bothered with theological abstractions and religious duties, or with the state of our souls here or hereafter? The here and now was good enough for us. The will to win would carry us through. But then alcohol began to have its way with us. Finally, when all our score cards read `zero,' and we saw that one more strike would put us out of the game forever, we had to look for our lost faith. It was in A.A. that we rediscovered it. And so can you." p. 29 ************************************************** ********* "With the gift of listening comes the gift of healing." --Catherine de Hueck Doherty "Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power." --Shirley MacLaine Encourage your friends, family and co-workers to think positive. Their enthusiasm will boost you as well. --Anonymous Take a break. Move around. Learn to change your perspective. Maybe you don't need to change what you're looking at. You just need to change where you stand. --Melody Beattie One step at a time. That's how you will get where you are going. You are being led, each step of the way. --Melody Beattie Focus not on circumstances but on our loving and unchanging God. --Robert Truesdale ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation MAN "Man is what he believes. " --Anton Chekhov My miracle is that I now believe in me. Today I accept my disease of addiction and I do not resist or deny it. I believe that I am an alcoholic. I believe that I am an overeater. I am a co-dependent. I believe that I am an adult child of an alcoholic. And this belief enables me to be free. For too long I played the game of control; blaming and bargaining - and I lost. Now I choose to surrender to the reality of who I am. I accept my disease on a daily basis and I make choices with the awareness of my disease. And it is getting better. My belief about my addiction has also given me an insight into God and His gift of freedom. He loves me enough to give me choice and with this gift comes responsibility. I believe that I am responsible for how I live with my addictions. Today I accept that responsibility. What I believe reflects the God I believe in; I believe in Freedom. ************************************************** ********* "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4:32 "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20 "Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, And from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler." Psalm 91:3-4 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration To allow past problems into your present moments can make you feel depressed, worried and overwhelmed. Lord, help me to let go of that which I can do nothing about so that I can take care of that which I can. If you would be ashamed to sign your name to your conversation, don't say it. Lord, my words can have far reaching effects. May the effect always be good. |
April 25
Daily Reflections ENTERING A NEW DIMENSION In the late stages of our drinking, the will to resist has fled. Yet when we admit complete defeat and when we become entirely ready to try A.A. principles, our obsession leaves us and we enter a new dimension - freedom under God as we understand Him. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 283 I am fortunate to be among the ones who have had this awesome transformation in my life. When I entered the doors of A.A., alone and desperate, I had been beaten into willingness to believe anything I heard. One of the things I heard was, "This could be your last hangover, or you can keep going round and round." The man who said this obviously was a whole lot better off than I. I liked the idea of admitting defeat and I have been free ever since! My heart heard what my mind never could: "Being powerless over alcohol is no big deal." I'm free and I'm grateful! ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day I don't believe that A.A. works because I read it in a book or because I hear people say so. I believe it because I see people getting sober and staying sober. An actual demonstration is what convinces me. When I see the change in people, I can't help believing that A.A. works. We could listen to talk about A.A. all day and still not believe it, but when we see it work, we have to believe it. Seeing is believing. Do I see A.A. work every day? Meditation For The Day Try saying "God bless her (or him)" of anyone who is in disharmony with you. Also say it of those who are in trouble through their own fault. Say it, willing that showers of blessings may fall upon them. Let God do the blessing. Leave to God the necessary correcting or disciplining. You should only desire blessing for them. Leave God's work to God. Occupy yourself with the task that He gives you to do. God's blessing will also break down all your own difficulties and build up all your successes. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may use God's goodness so that it will be a blessing to others. I pray that I may accept God's blessing so that I will have harmony, beauty, joy, and happiness. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Each Man's Vision, p. 116 "Beyond a Higher Power, as each of us may vision Him, A.A. must never, as a society, enter the field of dogma or theology. We can never become a religion in that sense, lest we kill our usefulness by getting bogged down in the theological contention." << << << >> >> >> "The really amazing fact about A.A. is that all religions see in our program a resemblance to themselves. For example, Catholic theologians declare our Twelve Steps to be in exact accord with their Ignatian Exercises for Retreat, and, though our book reeks of sin, sickness, and death, the Christian Science Monitor has often praised it editorially. "Now, looking through Quaker eyes, you, too, see us favorably. What happy circumstances, these!" 1. Letter, 1954 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Fixing needs____ Inventory. AA pioneers once thought of their work as "fixing" drunks. That was dropped in AA, but "getting a fix" survives in the drug culture The truth is, we can't fix anybody, nor can we fix any problem with a destructive, mood altering drug. What we're really seeking … what every compulsive person really seeks…. Is to fix the conflicting needs that tear us apart at the seams. We can fix many of those needs over time if we practice Twelve step principles. "That searching and fearless moral inventory", humbling though it may be, will expose the fierce drives that are consuming us. Sharing the truth about ourselves with others helps us understand both what is right and what is wrong in our lives. The power to change ourselves, when we desire it, comes from a Higher Power… God as we understand Him. Somebody has summed this process up this way: "Need a fix? Fix the need!" We can use that idea to fix our needs today by following the Twelve step program. At times, we may not even by completely aware of our real needs. This too will be revealed to us as we continue in this program. I'll start my day by affirming that there's no need that can cause me to do anything destructive. As any problem arises, I learn how to fix my needs in healthy ways. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple You're never to old to grow up.---Shirley Conran Some of us have spent many years trying not to grow up. As children, we watched the adults around us. They may not have seemed happy. "Is life all hard work for grown-ups?" we wondered. No, it's not hard work. There are lots of good things about growing up. We can take charge of our life. We can learn to take care of ourselves. We can learn to share feelings with good friends. We can make our world safe enough for us to express feelings again. We learn how to love others. We do have choices. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me grow up into a happy, grateful adult. Action for the Day: There are happy grown-ups. I'll find one to be my sponsor. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content. --Helen Keller There is wonder in the moment, if we but look for it, let it touch us, believe in it. And with the recognition and celebration of the wonder comes the joy we desire and await. Being wholly in tune with the present moment is how we'll come to know the spiritual essence that connects all of life. We search for peace, happiness, and contentment outside of ourselves. We need instead to discover it within us, now and always, in whatever we are experiencing. We can let our experiences wash over us. Longing for a different time, a distant place, a new situation breeds discontent. It prevents us from the thrill, the gifts offered in this present moment. But they are there. We can practice feeling joyful in the present, be thrilled with the realization that right now, all is well. All is always well. Life is full of mystery and wonder and each moment of our awareness adds to the wonder. I am moving forward; we all are. I am on target. I am participating in a glorious, wonderful drama. Let me jump for joy. I have been specially blessed. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards As each member of a resentful family begins to see his shortcomings and admits them to the others, he lays a basis for helpful discussion. These family talks will be constructive if they can be carried on without heated argument, self-pity, self-justification or resentful criticism. Little by little, mother and children will see they ask too much, and father will see he gives too little. Giving, rather than getting, will become the guiding principle. pp. 127-128 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Now we come to another kind of problem: the intellectually self-sufficient man or woman. To these, many A.A.'s can say, "Yes, we were like you--far too smart for our own good. We loved to have people call us precocious. We used our education to blow ourselves up into prideful balloons, though we were careful to hide this from others. Secretly, we felt we could float above the rest of the folks on our brainpower alone. Scientific progress told us there was nothing man couldn't do. Knowledge was all-powerful. Intellect could conquer nature. Since we were brighter than most folks (so we thought), the spoils of victory would be ours for the thinking. The god of intellect displaced the God of our fathers. But again John Barleycorn had other ideas. We who had won so handsomely in a walk turned into all-time losers. We saw that we had to reconsider or die. We found many in A.A. who once thought as we did. They helped us to get down to our right size. By their example they showed us that humility and intellect could be compatible, provided we placed humility first. When we began to do that, we received the gift of faith, a faith which works. This faith is for you, too." pp. 29-30 ************************************************** ********* God, when I am faced with a tough decision, help me be gentle with myself and others as I sort out, with your help, what's right for me. --Melody Beattie Every moment is an opportunity for Love. Where there is hatred, may we bring Love. Where there is prejudice and injustice, may we bring Love. Where there is insecurity and small-mindedness, may we bring Love. Where there is fear in any form, may we bring the illuminating Light of Love. We do not open our hearts 'when'; we open them 'in spite of.' God grants us the opportunity and power to transform every negativity into everlasting love. --Mary Manin Morrissey "Faith is like electricity. You can't see it, but you can see the light." --Anonymous ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation IMPERFECTION "In the country of the blind the one eyed king can still goof up." --Anonymous For years I tried to control everything and everybody. Things had their place; there was a correct code of behavior for doing things; everything had to have its place. I felt responsible for the universe and everybody in it. Today I can laugh at my mistakes and the mistakes of others. When I catch myself organizing the world, I remember where the "perfect" yesterdays got me - and I laugh. God made me with a navel and flat feet; I would have preferred something different but there is a loving message within my imperfections. It is okay to goof up! Today I relax in the humor of being human. Thank You for making me an angel in the dirt. ************************************************** ********* "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14 "Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you." Matthew 25:34 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration To allow past problems into your present moments can make you feel depressed, worried and overwhelmed. Lord, help me to let go of that which I can do nothing about so that I can take care of that which I can. Take care of yourself so that you may give care to others. Lord, may I never totally ignore myself and my feelings for the sake of others and fit in time daily to refresh my spirit. |
April 26
Daily Reflections HAPPINESS IS NOT THE POINT I don't think happiness or unhappiness is the point. How do we meet the problems we face? How do we best learn from them and transmit what we have learned to others, if they would receive the knowledge? AS BILL SEES IT, p. 306 In my search "to be happy," I changed jobs, married and divorced, took geographical cures, and ran myself into debt--financially, emotionally and spiritually. In A.A., I'm learning to grow up. Instead of demanding that people, places and things make me happy, I can ask God for self-acceptance. When a problem overwhelms me, A.A.'s Twelve Steps will help me grow through the pain. The knowledge I gain can be a gift to others who suffer with the same problem. As Bill said, "When pain comes, we are expected to learn from it willingly, and help others to learn. When happiness comes, we accept it as a gift, and thank God for it." (As Bill Sees It, p. 306) ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day The A.A. program is one of submission, release, and action. When we're drinking, we're submitting to a power greater than ourselves, liquor. Our own wills are no use against the power of liquor. One drink and we're sunk. In A.A. we stop submitting to the power of liquor. Instead, we submit to a Power, also greater than ourselves, which we call God. Have I submitted myself to that Higher Power? Meditation For The Day Ceaseless activity is not God's plan for your life. Times of withdrawal for renewed strength are always necessary. Wait for the faintest tremor of fear and stop all work, everything, and rest before God until you are strong again. Deal in the same way with all tired feelings. Then you need rest of body and renewal of spirit force. Saint Paul said: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." This does not mean that you are to do all things and then rely on God to find strength. it means that you are to do the things you believe God wants you to do and only then can you rely on His supply of power. Prayer For The Day I pray that God's spirit may be my master always. I pray that I may learn how to rest and listen, as well as how to work. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It The Sense of Belonging, p. 117 Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging that comes to us. We no longer live in a completely hostile world. We are no longer lost and frightened and purposeless. The moment we catch even a glimpse of God's will, the moment we begin to see truth, justice, and love as the real and eternal things in life, we are no longer deeply disturbed by all the seeming evidence to the contrary that surrounds us in purely human affairs. We know that God lovingly watches over us. We know that when we turn to Him, all will be well with us, here and hereafter. 12 & 12, p. 105 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Never withholding ourselves. Living Sober. We may have let ourselves believe that we're supposed to display an attitude that expresses our opinions of others. If a person is crude and boorish, we should be cool and defensive for our self-protection. If a person is warm and friendly, we should respond in warm and friendly ways. If we have believed these things, then we're actually letting others control our attitudes and behavior. We are letting personalities interfere with the high principles we are learning in AA. We are not living at the best possible level. In reality, we should always display an attitude that reflects kindness, optimism, friendliness, and concern. There other person's disposition, whether it's sour or sweet, should have nothing to do with our being what we want to be. We should never withhold the fine inner qualities that develop and grow as we continue to live the program. In time, we begin to learn that this attitude always comes back to us in the form of greater peace and happiness. And what's great about iti s that it's always under our direct control. As I go about my business today, I will express a kindliness and concern toward everybody. Nobody's behavior can make me adopt a suspicious or defensive attitude. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.---Maurice Setter Silver shines as bright as gold does. So often we forget this. So often we push, push, push. We forget to live for the moment. Trying too hard can be a defect of character. It can be a way we avoid life. Gratitude, being thankful, is key part of recovery. Not just gratitude for getting our self-respect back. Not just gratitude for having a Higher Power. But gratitude for the moment. We're alive again. Let's see each moment as a time to explore life.. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thanks for helping me to enjoy each moment. I have gratitude for being alive. Action for the Day: I'll list ten gifts of recovery for which I have gratitude. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning . . . pain is the root of knowledge. --Simone Weil We don't want pain in our lives. We dread the situations we anticipate will be painful. We probably even pray to be spared all painful experiences. But they come anyway, at times in profusion. And we not only survive the pain, we profit from it. It seems that pain stretches us to our limits, generally forcing us to look for guidance from others, and it pushes us to consider new choices in our present situation. Pain is our common denominator as women, as members of the human family. It softens us to one another. It fosters empathy. It helps us to reach out and realize our need for one another. New knowledge, new awareness, are additional benefits of accepting, rather than denying, the pain that accompanies life. This journey that we're on is moving us further and further along the path of enlightenment. We can consider that each problem, each crisis, is our necessary preparation for moving another step down the road. I learn out of necessity. And when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards Assume on the other hand that father has, at the outset, a stirring spiritual experience. Overnight, as it were, he is a different man. He becomes a religious enthusiast. He is unable to focus on anything else. As soon as his sobriety begins to be taken as a matter of course, the family may look at their strange new dad with apprehension, then with irritation. There is talk about spiritual matters morning, noon and night. He may demand that the family find God in a hurry, or exhibit amazing indifference to them and say he is above worldly considerations. He may tell mother, who has been religious all her life, that she doesn’t know what it’s all about, and that she had better get his brand of spirituality while there is yet time. p. 128 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Another crowd of A.A.'s says: "We were plumb disgusted with religion and all its works. The Bible, we said, was full of nonsense; we could cite it chapter and verse, and we couldn't see the Beatitudes for the `begats.' In spots its morality was impossibly good; in others it seemed impossibly bad. But it was the morality of the religionists themselves that really got us down. We gloated over the hypocrisy, bigotry, and crushing self-righteousness that clung to so many `believers' even in their Sunday best. How we loved to shout the damaging fact that millions of the `good men of religion' were still killing one another off in the name of God. This all meant, of course, that we had substituted negative for positive thinking. After we came to A.A., we had to recognize that this trait had been an ego feeding proposition. In belaboring the sins of some religious people, we could feel superior to all of them. Moreover, we could avoid looking at some of our own shortcomings. Self-righteousness, the very thing that we had contemptuously condemned in others, was our own besetting evil. This phony form of respectability was our undoing, so far as faith was concerned. But finally, driven to A.A., we learned better. p. 30 ************************************************** ********* Children are our most valuable natural resource. --Herbert Hoover "Forgiving those who hurt us is the key to personal peace." --G. Weatherly "Being happy does not mean everything's perfect, It means I've decided to see beyond the imperfections." --Unknown "Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." --Carl Bard Spending time with God changes the rhythm of our life. --Cheryle L. Cooper ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation ANSWERS "If the work of God could be comprehended by reason, it would be no longer wonderful, and faith would have no merit if reason provided proof." --Pope Gregory I Some things happen that I do not understand or comprehend, but I have faith that they will happen tomorrow: sunsets, night following day, the song of the bird, the colors of nature, and the joy and adventure of being alive. Perhaps the biggest mystery for mankind to grapple with is love - a man will suffer, endure persecution, even be put to death for that which he loves; the pain and sorrow of love is mingled into what it is to be a human being. Reason does not have the answer to life. Faith is the medication for our existence. We have a belief in tomorrow because of what we have experienced today. If I can say "no" to alcohol today then I can do it tomorrow - if I really want to. Lord, let me not seek for proof but daily seek to grapple with the problems of life. ************************************************** ********* "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." James 4:10 "Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29 "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration There are truly no bad days, just different kinds of days. Lord, thank You for today and for Your help through every situation. Use your difficult times to learn more about God's love and blessings. Lord, may I see Your hand working in every moment of my life and realize that, even in my darkest hour, things are far better than they could be because You are blessing me with what I need to make it through. |
April 27
Daily Reflections JOYFUL DISCOVERIES We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 164 Sobriety is a journey of joyful discovery. Each day brings new experience, awareness, greater hope, deeper faith, broader tolerance. I must maintain these attributes or I will have nothing to pass on. Great events for this recovering alcoholic are the normal everyday joys found in being able to live another day in God's grace. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day By submitting to God, we're released from the power of liquor. It has no more hold on us. We're also released from the things that were holding us down: pride, selfishness, and fear. And we're free to grow into a new life, which is so much better than the old life that there's no comparison. This release gives us serenity and peace with the world. Have I been released from the power of alcohol? Meditation For The Day We know God by spiritual vision. We feel that He is beside us. We feel His presence. Contact with God is not made by the senses. Spirit-consciousness replaces sight. Since we cannot see God, we have to perceive Him by spiritual perception. God has to span the physical and the spiritual with the gift to us of spiritual vision. Many persons, though they cannot see God, have had a clear spiritual consciousness of Him. We are inside a box of space and time, but we know there must be something outside of that box, limitless space, eternity of time, and God. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may have a consciousness of God's presence. I pray that God will give me spiritual vision. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Prelude to the Program, p. 118 Few people will sincerely try to practice the A.A. program unless they have "hit bottom," for practicing A.A.'s Steps means the adoption of attitudes and actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking. The average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn't care for this prospect--unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself. << << << >> >> >> We know that the newcomer has to "hit bottom"; otherwise, not much can happen. Because we are drunks who understand him, we can use at depth the nutcracker of the-obsession-plus-the-allergy as a tool of such power that it can shatter his ego. Only thus can he be convinced that on his own unaided resources he has little or no chance. 1. 12 & 12, p. 24 2. A.A. Today, p. 8 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Happy People are likable. Personal relations. Who are the people we really like, and to be with? Most of the time, they are happy people, people who like themselves and others. Being happy is almost the entire secret of being likable. Though no person can expect to be liked by everybody, likable people have the inside track most of the time. How do we become happy and thus likable? We're continuously told that happiness cannot be found in property, power, and prestige. It is rooted instead in self-acceptance. In feeling loved and wanted, and in giving genuine service, maybe just in the form of very useful work. Twelve Step programs are structured to make us happy if we persevere long enough in working the individual steps. While it may seem contradictory, even people with heavy burdens and personal sorrows can find underlying happiness in the program. A great deal of this also hinges on our belief in a Higher Power and a confidence that we have a place in the universal system. I can be happy today in spite of things that others would consider burdensome and depressing. Happiness really comes from God, and it also serves to attract friends into my life. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple I noticed my hopelessness was because I had lost my freedom of choice.---AA member By doing a Fourth Step, we start to see ourselves more clearly. We see how we've acted against ourselves. Soon, we hear a little voice inside telling us to stop before we act. "Are you sure you want to say or do that?" the little voice asks. Then we make a choice: we do something the same old way, or we try a new way. One part of us will always want to do things the old, sick way. This is natural. But we're getting stronger every day. Our spirit wants to learn new ways so we can be honest and loving. Sometimes we don't know how. But we still have a choice. We can ask for help. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me listen to the little voice inside that helps me see that I have choices. Action for the Day: Today, I'll make a choice between old ways and new ways of acting. I will call my sponsor this evening to talk about my choices. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning So much to say. And so much not to say! Some things are better left unsaid. But so many unsaid things can become a burden. --Virginia Mae Axline The occasions are many when we'd like to share a feeling, an observation, perhaps even a criticism with someone. The risk is great, however. She might be hurt, or he might walk away, leaving us alone. Many times, we need not share our words directly. Weighing and measuring the probable outcome and asking for some inner guidance will help us decide when to speak up and when to leave things unsaid. But if our thoughts are seriously interfering with our relationships, we can't ignore them for long. Clearing the air is necessary sometimes, and it freshens all relationships. When to take the risk creates consternation. But within our quiet spaces, we always know when we must speak up. And the direction will come. The right moment will present itself. And within those quiet spaces the right words can be found. If I am uncomfortable with certain people, and the feelings don't leave, I will consider what might need to be said. I will open myself to the way and ask to be shown the steps to take. Then, I will be patient. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards When father takes this tack, the family may react unfavorably. The may be jealous of a God who has stolen dad’s affections. While grateful that he drinks no more, they may not like the idea that God has accomplished the miracle where they failed. They often forget father was beyond human aid. They may not see why their love and devotion did not straighten him out. Dad is not so spiritual after all, they say. If he means to right his past wrongs, why all this concern for everyone in the world but his family? What about his talk that God will take care of them? They suspect father is a bit balmy! p. 128 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." "As psychiatrists have often observed, defiance is the outstanding characteristic of many an alcoholic. So it's not strange that lots of us have had our day at defying God Himself. 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. More often, though, we had met up with some major calamity, and to our way of thinking lost out because God deserted us. The girl we wanted to marry had other notions; we prayed God that she'd change her mind, but she didn't. We prayed for healthy children, and were presented with sick ones, or none at all. We prayed for promotions at business, and none came. Loved ones, upon whom we heartily depended, were taken from us by so-called acts of God. Then we became drunkards, and asked God to stop that. But nothing happened. This was the unkindest cut of all. `**** this faith business!' we said. p. 31 ************************************************** ********* Never give up ten minutes before the miracle. --Anonymous Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young. --Henry Ford God is a never ending source of all we need. --SweetyZee Just as we experience joy in caring for others, they experience joy in caring for us. --Linda Nocks Shah "Invest the first hour of the day, the 'Golden Hour,' in yourself." --Brian Tracy "Pray not for lighter burdens but for stronger backs." --Theodore Roosevelt "The easiest way to save face is to keep the lower half shut." --Anon "A good laugh is sunshine in a house." --William Makepeace Thackeray "If you keep doing things like you've always done them, what you'll get is what you've already got." --Anon "Action conquers fear." --Peter N. Zarlenga "The best way out of a difficulty is through it" --Anon ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation RELIGION "All religions must be tolerated . . . for . . . every man must get to heaven his own way." --Frederick the Great There are many ways to God and I believe that Christianity is one way. However, I am convinced that there are other ways with or without religion. My experience of the church has been good, and I have been encouraged to question and doubt, search for new areas of faith within my agnosticism, explore other religions. My experience of Christianity has been supportive of openness and compassion. God is not a prisoner of any religion and we can all learn from each other's experiences - but we need to listen. To dismiss arrogantly the value that a religion can bring is, to my way of thinking, as negative and sick as to accept what a religion says without question. Let me find in the religions of the world the ONENESS of Your truth. ************************************************** ********* The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn; shining brighter till the full light of day. Proverbs 4 :18 We love Him, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Rely on the strength and understanding that you possess. Each of us has more of it in us that we can imagine possible. Lord, through faith in You I can face any difficulty and conquer it. Have the courage to forgive. Lord, may I bring myself to a place of peace by never holding a grudge. |
April 28
Daily Reflections TWO "MAGNIFICENT STANDARDS" All A.A. progress can be reckoned in terms of just two words: humility and responsibility. Our whole spiritual development can be accurately measured by our degree of adherence to these magnificent standards. AS BILL SEES IT, p. 271 To acknowledge and respect the views, accomplishments and prerogatives of others and to accept being wrong shows me the way of humility. To practice the principles of A.A. in all my affairs guides me to be responsible. Honoring these precepts gives credence to Tradition Four--and to all other Traditions of the Fellowship. Alcoholics Anonymous has evolved a philosophy of life full of valid motivations, rich in highly relevant principles and ethical values, a view of life which can be extended beyond the confines of the alcoholic population. To honor these precepts I need only to pray, and care for my fellow man as if each one were my brother. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day We're so glad to be free from liquor that we do something about it. We get into action. We come to meetings regularly. We go out and try to help other alcoholics. We pass on the good news whenever we get a chance. In a spirit of thankfulness to God, we get into action. The A.A. program is simple. Submit yourself to God, find release from liquor, and get into action. Do these things and keep doing them and you're all set for the rest of your life. Have I got into action? Meditation For The Day God's eternal quest must be the tracking down of souls. You should join Him in His quest. Through briars, through waste places, through glades, up mountain heights, down into valleys. God leads you. But ever with His leadership goes your helping hand. Glorious to follow where the Leader goes. You are seeking lost sheep. You are bringing the good news into places where it has not been known before. You may not know which soul you will help, but you can leave all results to God. just go with Him in His eternal quest for souls. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may follow God in His eternal quest for souls. I pray that I may offer God my helping hand. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Prelude to the Program, p. 118 Few people will sincerely try to practice the A.A. program unless they have "hit bottom," for practicing A.A.'s Steps means the adoption of attitudes and actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking. The average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn't care for this prospect--unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself. << << << >> >> >> We know that the newcomer has to "hit bottom"; otherwise, not much can happen. Because we are drunks who understand him, we can use at depth the nutcracker of the-obsession-plus-the-allergy as a tool of such power that it can shatter his ego. Only thus can he be convinced that on his own unaided resources he has little or no chance. 1. 12 & 12, p. 24 2. A.A. Today, p. 8 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Expect Miracle-working Coincidences Spiritual direction Somebody said that a wonderful coincidence is when God acts but does not choose to leave a signature. Wonderful coincidences are appearing every moment of the day. People who live the spiritual life are especially positioned to recognize and understand coincidences. The founding of AA abounds with coincidences that boggle the mind. Almost by chance, the Oxford Group ideas found their way to Bill Wilson. A business trip took him to Akron where, coincidentally. An earnest group of Oxford Group people were trying to help Dr. Bob Smith to sobriety. With his business venture in collapse, Bill made the telephone call that put him in touch with Dr. Bob, eventually resulting in the launch of AA. Such miraculous coincidences work for the fellowship, and they're also at work in our individual lives. If we look closely, we'll discover that many such coincidences helped bring about our recovery or some other blessing. God is the guiding power behind these coincidences. What appears to be chance is really a marvelous intelligence coordinating random events for the good of all. I'll have confidence today that God is always bringing positive results out of a number of random events. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Unless I accept my faults I will most certainly doubt my virtues. --- Hugh Prather Before recovery, we saw only a blurry picture of ourselves, like we were looking through an out-of-focus camera lens. We couldn't see the good in ourselves because we wouldn't look close enough. Step Four helps us look more closely. We see a picture of ourselves, with our good points and our faults. We don't like everything we see. But we can't change until we accept ourselves as we are. Then we can start getting ready to change. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me see the good in me and love myself. Action for the Day: Today, I'll make a list of four of my good points and four of my faults. Am I getting to have my Higher Power remove these defects of character? ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning . . . suffering . . . no matter how multiplied . . . is always individual. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh Knowing that others have survived experiences equally devastating gives us hope, but it doesn't diminish our own personal suffering. Nor should it; out of suffering comes new understanding. Suffering also encourages our appreciation of the lighter, easier times. Pain experienced fully enhances the times of pleasure. Our sufferings are singular, individual, and lonely. But our experiences with it can be shared, thereby lessening the power they have over us. Sharing our pain with another woman also helps her remember that her pain, too, is survivable. Suffering softens us, helps us to feel more compassion and love toward another. Our sense of belonging to the human race, our recognition of the interdependence and kinship of us all, are the most cherished results of the gift of pain. Each of our sufferings, sharing them as we do, strengthens me and heals my wounds of alienation. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards He is not so unbalanced as they might think. Many of us have experienced dad’s elation. We have indulged in spiritual intoxication. Like a gaunt prospector, belt drawn in over the ounce of food, our pick struck gold. Joy at our release from a lifetime frustration knew no bounds. Father feels he has struck something better than gold. For a time he may try to hug the new treasure to himself. He may not see at once that he has barely scratched a limitless lode which will pay dividends only if he mines it for the rest of his life and insists on giving away the entire product. pp. 128-129 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." "When we encountered A.A., the fallacy of our defiance was revealed. At no time had we asked what God's will was for us; instead we had been telling Him what it ought to be. No man, we saw, could believe in God and defy Him, too. Belief meant reliance, not; defiance. In A.A., we saw the fruits of this belief: men and women spared from alcohol's final catastrophe. We saw them meet and transcend their other pains and trials. We saw them calmly accept impossible situations, seeking neither to run nor to recriminate. This was not only faith; it was faith that worked under all conditions. We soon concluded that whatever price in humility we must pay, we would pay." p. 31 ************************************************** ********* A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark. --Anonymous Your mind is an encyclopedia of your lessons in life. Expand it by making memories with loved ones, reading a good book, or just by doing something positive rather than negative. --Anonymous When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. --Alexander Graham Bell Only God can make us whole. --Barbara Haynes "When you face your fear, most of the time you will discover that it was not really such a big threat after all." --Les Brown "The country clubs, the cars the boats, your assets may be ample, but the best inheritance you can leave your kids is to be a good example." --Barry Spilchuk "Next time someone tells you 'never,' remember that means 'not for at least one hour.'" --Jeffrey Gitomer ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation PREJUDICE "It is never too late to give up your prejudices." --Henry David Thoreau Prejudice divides people and feeds upon anger, resentment and fear. Today I can see that my prejudices stemmed from my seeing in others what I disliked in myself. I hated people who appeared "weak" because I knew that I was weak and vulnerable. I hated people who were "different" because I knew there were parts of me that were different from how I appeared. I hated the people who stood up for their principles and talked about their feelings because, as a drunk, I never really had any principles and I couldn't get in touch with my feelings. Today I try to talk about my prejudices and overcome them. A knowledge of those people I disliked has proven useful in slowly overcoming my prejudices. Teach me to locate myself in my criticism of others. ************************************************** ********* "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life." John 6:47 You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. James 2:18 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Give your day to God and let Him bring out the best in you in all situations. Lord, I will use Your power within me to make the best of this day. You are a blessed, creative, lovable and needed being created by God. Lord, may these qualities shine forth and be used to bless those around me. |
April 29
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. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day The A.A. program is one of faith, hope, and charity. It's a program of hope because when new members come into A.A., the first thing they get is hope. They hear older members tell how they had been through the same kind of he!! that they have and how they found the way out through A.A. And this gives them hope that if others can do it, they can do it. Is hope still strong in me? Meditation For The Day The rule of God's kingdom is perfect order, perfect harmony, perfect supply, perfect love, perfect honesty, perfect obedience. There is no discord in God's kingdom, only some things still unconquered in God's children. The difficulties of life are caused by disharmony in the individual man or woman. People lack power because they lack harmony with God and with each other. They think that God fails because power is not manifested in their lives. God does not fail. People fail because they are out of harmony with Him. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be in harmony with God and with other people. I pray that this harmony will result in strength and success. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It On The Broad Highway, p. 119 "I now realize that my former prejudice against clergymen was blind and wrong. They have kept alive through the centuries a faith which might have been extinguished entirely. They pointed out the road to me, but I did not even look up, I was so full of prejudice and self-concern. "When I did open my eyes, it was because I had to. And the man who showed me the truth was a fellow sufferer and a layman. Through him, I saw at last, and I stepped from the abyss to solid ground, knowing at once that my feet were on the broad highway if I chose to walk." Letter, 1940 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Remember the Past, but don't live in it. Living today. In some ways, the Twelve Step recovery process invites trouble in dealing with the past. We're supposed to forget the past and live for today. But the opening thoughts delivered at meetings often review the past in painful detail, thus reinforcing the tendency to relive it. How should we approach this problem? Our need is to remember the past while releasing any bitterness, regrets, or hurts connected with it. We must never live in the past, which we are doing when we feel either resentment or remorse about actions of others or ourselves. It is, however, helpful to remember what happened in the past so that we will no longer repeat the same mistakes. We should also remember the past as a means of keeping ourselves both humble and honest. It should help us feel gratitude that we no longer have to live as we once did. Remembering the past in open "lead" meetings is sometimes called "qualifying" as an alcoholic. It is an aid to carrying the message of recovery and a way of building more strength and understanding for today and tomorrow. I'll be pleased today that I can remember the past without living in it. I am free from the old hurts and problems that would keep me from directing all of my energies and attention to what I am doing here and now. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple I’m as pure as the driven slush.---Tallulad Bankhead The Steps are filled with words and phrases like shortcomings, exact nature of our wrongs, persons we had harmed, and when we were wrong. The Steps help us accept all parts of who we are. Our program asks us to share these parts of ourselves with others. We heal by doing this. It’s hard to talk about how wrong we can be, but we must. It’s part of how we recover. Remember, all of us have bad points. At times, we act like jerks. When we can talk about our mistakes, we end up having less shame inside of us. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to love and accept myself---as You love and accept me. Give me the courage to share all my secret wrongs. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll review my Fourth Step. If I haven’t done this Step, I’ll start today. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Love between two people is such a precious thing. It is not a possession. I no longer need to possess to complete myself. True love becomes my freedom. --Angela L. Wozniak Self-doubt fosters possessiveness. When we lack confidence in our own capabilities, when we fear we don't measure up as women, mothers, lovers, employees, we cling to old behavior, maybe to unhealthy habits, perhaps to another person. We can't find our completion in another person because that person changes and moves away from our center. Then we feel lost once again. Completion of the self accompanies our spiritual progress. As our awareness of the reality of our higher power's caring role is heightened, we find peace. We trust that we are becoming all that we need to be. We need only have faith in our connection to that higher power. We can let that faith possess us, and we'll never need to possess someone else. God's love is ours, every moment. Recognition is all that's asked of us. Acceptance of this ever-present love will make us whole, and self-doubt will diminish. Clinging to other people traps us as much as them, and all growth is hampered, ours and theirs. Freedom to live, to grow, to experience my full capabilities is as close as my faith. I will cling only to that and discover the love that's truly in my heart and the hearts of my loved ones. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards If the family cooperates, dad will soon see that he is suffering from a distortion of values. He will perceive that his spiritual growth is lopsided, that for an average man like himself, a spiritual life which does not include his family obligations may not be so perfect after all. If the family will appreciated that dad’s current behavior is but a phase of his development, all will be well. In the midst of an understanding and sympathetic family, these vagaries of dad’s spiritual infancy will quickly disappear. p. 129 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Now let's take the guy full of faith, but still reeking of alcohol. He believes he is devout. His religious observance is scrupulous. He's sure he still believes in God, but suspects that God doesn't believe in him. He takes pledges and more pledges. Following each, he not only drinks again, but acts worse than the last time. Valiantly he tries to fight alcohol, imploring God's help, but the help doesn't come. What, then, can be the matter? pp. 31-32 ************************************************** ********* The mind is like a parachute; it works much better when it's open. --Dpurpleldy "A friend will see us at our worst, as well as our best. A friend will not close his or her heart when we have made a mistake. A friend will not condemn us but will compassionately support our return to a state of grace." --Marianne Williamson "Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." --Carl Jung We must release the old to make room for the new. --Alan Cohen "People will come and go from my life. Today I'm trying to learn how to be the kind of person that I want to spend the rest of my life with." --Unknown "People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within." Elizabeth Kubler-Ross ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation ENJOYMENT "Man, unlike the animals, has never learned that the sole purpose of life is to enjoy it." --Samuel Butler Spirituality enables me to enjoy my life. I enjoy my sobriety. I enjoy the freedom of a "God as I understand Him". I enjoy the fellowship of ideas and opinions that are based on love and honest sharing. The world is to be enjoyed and not endured! God is fun. For years I thought that God was a judge to be feared; angry, hostile and revengeful. Strange how silly this all seems now, but for years I was afraid of God and feared His presence. Then I was introduced to a God who is beyond institutions and dogmas, free of creeds and punishments, a loving and joyous God who created me to be happy. Today I am enjoying my freedom. God, the Father of the Universe, is also "Daddy" to us all. ************************************************** ********* "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth." Psalms 145:18 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has also forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration When someone makes you happy, let them know and you will both feel better. Lord, may Your love flow through me so that I can easily praise and encourage the goodness in others. To have a great day isn't always doing what you like, but trying to like what you must do. Lord, today I will spruce up my attitude and have a great day no matter what my circumstances. |
April 30
Daily Reflections A GREAT PARADOX These legacies of suffering and of recovery are easily passed among alcoholics, one to the other. This is our gift from God, and its bestowal upon others like us is the one aim that today animates A.A.'s all around the globe. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 151 The great paradox of A.A. is that I know I cannot keep the precious gift of sobriety unless I give it away. My primary purpose is to stay sober. In A.A. I have no other goal, and the importance of this is a matter of life or death for me. If I veer from this purpose I lose. But A.A. is not only for me; it is for the alcoholic who still suffers. The legions of recovering alcoholics stay sober by sharing with fellow alcoholics. The way to my recovery is to show others in A.A. that when I share with them, we both grow in the grace of the Higher Power, and both of us are on the road to a happy destiny. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day The A.A. program is one of faith because we find that we must have faith in a Power greater than ourselves if we are going to get sober. We're helpless before alcohol, but when we turn our drink problem over to God and have faith that He can give us all the strength we need, then we have the drink problem licked. Faith in that Divine Principle in the universe which we call God is the essential part of the A.A. program. Is faith still strong in me? Meditation For The Day Each one of us is a child of God, and as such, we are full of the promise of spiritual growth. A young person is like the springtime of the year. The full time of the fruit is not yet, but there is promise of the blossom. There is a spark of the Divine in every one of us. Each has some of God's spirit that can be developed by spiritual exercise. Know that your life is full of glad promise. Such blessings can be yours, such joys, such wonders, as long as you develop in the sunshine of God's love. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may develop the divine spark within me. I pray that by so doing I may fulfill the promise of a more abundant life. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Word Of Mouth, p. 120 "In my view, there isn't the slightest objection to groups who wish to remain strictly anonymous, or to people who think they would not like their membership in A.A. known at all. That is their business, and this is a very natural reaction. "However, most people find that anonymity to this degree is not necessary, or even desirable. Once one is fairly sober, and sure of this, there seems no reason for failing to talk about A.A. membership in the right places. This has a tendency to bring in other people. Word of mouth is one of our most important communications. "So we should criticize neither the people who wish to remain silent, nor even the people who wish to talk too much about belonging to A.A., provided they do not do so at the public level and thus compromise our whole Society." Letter, 1962 ************************************************** ********* Walk in Dry Places Addicted to Crisis___Personal Relations It's sometimes a surprise to learn that we mismanage our affairs even in sobriety. We may even find that we seem to be addicted to problem situations. It takes a crisis, it seems, to give us the energy and purpose we need to get things done. One common form of this strange addiction is procrastination. Some of us have a tendency to put off important tasks until the very last moment, and then work overtime to get the job done. Is this laziness? Maybe it is, to some extent. Maybe, however, we need an impending emergency to get motivated and energized to do what needs to be done. Maybe we're addicted to crisis. If so, this may be another disease that can be arrested but not cured. We arrest it by slowly adopting better work habits and paying closer attention to schedules and deadlines. Working with greater efficiency, we'll have more time and energy for the things that really matter. Today I don't need a crisis to take charge of my life and do what needs to be done. I'll tackle at least one thing I've been putting off, and either complete the task or get a good start on it. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple When you want to be something, it means you really love it.---Andy Warhol At times, we turned to chemicals because we couldn't love ourselves. Our addiction gave a promise of relief, but it gave us self-hate. We wanted to love, but couldn't. What is it we really love ? Where should we put out energy ? In raising children ? In creating art ? In helping addicts who still suffer ? There's much in this world that needs our love. We can be many things in our lives. Let's be people we believe in. Let's be people we can love. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me know myself through my inventories. My skills, talents, values, and my loves must be clear to me so I can use them to do Your will. Action for the Day: Today I'll think about what I'd really love to do through my work. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Accustomed as we are to change, or unaccustomed, we think of a change of heart, of clothes, of life, with some uncertainty. --Josephine Miles Being used to a situation, even a painful one, carries with it a level of comfort. Moving away from the pain, changing the situation, be it job, home, or marriage, takes courage and support from other persons. But even more it takes faith that the change will benefit us. For most of us, the pain will need to worsen. In retrospect, we wonder why it took us so long. We forget, from one instance to the next, that a new door cannot open until we've closed one behind us. The more important fact is that a new one will always open without fail. The pain of the old experience is trying to push us to new challenges, new opportunities, new growth. We can handle the change; we can handle the growth. We are never given more than we can handle, and we are always given just what we need. Experience can't prepare us for the ramifications of a new change. But our trust in friends, and our faith in the spiritual process of life, can and will see us through whatever comes. If a change of any kind is facing me today, I will know that I am not alone. Whatever I am facing is right for me and necessary to my well-being. Life is growth. The next stage of my life awaits me. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Chapter 9 - The Family Afterwards The opposite may happen should the family condemn and criticize. Dad may feel that for years his drinking has placed him on the wrong side of every argument, but that now he has become a superior person with God on his side. If the family persists in criticism, this fallacy may take a still greater hold on father. Instead of treating the family as he should, he may retreat further into himself and feel he has spiritual justification for so doing. p. 129 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." "When we encountered A.A., the fallacy of our defiance was revealed. At no time had we asked what God's will was for us; instead we had been telling Him what it ought to be. No man, we saw, could believe in God and defy Him, too. Belief meant reliance, not; defiance. In A.A., we saw the fruits of this belief: men and women spared from alcohol's final catastrophe. We saw them meet and transcend their other pains and trials. We saw them calmly accept impossible situations, seeking neither to run nor to recriminate. This was not only faith; it was faith that worked under all conditions. We soon concluded that whatever price in humility we must pay, we would pay." p. 31 ************************************************** ********* The only real win, is the win of tapping into the spirit. --Oprah Winfrey Getting sober is like learning to ride a horse, if you fall off, get back on, you can't learn to ride on the ground. --Patricia D "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." --Albert Einstein "Success is living up to your potential. That's all. Wake up with a smile and go after life … Live it, enjoy it, taste it, smell it, feel it." --Joe Kapp "As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey." --Thomas A. Edison I embrace the lightness I feel when I trust, and give all of me to God. --SweetyZee No matter the storm... when you're with God there's always a rainbow waiting. Remember, God answers knee-mail! --Anonymous Men trip not on mountains! They trip on molehills. --Chinese Proverb Wish not so much to live long, as to live well. --Benjamin Franklin ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation ORIGINALITY "Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself." --James Stephens Sometimes I surprise myself with what I say, think or contemplate. Within my being is a very strange world that I wish to share with others. Why? Because if I am truly honest about what I think and feel, it may unite me with the true identity of others. Perhaps we are all a little strange! However I will never know what people are thinking or feeling unless I take a risk and share my honest feelings. My involvement with my fellow man revolves around my honesty. In the knowledge of Your love let me share my feelings. ************************************************** ********* Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23 Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:3-4 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Each day guide your thoughts and actions so that you may set God's will above your own. Lord, may Your will be my will. No matter what you must confront today, know that God is with you. Lord, today is part of Your plan for me. I do not doubt You and therefore I will not doubt You within me. |
| All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:25 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.