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Daily Recovery Readings - October
October 1
Daily Reflections LEST WE BECOME COMPLACENT It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85 When I am in pain it is easy to stay close to the friends I have found in the programs. Relief from that pain is provided in the solutions contained in A.A.'s Twelve Steps. But when I am feeling good and things are going well, I can become complacent. To put it simply, I become lazy and turn into the problem instead of the solution. I need to get into action, to take stock: where am I and where am I going? A daily inventory will tell me what I must change to regain spiritual balance. Admitting what I find within myself, to God and to another human being, keeps me honest and humble. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day A.A. will lose some of its effectiveness if I do not do my share. Where am I failing? Are there some things I do not feel like doing? Am I held back by self-consciousness or fear? Self-consciousness is a form of pride. It is a fear that something may happen to you. What happens to you is not very important. The impression you make on others does not depend so much on the kind of job you do as on your sincerity and honesty of purpose. Am I holding back because I am afraid of not making a good impression? Meditation For The Day Look to God for the true power that will make you effective. See no other wholly dependable supply of strength. That is the secret of a truly effective life. And you, in your turn, will be used to help many others find effectiveness. Whatever spiritual help you need, whatever spiritual help you desire for others, look to God. Seek that God's will be done in your life and seek that your will conforms to His. Failures come from depending too much on your own strength. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may feel that nothing good is too much for me if I look to God for help. I pray that I may be effective through His guidance. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Troubles of Our Own Making, p.272 Selfishness--self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt. So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! Alcoholics Anonymous, p.62 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Thinking about Blame. Inventory. Which is worse: blaming ourselves or others for things that go wrong? A better question might be, Is anyone to blame? We're really better off, in 12 Step living, to begin dropping the idea of placing blame for our thinking altogether. Even is someone's responsibility for a mistake or wrong is fully evident, we get nowhere by pointing the finger at him or her. What often happens, in fact, is that the person becomes defensive... just as we do... And retreats into denial or anger. Another problem is that placing blame quickly becomes the sticky business of taking another person's inventory. Let's leave such matters to courts and prosecutions and focus instead on solving our own problems. I'll not waste time today thinking about who's to blame. My focus will be on what can be done for general improvement. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Continued to take personal inventory. . .First half of Step Ten Step Ten tells us to keep looking at who we are. We ask ourselves, “Is what I’m doing okay?” If it is, then we take pride in the way we acting. If not, we change our behavior. Step Ten keeps us in the right direction. Throughout time, wise persons have told us to get to know ourselves. Step Ten helps us do this. We become our own best friend. A true friend tells us when we’re doing right and when we’re messing up. Step Ten is our teacher. Even when we want to pretend we don’t know right from wrong, Step Ten reminds us that we do know. Step Ten is our daily reminder that we now have values---good values. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, Step Ten is a lot of work. Keep me working. Help me form a habit. Let this habit be called “Step Ten.” Action for the Day: Today, I’ll continue to take a personal inventory. I will list what is good about me today and what I don’t like. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Women are often caught between conforming to existing standards or role definitions and exploring the promise of new alternatives. --Stanlee Phelps and Nancy Austin This is a time of exploring for many of us. Recovery means change in habits, change in behavior, change in attitudes. And change is seldom easy. But change we must, if we want to recover successfully. We do have support for trying our new alternatives. We have support from our groups and our higher power. Perhaps we want a career or more education. Perhaps we want to develop a hobby or try a sport. Sharing that desire and then looking for support guarantees some guidance. This program has given us a chance to start fresh-- to become our inner desire. We are only caught in an old pattern if we assent to it. The going won't always be easy, but support and guidance are available and free if we but look for them. Today I will consider my alternatives. Do I want to make a change? ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. Sixteen years have elapsed between our first printing of this book and the presentation in 1955 of our second edition. In that brief space, Alcoholics Anonymous has mushroomed into nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far above 150,000 recovered alcoholics. Groups are to be found in each of the United States and all of the provinces of Canada. A.A. has flourishing communities in the British Isles, the Scandinavian countries, South Africa, South America, Mexico, Alaska, Australia and Hawaii. All told, promising beginnings have been made in some 50 foreign countries and U.S. possessions. Some are just now taking shape in Asia. Many of our friends encourage us by saying that this is but a beginning, only the augury of a much larger future ahead. p. xv ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Alcoholic Anonymous Number Three Pioneer member of Akron's Group No. 1, the first A.A. group in the world. He kept the faith; therefore, he and countless others found a new life. It would be hard to estimate how much A.A. has done for me. I really wanted the program and I wanted to go along with it. I noticed that the others seemed to have such a release, a happiness, a something that I thought a person ought to have. I was trying to find the answer. I knew there was even more, something that I hadn't got, and I remember one day, a week or two after I had come out of the hospital, Bill was over to my house talking to my wife and me. We were eating lunch, and I was listening and trying to find out why they had this release that they seemed to have. Bill looked across at my wife, and said to her, "Henrietta, the Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people." p. 191 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Ten - "Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it." Having so considered our day, not omitting to take due note of things well done, and having searched our hearts with neither fear nor favor, we can truly thank God for the blessings we have received and sleep in good conscience. p. 95 ************************************************** ********* "How things look on the outside of us depends on how things are on the inside of us." --Parks Cousins I shall continue to believe. In hope there is faith, miracles do happen, in God I trust. --Shelley Time is my most precious resource, I choose to use it wisely and to cherish each moment, sober. --Bob I have a choice, I do not have to accept unacceptable behavior. --Shelley Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them. --Ralph Waldo Emerson Some people make the future; most wait for the future to make them. --Cited in The Best of BITS & PIECES There is a choice you have to make, In everything you do. And you must always keep in mind, The choice you make, makes you. --Unknown You can preach a better sermon with your life than you can with your lips. --Unknown *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation LAUGHTER "We are all here for a spell, get all the good laughs you can." -- Will Rogers When I first heard recovering alcoholics laughing, I thought I was in the wrong place. I was angry that they treated the disease so lightly. Then slowly I began to see that laughter is part of joy --- a deep joy that comes from personal healing. Laughter is spiritual because it is a positive response to life. It is the noise of optimism. And there is so much in life to laugh about --- not only the funny things we did, but also the "humor" that abounds in living. How funny is our self-righteousness! How amusing we are in courtship. How ridiculous we appear when we pretend to be serious and "in charge". Laughter is the conversation of angels. Let me see the miracle of humor in the gift of life --- and let me be prepared to share it. ************************************************** ********* Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6 "Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs." Proverbs 10:12 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. James 2:17 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Don't give up because your best has not yet been achieved. Lord, take away my doubts and give me courage to accept my opportunities. Often times that which we find difficult is that which teaches. Lord, may I always be able to see the good that comes from even my trials. |
October 2
Daily Reflections THE ACID TEST As we work the first nine Steps, we prepare ourselves for the adventure of a new life. But when we approach Step Ten we commence to put our A.A. way of living to practical use, day by day, in fair weather or foul. Then comes the acid test: can we stay sober, keep in emotional balance, and live to good purpose under all conditions? TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 88 I know the Promises are being fulfilled in my life, but I want to maintain and develop them by the daily application of Step Ten. I have learned through this Step that if I am disturbed, there is something wrong with me. The other person may be wrong too, but I can only deal with my feelings. When I am hurt or upset, I have to continually look for the cause in me, and then I have to admit and correct my mistakes. It isn't easy, but as long as I know I am progressing spiritually, I know that I can mark my effort up as a job well done. I have found that pain is a friend; it lets me know there is something wrong with my emotions, just as a physical pain lets me know there is something wrong with my body. When I take the appropriate action through the Twelve Steps, the pain gradually goes away. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day What makes an effective talk at an A.A. meeting? It is not a fine speech with fine choices of words and an impressive delivery. Often a few simple words direct from the heart are more effective than the most polished speech. There is always a temptation to speak beyond your experience, in order to make a good impression. This is never effective. What does not come from the heart does not reach the heart. What comes from personal experience and a sincere desire to help the other person, reaches the heart. Do I speak for effect or with a deep desire to help? Meditation For The Day "Thy will be done" must be your oft-repeated prayer. And in the willing of God's will there should be gladness. You should delight to do that will because when you do, all your life goes right and everything tends to work out for you in the long run. When you are honestly trying to do God's will and humbly accepting the results, nothing can seriously hurt you. He who accepts the will of God in his life may not inherit the earth, but he will inherit real peace of mind. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may have a yielded will. I pray that my will be attuned to the will of God. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Compelling Love, p.273 The life of each A.A. and of each group is built around our Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. We know that the penalty for extensive disobedience to these principles is death for the individual and dissolution for the group. But an even greater force for A.A.'s unity is our compelling love for our fellow members and for our principles. ******************************** You might think the people at A.A.'s headquarters in New York would surely have to have some personal authority. But, long ago, trustees and secretaries alike found they could do no more than make very mild suggestions to the A.A. groups. They even had to coin a couple of sentences which still go into half the letters they write: "Of course you are at perfect liberty to handle this matter any way you please. But the majority experience in A.A. does seem to suggest . . ." A.A. world headquarters is not a giver of orders. It is, instead, our largest transmitter of the lessons of experience. 1. Twelve Concepts, p.8 2. 12 & 12, pp. 173-174 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Living or Waiting? Using time wisely What is the real secret of living 24 hours at a time? Isn't it really a matter of feeling completely comfortable in the present rather than believing that happiness depends on something in the future? Whatever our situation today, it's something we must life through and deal with effectively. We may be overlooking many wonderful things in our present life simply because we believe we need some exciting experience that can only come later on. We also might be overlooking present opportunities because we're spending too much time in the past. The past, whether it was god or bad, is beyond our control. Our mission is to live effectively and happily today. We can do this best when we realize that yesterday and tomorrow don't really exist... today is all we can be sure of. I'll live today in the present, handling every problem as well as I can and enjoying every experience that comes to me. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple . . .and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.---Second half of Step Ten We are human. We make mistakes. This is half the fun of being human. Step Ten clearly tell us what to do when we are wrong: admit it. This keeps us honest. It keeps us from hiding secrets that could cause us to use alcohol or other drugs again. Trust the gift we get from Step Ten. When we admit our wrongs, people start to trust us again. We feel good, and people feel good being around us. Even when they don’t like how we act, they can trust us to run our lives. No one will ever be prefect. The closet we get is that we admit it when we’re wrong. This is as good as it gets. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me admit my wrongs. Help me earn the trust of others by being honest about my mistakes. Action for the Day: I will list any wrongs I’ve done today. That way, I’ll start tomorrow fresh and without any burdens from today. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Fortunate are the people whose roots are deep. --Agnes Meyer Deep roots offer strength and stability to an organism. They nourish it plentifully. They anchor it when the fierce winds blow. We each are offered the gifts of roots when we give ourselves fully to the program. We are never going to face, alone, any difficult situation after discovering recovery. Never again need we make any decision in isolation. Help is constant. Guidance through companionship with others and our contacts with God will always be as close as our requests. The program anchors us; every prayer we make, every step we take, nourishes the roots we are developing. Becoming rooted in the program, with daily attention to the nourishment we need, offers us sanity and hope. We discover that all things can be handled; no situation is too much for us. Strength, confidence, freedoms from fear are the benefits of our deepening roots. We will be anchored if we do what needs to be done by us. The program's gifts are ours, only if we work the program. I won't neglect my roots today. I will nourish them so they in turn can fill me up with confidence when my need is there. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. The spark that was to flare into the first A.A. group was struck at Akron, Ohio, in June 1935, during a talk between a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician. Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that day. He had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a medical saint by A.A. members, and whose story of the early days of our Society appears in the next pages. >From this doctor, the Broker had learned the grave nature of alcoholism. Though he could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford Groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God. pp. xv-xvi ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Alcoholic Anonymous Number Three Pioneer member of Akron's Group No. 1, the first A.A. group in the world. He kept the faith; therefore, he and countless others found a new life. I thought, "I think I have the answer." Bill was very, very grateful that he had been released from this terrible thing and he had given God the credit for having done it, and he's so grateful about it he wants to tell other people about it. That sentence, "The Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep telling people about it," has been a sort of a golden text for the A.A. program and for me. p. 191 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." Prayer and meditation are our principal means of conscious contact with God. We A.A.'s are active folk, enjoying the satisfactions of dealing with the realities of life, usually for the first time in our lives, and strenuously trying to help the next alcoholic who comes along. So it isn't surprising that we often tend to slight serious meditation and prayer as something not really necessary. To be sure, we feel it is something that might help us to meet an occasional emergency, but at first many of us are apt to regard it as a somewhat mysterious skill of clergymen, from which we may hope to get a secondhand benefit. Or perhaps we don't believe in these things at all. p. 96 ************************************************** ********* Friends in your life are like pillars on your porch. Sometimes they hold you up and sometimes they lean on you. Sometimes it's just enough to know they're standing by. --Elizabeth Foley "Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate." --Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) "In the hope of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet." --Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another. --Helen Keller "God, I do believe in Your power and Your wisdom. Your glory is far greater than I could ever envision, and I am thankful to be within the circle of your ever-renewing life." --©2000 by Unity School of Christianity *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation REALITY "The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame." -- Oscar Wilde In my addiction I avoided things that I did not like, did not want to consider. I hid from life and condemned things I did not wish to understand. My ego created a hypocritical purity that enabled me to judge, condemn and abuse the thoughts and ideas of those I considered inferior to myself. Today I try to live and let live. I do this not to avoid conflict or criticism but because I have found, through experience, how my ideas and attitudes have changed during my years of recovery. People who I would have condemned to Hell have now become my friends and mentors. Concepts and lifestyles that were once abhorrent to me are now appreciated and inspiring. What was once dismissed as immoral is today, for me, a part of life. God of Truth and Reality, help me to accept the difference that is in others. ************************************************** ********* May my meditation be pleasing to Him as I rejoice in the Lord. Psalm 104:34 "Lord, I believe." John 9:38 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration The condition of your heart is reflected in your face. Lord, help me to remove all harsh feelings from within my soul so that I will radiate love and kindness and others can feel safe in seeking me out. If you exercise your mind, your spirit will never get old. Lord, give me the ability to rise above my worldly burdens and ability to always make things a little better. |
October 3
Daily Reflections SERENITY AFTER THE STORM Someone who knew what he was talking about once remarked that pain was the touchstone of all spiritual progress. How heartily we A.A.'s can agree with him. . . . TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p p. 93-94 When on the roller coaster of emotional turmoil, I remember that growth is often painful. My evolution in the A.A. program has taught me that I must experience the inner change, however painful, that eventually guides me from selfishness to selflessness. If I am to have serenity, I must STEP my way past emotional turmoil and its subsequent hangover, and be grateful for continuing spiritual progress. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day How do I talk with new prospects? Am I always trying to dominate the conversation? Do I lay down the law and tell prospects what they will have to do? Do I judge them privately and feel that they have small chance of making the program? Do I belittle them to myself? Or am I willing to bare my soul so as to get them talking about themselves? And, then, am I willing to be a good listener, not interrupting, but hearing them out to the end? Do I feel deeply that they are my brothers or my sisters? Will I do all I can to help them along the path to sobriety? Meditation For The Day "The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness shall be quietness and assurance forever." Only when the soul attains this calm, can there be true spiritual work done, and mind and soul and body be strong to conquer and bear all things. Peace is the result of righteousness. There is no peace in wrong doing, but if we live the way God wants us to live, quietness and assurance follow. Assurance is that calmness born of a deep certainty of God's strength available to us and in His power to love and guard us from all harm and wrong doing. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may attain a state of true calmness. I pray that I may live in quietness and peace. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Going It Alone, p. 274 Going it alone in spiritual matters is dangerous. How many times have we heard well-intentioned people claim the guidance of God when it was plain that they were mistaken? Lacking both practice and humility, they deluded themselves and were so able to justify the most arrant nonsense on the ground that this was what God had told them. People of very high spiritual development almost always insist on checking with friends or spiritual advisers the guidance they feel they have received from God. Surely, then, a novice ought not lay himself open to the chance of making foolish, perhaps tragic, blunders. While the comment or advice of others may not be infallible, it is likely to be far more specific than any direct guidance we may receive while we are still inexperienced in establishing contact with a Power greater than ourselves. 12 & 12, p. 60 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Proving Ourselves Self-esteem Long after a bitter failure, some of us still cling to the hope that we can erase the defeat in some spectacular way. One dream is to “prove ourselves” to those who scorned us or put us down. This never really works, even when we do become winners at some later time. For one thing, we may be proving ourselves to people who never will like us. If we are striving to show others that we can succeed, we are still dancing to their tune. We are accepting their idea of what success should be. Many of us failed simply because we were alcoholics and could do no better. We might have destroyed opportunities that will never rise again. But by finding sobriety, we may already have proved ourselves to those who really count in our lives...... Including ourselves. I can prove today that the Twelve Step program works and that a loving Higher Power is present in my life. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple That which is called firmness I a king is called stubbornness in a donkey. ---Lord Erskine “Rigid” is a fancy word for “stubborn.” We act this way because of our fear. When we’re afraid, we hang on to what we’re used to doing. Our illness had us so scared, we were afraid of the new ideas and new people. The only thing that didn’t scare us was using alcohol or other drugs. We also were stubborn when anyone tried to help us. We thought we knew what was best. How silly our stubborn actions made us look! How lonely they kept us. But our stubborn behavior can teach us about our fears. We need to be aware our stubbornness. Then we’ll be able to find out what we’re afraid of---and do something about it. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me know when I’m stubborn. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll work at accepting my stubbornness. I will use it to learn what I am afraid of today. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Ambiguity means admitting more than one response to a situation and allowing yourself to be aware of those contradictory responses. You may want something and fear it at the same time. You may find it both beautiful and ugly. --Tristine Rainer Flexibility is a goal worth the striving. It eases our relations with others, and it stretches our realm of awareness. Letting go of rigid adherence to what our perceptions were yesterday assures us of heightened understanding of life's variables and lessons. Being torn between two decisions, feeling ambivalent about them, need not create consternation, though it often does. Hopefully, it will encourage us to pray for direction, and then to be responsive to the guidance. And we must keep in mind that no decision is ever wrong. It may lead us astray for a time, but it will also introduce us to uncharted territories, which offer many opportunities for flexibility. Contradictory responses, our own and also ours in relations with others, keep us on our toes, lend an element of excitement to our lives, and push us to think creatively about our perceptions. Growth and change are guaranteed. I will be in tune with myself today. I will let my perceptions guide me. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. Prior to his journey to Akron, the broker had worked hard with many alcoholics on the theory that only an alcoholic could help an alcoholic, but he had succeeded only in keeping sober himself. The broker had gone to Akron on a business venture which had collapsed, leaving him greatly in fear that he might start drinking again. He suddenly realized that in order to save himself he must carry his message to another alcoholic. That alcoholic turned out to be the Akron physician. p. xvi ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Alcoholic Anonymous Number Three Pioneer member of Akron's Group No. 1, the first A.A. group in the world. He kept the faith; therefore, he and countless others found a new life. Of course, as time went on, and I began to get my health back and began to be so I didn't have to hide from people all the time, it's just been wonderful. I still go to meetings, because I like to go. I meet the people that I like to talk to. Another reason that I go is that I'm still grateful for the good years that I've had. I'm so grateful for both the program and the people in it that I still want to go, and then probably the most wonderful thing that I learned from the program—I've seen this in the 'A.A. Grapevine' a lot of times, and I've had people say it to me personally, and I've heard people get up in meetings and make the same statement: The statement is, "I came into A.A. solely for the purpose of sobriety, but it has been through A.A. that I have found God." I feel that is about the most wonderful thing that a person can do. p. 192 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." To certain newcomers and to those one-time agnostics who still cling to the A.A. group as their higher power, claims for the power of prayer may, despite all the logic and experience in proof of it, still be unconvincing or quite objectionable. Those of us who once felt this way can certainly understand and sympathize. We well remember how something deep inside us kept rebelling against the idea of bowing before any God. Many of us had strong logic, too, which "proved" there was no God whatever. What about all the accidents, sickness, cruelty, and injustice in the world? What about all those unhappy lives which were the direct result of unfortunate birth and uncontrollable circumstances? Surely there could be no justice in this scheme of things, and therefore no God at all. pp. 96-97 ************************************************** ********* One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy. --E. B. White Love your enemies. It will drive them nuts. --Eleanor Doan "A keen sense of humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerate the unpleasant, overcome the unexpected, and outlast the unbearable." --Billy Graham "We're still not where we're going, but we're not where we were." --Natasha Jasefowitz "Behavioral researcher Shad Helmstetter, in his book "Choice," says, 'When we meet someone who seems to have a good attitude about everything, that really isn't the case. The person simply has made a lot of independent choices to have a good attitude about many individual things." Remember, a positive outlook is a choice - and the decision is yours." --Neil Eskelin *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation FREEDOM "Freedom is not enough. " -- Lyndon B. Johnson The gift of freedom requires the acknowledgment of the benefactor, God. To experience freedom without realizing its source is to miss the point; freedom requires responsibility. When I was drinking, I demanded freedom without responsibility and I suffered. I created in freedom my own horror stories. I hurt others because I did not respect in them what I demanded for myself and slowly, ever so slowly, freedom slipped away. Today I believe that my spiritual program reinforces my responsibility for my life. God has created me with free will and I need to respect this gift in others. If I do not respect others, I will never receive it. Dignity is a two way street. Thank You for the freedom to experience myself in my treatment of my neighbor. ************************************************** ********* Look to the Lord and his strength; seek His face always. Psalm 105:4 Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. Psalm 126:5-6 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Be like a star and make your best even better. Lord, source of my joy, if I am shining I will brighten the day for both myself and those around me. 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. |
October 4
Daily Reflections A NECESSARY PRUNING . . . . we know that the pains of drinking had to come before sobriety, and emotional turmoil before serenity. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 94 I love spending time in my garden feeding and pruning my beautiful flowers. One day, as I was busily snipping away, a neighbor stopped by. She commented, "Oh! Your plants are so beautiful, it seems such a shame to cut them back." I replied, "I know how you feel, but the excess must be removed so they can grow stronger and healthier." Later I thought that perhaps my plants feel pain, but God and I know it's part of the plan and I've seen the results. I was quickly reminded of my precious A.A. program and how we all grow through pain. I ask God to prune me when it's time, so I can grow. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Am I critical of other members of A.A. or of new prospects? Do I ever say about other members: "I don't think they're sincere, I think they're bluffing, or I think they're taking a few drinks on the quiet?" Do I realize that my doubtful and skeptical attitude is hurting those members, if only in my attitude toward them, which they cannot help sensing? Do I say about new prospects: "They'll never make the program," or do I say: "They'll only last a few months?" If I take this attitude, I am unconsciously hurting those prospects' chances. Is my attitude always constructive and never destructive? Meditation For The Day To be attracted toward God and a better life, you must be spirit-guided. There is wonderful illumination of thought given to those who are spirit-guided. To those who are material-guided, there is nothing in God or a finer life to appeal to them or to attract them. But to those who are spirit-guided there is strength and peace and calm to be found in communion with an Unseen Lord. To those who believe in this God they cannot see but whose power they can feel, life has a meaning and purpose. They are children of the Unseen Lord, and all human beings are their brothers and sisters. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be spirit-guided. I pray that I may feel God's presence and power in my life. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Recovery Through Giving, p.275 For a new prospect, outline the program of action, explaining how you made a self-appraisal, how you straightened out your past, and why you are now endeavoring to be helpful to him. It is important for him to realize that your attempt to pass this on to him plays a vital part in your own recovery. Actually, he may be helping you more than you are helping him. Make it plain that he is under no obligation to you. ******************************** In the first six months of my own sobriety, I worked hard with many alcoholics. Not a one responded. Yet this work kept me sober. It wasn't a question of those alcoholics giving me anything. My stability came out of trying to give, not out of demanding that I receive. 1. Alcoholics Anonymous, p.94 2. Grapevine, January 1958 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Deserving Success Achievements It's said that alcoholics sometimes snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Some of us, deep down inside, don't really think we deserve success. We might be discouraged by feelings of guilt or low self-esteem, or perhaps we don't want to become targets of envy or competitive attacks. We need to practice acceptance of our current situation, always believing that we do have a right to achievements that match our talents and experience, indeed, such achievements may only be possible now that we're sober and thinking rightly. Some people think that our occupations and our program are separate matters. But the very last idea in the 12 Steps is to practice our principles "in all our affairs." If we take the view that any useful work is a form of service, we'll find opportunities to be beneficial to everyone. With that attitude, we will also realize that we deserve success. I ‘ll know today that I have a right to do well in any legitimate activity for which I am qualified. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Your three best doctors are faith, time, and patience.---From a fortune cookie Only a short time ago, we were very sick. Getting sober made us so much better. At first, when we stopped drinking and using other drugs, we thought we were fixed. Then we began to see that we were not all that well. No doctor can fix us. To get well, we need to keep living by the Twelve Steps and the slogans of our program. We need to keep on trusting that our Higher Power will heal us. One Day at a Time, day after day, we get stronger and happier. And it never has to stop. Each day, we know ourselves a little better. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, You are my best doctor. Help me remember that. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll do what the “doctor” suggests. I will talk with my sponsor about Step Ten today. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Ambiguity means admitting more than one response to a situation and allowing yourself to be aware of those contradictory responses. You may want something and fear it at the same time. You may find it both beautiful and ugly. --Tristine Rainer Flexibility is a goal worth the striving. It eases our relations with others, and it stretches our realm of awareness. Letting go of rigid adherence to what our perceptions were yesterday assures us of heightened understanding of life's variables and lessons. Being torn between two decisions, feeling ambivalent about them, need not create consternation, though it often does. Hopefully, it will encourage us to pray for direction, and then to be responsive to the guidance. And we must keep in mind that no decision is ever wrong. It may lead us astray for a time, but it will also introduce us to uncharted territories, which offer many opportunities for flexibility. Contradictory responses, our own and also ours in relations with others, keep us on our toes, lend an element of excitement to our lives, and push us to think creatively about our perceptions. Growth and change are guaranteed. I will be in tune with myself today. I will let my perceptions guide me. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. This physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma but had failed. But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth's description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster. He sobered, never to drink again up to the moment of his death in 1950. This seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no nonalcoholic could. It also indicated that strenuous work, one alcoholic with another, was vital to permanent recovery. pp. xvi-xvii ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. I believe it would be good to tell the story of my life. Doing so will give me the opportunity to remember that I must be grateful to God and to those members of Alcoholics Anonymous who knew A.A. before me. Telling my story reminds me that I could go back to where I was if I forget the wonderful things that have been given to me or forget that God is the guide who keeps me on this path. p. 193 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." Sometimes we took a slightly different tack. Sure, we said to ourselves, the hen probably did come before the egg. No doubt the universe had a "first cause" of some sort, the God of the Atom, maybe, hot and cold by turns. But certainly there wasn't any evidence of a God who knew or cared about human beings. We liked A.A. all right, and were quick to say that it had done miracles. But we recoiled from meditation and prayer as obstinately as the scientist who refused to perform a certain experiment lest it prove his pet theory wrong. Of course we finally did experiment, and when unexpected results followed, we felt different; in fact we knew different; and so we were sold on meditation and prayer. And that, we have found, can happen to anybody who tries. It has been well said that "almost the only scoffers at prayer are those who never tried it enough." p. 97 ************************************************** ********* Yesterday is history, tomorrow, but a mystery... Today is a gift, that's why we call it the present. Like an ability or a muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it. --Robbie Gass "If the eyes are looked upon as the windows to the soul... then a smile must be the doorway the heart." --unknown "Listen or thy tongue will keep thee deaf." --American Indian Proverb When someone intentionally hurts me, I know, they are also hurting themselves, probably more. Let go, and love them anyway. --Shelley *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation LIFE "I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today." -- William Allen White Today I have confidence in my life and I am experiencing consistency in my behavior and attitude. In recovery, things follow a natural progression and life is more like a series of curves than sharp peaks. As an addict, my life was forever going up and down, ecstasy followed by gloom; the "best ever" followed by depression; always black and white --- no grays. Today I have some balance and consistency. Things are connected and grow in the process of change. Sudden happenings and quick changes scare me because they are symptomatic of yesterday's disease and are not consistent with the spiritual life I seek. Today I have the peace of knowing that tomorrow will be something like today --- and I am happy. Thank You for the spiritual gift of consistency. ************************************************** ********* Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever. Psalm 106:1 Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my sighing. Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. Psalm 5:1-3 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration When you lose your temper, you lose. Lord, help me to be patient with those around me, but most of all, help me be patient with myself. Apply God's promises to your daily lives and speak to Him from the depths of your heart. Lord, the more time I spend with You, the stronger You make my faith and the more blessings You place in my life. |
October 5
Daily Reflections YESTERDAY'S BAGGAGE For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching becomes a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong. 12 & 12, p. 88 I have more than enough to handle today, without dragging along yesterday's baggage too. I must balance today's books, if I am to have a chance tomorrow. So I ask myself if I have erred and how I can avoid repeating that particular behavior. Did I hurt anyone, did I help anyone, and why? Some of today is bound to spill over into tomorrow, but most of it need not if I make an honest daily inventory. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Do I have any hard feelings about other group members or for any other A.A. group? Am I critical of the way a group member thinks or acts? Do I feel that another group is operating in the wrong way and do I broadcast it? Or do I realize that all A.A. members, no matter what their limitations, have something to offer, some good, however little, that they can do for A.A. in spite of their handicaps? Do I believe that there is a place for all kinds of groups in A.A., provided they are following A.A. traditions, and that they can be effective even if I do not agree with their procedure? Am I tolerant of people and groups? Meditation For The Day "The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and even forever more." All your movements, your goings and comings can be guided by the Unseen Spirit. Every visit to help another, every unselfish effort to assist, can be blessed by that Unseen Spirit. There can be a blessing on all you do, on every interview with one who is suffering. Every meeting of a need may not be a chance meeting, but it may have been planned by the Unseen Spirit. Led by the Spirit of the Lord, you can be tolerant, sympathetic, and understanding of others and so accomplish much. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be led by the spirit of God. I pray that the Lord will preserve my goings and my comings. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It A Higher Power for Atheists, p.276 "I have had many experiences with atheists, mostly good. Everybody in A.A. has the right to his own opinion. It is much better to maintain an open and tolerant society than it is to suppress any small disturbances their opinions might occasion. Actually, I don't know of anybody who went off and died of alcoholism because of some atheist's opinions on the cosmos. "But I do always entreat these folks to look to a 'Higher Power'--namely, their own group. When they come in, most of their A.A. group is sober, and they are drunk. Therefore, the group is a 'Higher Power.' That's a good enough start, and most of them do progress from there. I know how they feel, because I was once that way myself." Letter, 1962 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places What can Sobriety Bring? Living Sober The single goal of staying sober is so all-important in AA that side benefits are often overlooked. There is even a tendency to warn members about the hazards of attaching importance to anything except sobriety. But we do have to become responsible people in all things, not just sober people. We can expect real sobriety to bring the confidence and well-being we expected from the bottle, but never received. Sobriety is not likely to give us the equivalent of the euphoria we got from drinking, but a great sense of well-being based on realistic expectations is more satisfying than the ridiculous mental states we sought in drinking. Living the right kind of life will bring its own rewards. .Alone with staying sober today, I'll meet all my responsibilities to my family and friends. Sobriety does not promise miracles, but it does bring a good life. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple It is often easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them---Adlai Stevenson It easy to talk about our values. But when the clerk at the store gives extra change my mistake, those values get put to the test. It feels good to read about spirituality in a comfortable chair at home. But when we get stuck in a traffic jam, it’s hard to live by our values. That’s why practicing our program daily helps. Practice prepares us for the tough times. Maybe we’ll feel like drinking or using other drugs once a year. Maybe we’ll only get the wrong amount of change once a year. But if we live our values daily, we’ll be ready when the hard times come. Remember: “It’s not enough to talk the talk. You have to walk the walk.” Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me live this program each day. Help me “walk the walk.” Action for the Day: Today, I’ll do a Step Ten, Taking an inventory tells me if I’m living up to my values. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Sometimes I think I'm the luckiest person in the world. There's nothing better than having work you really care about. Sometimes I think my greatest problem is lack of confidence. I'm scared, and I think that's healthy. --Jane Fonda We each vacillate between feeling confident on some days, lucky on others, and yet frequently scared on others. It's very human to vacillate. We need not be anxious because our emotions refuse to stand still. Changing emotions are part of the process of normal living. And changing emotions reflect an involvement with the moment. Situations do touch us, as they should. They do invite responses, as they should. And our responses will reveal our emotional involvement, as they should. We can cherish the variety of our emotions. They enrich us. But they may also create problems, if they go unchecked. We need to maintain a balance. Confidence, certainly desirable, can become overconfidence and thus complacency. Confidence needs humility to temper it. Fear makes us cautious, and that's good; but too much can immobilize us. Being in charge of our emotions makes them work for us. Emotions can energize me and keep me involved with the moment. They can also control me. It's my decision to be in charge. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. Hence the two men set to work almost frantically upon alcoholics arriving in the ward of the Akron City Hospital. Their very first case, a desperate one. recovered immediately and became A.A. number three. He never had another drink. This work at Akron continued through the summer of 1935. There were many failures, but there was an occasional heartening success. When the broker returned to New York in the fall of 1935, the first A.A. group had actually been formed, though no one realized it at the time. p. xvii ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. In June 1924, I was sixteen years old and had just graduated from high school in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Some of my friends suggested that we go for beer. I had never had beer or any form of alcohol. I don't know why, since we always had alcohol at home (I should add that no one in my family was ever considered an alcoholic). Well, I was afraid my friends wouldn't like me if I didn't do as they did. I knew firsthand that mysterious state of people who appear to be sure of themselves but are actually eaten alive with fear inside. I had a rather strong inferiority complex. I believe I lacked what my father used to call "character." So on that nice summer day in an old inn in Sherbrooke, I didn't find the courage to say no. p. 193 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." 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. pp. 97-98 ************************************************** ********* Give and forget. Receive and remember. When you give of yourself, you receive more than you give. --Antoine De Saint-Exupery Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul. --Henry David Thoreau Prosperity depends more on wanting what you have than having what you want. --Geoffry F. Abert "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." --Melody Beattie "The more you recognize and express gratitude for the things you have, the more things you will have to express gratitude for." --Zig Ziglar When a person habitually thinks optimistically and hopefully, they activate life around them positively and thereby attract positive results. Positive Thinking sets in motion positive and creative forces and success flows toward you! --Norman Vincent Peale *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation PRIDE "The books I haven't written are better than the books other people have." -- Cyril V. Connolly Today I still have to grapple with pride, vanity and conceit. Today, thanks to God and my spiritual program, I am not so preoccupied with self, but the old tapes can still be heard: "Thank God I am not as stupid as her." "I am blessed in not being like those people." "I suppose everybody in the room is looking at me." Pride is still a big obstacle because it keeps me isolated from people. It emphasizes the difference between me and the world, rather than the commonality. Pride keeps me a prisoner of my ego and develops that cruel and sadistic streak in my nature that I know exists. Pride stops me being grateful because it keeps me too focused on what I am doing and I miss the beauty and splendor of my life. Pride keeps my nose pushed against the picture so I cannot see the portrait! I can only change this "proudful" attitude by talking about it. The way for me to grow is to "dump it" . . . today. May I find me in the people I meet and share with. ************************************************** ********* "I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you." Genesis 17:7 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Philippians 4:4-5 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:12-13 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration God will give you today, no more than you can handle today. It is when you choose to add yesterday's and tomorrow's troubles to it that it becomes too much to carry. Lord, help me remember that it is only right now that I can find all that I am looking for. Take time to learn from the mistakes of others. We don't have time to make all of them ourselves. Lord, guide me onto paths that lead me to You. |
October 6
Daily Reflections FACING OURSELVES . . . . and Fear says, "You dare not look!" TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 49 How often I avoided a task in my drinking days, just because it appeared so large! Is it any wonder even if I have been sober for some time, that I will act that same way when faced with what appears to be a monumental job, such as a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself? What I discover after I have arrived at the other side--when my inventory is completed--is that the illusion was greater than the reality. The fear of facing myself kept me at a standstill and, until I became willing to put pencil to paper, I was arresting my growth based on an intangible. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Is it my desire to be a big shot in A.A.? Do I always want to be up front in the limelight? Do I feel that nobody else can do as good a job as I can? Or am I willing to take a seat in the back row once in a while and let somebody else carry the ball? Part of the effectiveness of any A.A. group is the development of new members to carry on, to take over, from the older members. Am I reluctant to give up authority? Do I try to carry the load for the whole group? If so, I am not being fair to the newer members. Do I realize that no one person is essential? Do I know that A.A. could carry on without me, if it had to? Meditation For The Day The Unseen God can help to make us truly grateful and humble. Since we cannot see God, we must believe in Him without seeing. What we can see clearly is the change in a human being, when he sincerely asks God for the strength to change. We should cling to faith in God and in His power to change our faith in God and in His power to change our ways. Our faith in all Unseen God will be rewarded by a useful and serviceable life. God will not fail to show us the way we should live. When in real gratitude and true humility we turn to Him.. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may believe that God can change me. I pray that I may be always willing to be changed for the better. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It To Lighten Our Burden, p.277 Only one consideration should qualify our desire for a complete disclosure of the damage we have done. That will arise where a full revelation would seriously harm the one to whom we are making amends. Or--quite as important--other people. We cannot, for example, unload a detailed account of extramarital adventuring upon the shoulders of our unsuspecting wife or husband. It does not lighten our burden when we recklessly make the crosses of others heavy. ******************************** In making amends, we should be sensible, tactful, considerate, and humble without being servile or scraping. As God's people, we stand on our feet; we don't crawl before anyone. 1. 12 & 12, p.86 2. Alcoholics Anonymous, p.83 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places By Their fruits Inventory. An old saying reminds us that the value of any spiritual effort can be measured by how well it work: "A good tree is known by its fruits." By that standard, the 12 Step movement fares very well. Its life-changing work has won consistent praise and has had continuous success ever since it became known to the public. We can apply that same statement to new ideas as they appear in our lives. If somebody has suggestions or advice, we might ask how well such ideas are working out for them. We would not take investment advice, for example, from someone who had repeatedly lost money. We should always be wary of ideas that go counter to the basic principles of our program. some people may invite us to share their resentments, for example, but we have no obligation to do so. We will be even less inclined to do so when we look at the results they're getting from their resentments, Evaluating ideas "by their fruits" is a good test. I'll be careful to look at all the facts in connection with any idea presented today. I have a right to judge everything by results. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people. ---Virginia Woolf Working the Twelve Steps helps us learn the truth. As we struggle with Step Four, we learn the truth about ourselves. We learn even more about ourselves by doing Steps Eight and Ten. When we admit the truth about ourselves, things come into focus. Big changes happen. As a result, we can see other people more clearly. We see bad sides in people we thought were prefect. We see good sides in people we hated. We start to know that everyone has to work hard to find what’s right for them. No one knows all the answers. In short, we begin to trust others also who also are looking for the truth. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me clearly see myself and others. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll think about how doing Step Ten keeps me clear about what’s going on in my life. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Many people are living in an emotional jail without recognizing it. --Virginia Satir Each of us is blessed with an internal guide, a source able to direct our actions if we but acknowledge it. Never are we in doubt for long about what path to take. The courage to take it might not be immediately forthcoming; however, it, too, is one of the gifts with which we've been blessed. Courage is ours for the asking. Right direction is ours for the taking. Trusting our inner selves takes practice, followed by attention to the results of our risks. Before recovery, many of us passively waited for others to orchestrate our behavior, our feelings, and our attitudes. Stepping forward as the leading lady, with our own script in hand is quite a change, but one we are being coached, daily, to make. The Steps help us to know who we are. More importantly, they help us become the women we long to be. But most important, they offer us the spiritual strength to risk listening to the message within and the strength to go forth as directed. Right results, again and again, are elicited by right action. And my knowledge of the right action is always, and forever, as close as myself. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. A second small group promptly took shape at New York, to be followed in 1937 with the start of a third at Cleveland. Besides these, there were scattered alcoholics who had picked up the basic ideas in Akron or New York who were trying to form groups in other cities. By late 1937, the number of members having substantial sobriety time behind them was sufficient to convince the membership that a new light had entered the dark world of the alcoholic. p. xvii ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. I became an active alcoholic from that first day, when alcohol produced a very special effect in me. I was transformed. Alcohol suddenly made me into what I had always wanted to be. Alcohol became my everyday companion. At first, I considered it a friend; later, it became a heavy load I couldn't get rid of. It turned out to be much more powerful than I was, even if, for many years, I could stay sober for short periods. I kept telling myself that one way or another I would get rid of alcohol. I was convinced I would find a way to stop drinking. I didn't want to acknowledge that alcohol had become so important in my life. Indeed, alcohol was giving me something I didn't want to lose. pp. 193-194 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation, and prayer. Taken separately, these practices can bring much relief and benefit. But when they are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakable foundation for life. Now and then we may be granted a glimpse of that ultimate reality which is God's kingdom. And we will be comforted and assured that our own destiny in that realm will be secure for so long as we try, however falteringly, to find and do the will of our own Creator. p. 98 ************************************************** ********* I have held many things in my hands and have lost them all, but whatever I placed in God's hands I still possess. --GGDNER Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action. --Mother Teresa Live your life and forget your age. --Norman Vincent Peale In a world that is constantly changing, there is no one subject or set of subjects that will serve you for the foreseeable future, let alone for the rest of your life. The most important skill to acquire now is learning how to learn. --John Naisbitt "In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us." --Flora Edwards *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation FORGIVENESS "Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom." -- Hannah Arendt Early in sobriety I found it easy to forgive others but hard to forgive myself. This kept me sick and negative, even in recovery, because I was unable to practice self-love. I still blamed me and felt responsible for being alcoholic. I had not surrendered to the reality of alcoholism as a disease. Then a moment of sanity was granted me whereby I understood that I was not responsible for being alcoholic, but that I am responsible for my recovery. And my recovery involves a love and respect of self. This knowledge brought a tremendous joy and freedom that led to action within the recovering community. Only by loving me will I be able to love you, and in both these ways I show my love of God. May I always hold on to the spiritual power of forgiveness. ************************************************** ********* "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws. I have suffered much; preserve my life, O LORD, according to your word. Accept, O LORD, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws. Though I constantly take my life in my hands, I will not forget your law. The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts. Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart. My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end. Psalm 119:105-112 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Be aware of the blessings of friendship and know that to have a friend you must be one in return. Lord, help me to be able to smile, to share, to listen and to be available when I am needed. God's promises are not for those who walk through life with no obstacles, but for those who overcome their obstacles. Lord, I pray, not to overpower others, but to overcome my own weaknesses and strengthen my trust in You. |
October 7
Daily Reflections DAILY MONITORING Continued to take personal inventory. . . . . TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 88 The spiritual axiom referred to in the Tenth Step-- "every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us"--also tells me that there are no exceptions to it. No matter how unreasonable others may seem, I am responsible for not reacting negatively. Regardless of what is happening around me I will always have the prerogative, and the responsibility, of choosing what happens within me. I am the creator of my own reality. When I take my daily inventory, I know that I must stop judging others. If I judge others, I am probably judging myself. Whoever is upsetting me most is my best teacher. I have much to learn from him or her, and in my heart, I should thank that person. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Do I put too much reliance on any one member of the group? That is, do I make a tin god out of some one person? Do I set that person on a pedestal? If I do, I am building my house on sand. A.A. members have "clay feet." They are all only one drink away from a drunk, no matter how long they have been in A.A. This has been proved to be true more than once. It's not fair to any member to be singled out as a leader in A A. and to always quote that member on the A.A. program. If that person should fail, where would I be? Meditation For The Day You must always remember that you are weak but that God is strong. God knows all about your weakness. He hears every cry for mercy, every sign of weakness, every plea for help, every sorrow over failure, every weakness felt and expressed. We only fail when we trust too much to our own strength. Do not feel bad about your weakness. When you are weak, that is when God is strong to help you. Trust God enough, and your weakness will not matter. God is always strong to save. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may learn to lean on God's strength. I pray that I may know that my weakness is God's opportunity. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Speak Up Without Fear, p.278 Few of us are anonymous so far as our daily contacts go. We have dropped anonymity at this level because we think our friends and associates ought to know about A.A. and what it has done for us. We also wish to lose the fear of admitting that we are alcoholics. Though we earnestly request reporters not to disclose our identities, we frequently speak before semipublic gatherings. We wish to convince audiences that our alcoholism is a sickness we no longer fear to discuss before anyone. If, however, we venture beyond this limit, we shall surely lose the principle of anonymity forever. If every A.A. felt free to publish his own name, picture, and story, we would soon be launched upon a vast orgy of personal publicity. ******************************** "While the so-called public meeting is questioned by many A.A. members, I favor it myself providing only that anonymity is respected in press reports and that we ask nothing for ourselves except understanding." 1. Grapevine, January 1946 2. Letter, 1949 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Taming the instincts. Orderly direction Though alcoholics can appear to have serious shortcomings, these problems are really only misguided attempts to satisfy needs that must be met. In the 12 Step program, we do not deny our human needs. We realize, however, that these needs must be met in moral, constructive ways. Falso methods of meeting needs will bring false, harmful results. We can meet our needs in an orderly manner by turning to our Higher Power and following the slow and impractical, but over the longer term we will come to see that it is the right way to live. Our instinctive needs are proper and God-given, but they must not run wild in our lives. Living sober also means taming our instincts. I'll not be surprised by the various needs I may feel today. I am committed, however, to a moral and principled response to these needs. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple We never thought we could get old.---Bob Dylan Here we are no longer children. Yet we’re not quite grown up either. At least, we don’t always feels grown up. Our program helps us accept the stages of our life. And the child in our heart is getting happier. In some ways, we feel younger everyday. We’re also starting to feel older and wiser. It feels good. We’re not so afraid of the world, because we’re learning better ways to live in it. We can learn by having friends who teach us to stay young at heart. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me be the best I can be, at the age I am today. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll call an older friend and ask him or her this question: “What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about life since you were my age?” ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning There is a divine plan of good at work in my life. I will let go and let it unfold. --Ruth P. Freedman We are never certain of the full importance or the eventual impact of any single event in our lives. But of one thing we can be sure: Each experience offers something valuable to our overall development. We must not discount the experiences that are long gone. They contributed to all we've achieved at the present. And wherever today takes us will influence what tomorrow will bring. Perhaps our greatest difficulty as recovering women is not trusting that life is a process and one that promises goodness. That growth and change are guaranteed. That our lives have design, and we're blessed therein. Trusting isn't easy. But we can learn, and we'll discover freedom. Letting go of the outcome of every experience, focusing instead on our efforts, making them as good as possible, validates our trust in the ultimate goodness of life. Our frustrations diminish when our efforts, only, are our concern. How much easier our days go when we do our work and leave the outcome where it belongs. I will know a new freedom when I let go and trust that "my plan" is unfolding as it must. I will do my part, and no more. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. It was now time, the struggling groups thought, to place their message and unique experience before the world. This determination bore fruit in the spring of 1939 by the publication of this volume. The membership had then reached about 100 men and women. The fledgling society, which had been nameless, now began to be called Alcoholics Anonymous, from the title of its own book. The flying-blind period ended and A.A. entered a new phase of its pioneering time. p. xvii ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. In 1934, a series of mishaps occurred because of any drinking. I had to come back from Western Canada because the bank I worked for lost confidence in me. An elevator accident cost me all of the toes on one foot and a skull fracture. I was in the hospital for months. My excessive drinking also caused a brain hemorrhage, which completely paralyzed one side of my body. I probably did my First Step the day I came by ambulance to Western Hospital. A night-shift nurse asked me, "Mr. B., why do you drink so much? You have a wonderful wife, a bright little boy. You have no reason to drink like that. Why do you?" Being honest for the first time, I said, "I don't know, Nurse. I really don't know." That was many years before I learned about the Fellowship. p. 194 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." As we have seen, self-searching is the means by which we bring new vision, action, and grace to bear upon the dark and negative side of our natures. It is a step in the development of that kind of humility that makes it possible for us to receive God's help. Yet it is only a step. We will want to go further. p. 98 ************************************************** ********* With God everyday, I make my way. I hold on to God’s hand As I journey through this land. --Tammy What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Do not let a desire for wealth cause you to become so consumed by your work that you prevent happiness for yourself and your family. Happiness is foremost. A look filled with understanding, and accepting smile, a loving word, a meal shared in warmth and awareness are the things which create happiness in the present moment. By nourishing awareness in the present moment, you can avoid causing suffering to yourself and those around you. --Thich Nhat Hanh "No matter how much you talk to your plant, if you don't water it, it's going to die." --Mike Perry Thoughts and beliefs are nothing without action" --James A. Ray *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation POWER "The first and great commandment is 'Don't let them scare you.'" -- Elmer Davis In my sobriety I still need to deal with fear. A fear of people, a fear of not being good enough, a fear of saying the wrong thing, a fear of not looking "good enough" --- fear still haunts me in sobriety. However, my recovery also tells me that I am a child of God. I am a beautiful and powerful human being because God not only made me, but has shared something of His precious divinity with me. I am good enough. In Him I can afford to risk. Love must begin with the recognition of self. Today I must remember that people are not "out to get me". I need not make myself the victim. People are much the same inside, and we all need each other to survive. Thank You for the power to live with my fear. ************************************************** ********* Let them give thanks for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men, for He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:8-9 "Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you." Psalm 55:22 We love Him, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Be grateful for the simple things that you can do such as being able to see, to walk, to have health and to be able to face life with peace of mind. Lord, on a daily basis I will count my many unnamed blessings. Smile. If you know that God is with you and will never fail you, then you always have every reason to smile. Lord, my heart seeks You and clings to You and I rejoice. |
October 8
Daily Reflections DAILY INVENTORY . . . . and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 59 I was beginning to approach my new life of sobriety with unaccustomed enthusiasm. New friends were cropping up and some of my battered friendships had begun to be repaired. Life was exciting, and I even began to enjoy my work, becoming so bold as to issue a report on the lack of proper care for some of our clients. One day a co-worker informed me that my boss was really sore because a complaint, submitted over his head, had caused him much discomfort at the hands of his superiors. I knew that my report had created the problem, and began to feel responsible for my boss's difficulty. In discussing the affair, my co-worker tried to reassure me that an apology was not necessary, but I soon became convinced that I had to do something, regardless of how it might turn out. When I approached my boss and owned up to my hand in his difficulties, he was surprised. But unexpected things came out of our encounter, and my boss and I were able to agree to interact more directly and effectively in the future. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day There is such a thing as being too loyal to any one group. Do I feel put out when another group starts and some members of my group leave it and branch out into new territory? Or do I send them out with my blessing? Do I visit that new offshoot group and help it along? Or do I sulk in my own tent? A.A. grows by the starting of new groups all the time. I must realize that it's a good thing for a large group to split up into smaller ones, even it if means that the large group --my own group--becomes smaller. Am I always ready to help new groups? Meditation For The Day Pray--and keep praying until it brings peace and serenity and a feeling of communion with One who is near and ready to help. The thought of God is balm for our hates and fears. In praying to God, we find healing for hurt feelings and resentments. In thinking of God, doubts and fears leave us. Instead of those doubts and fears, there will flow into our hearts such faith and love as is beyond the power of material things to give, and such peace as the world can neither give nor take away. And with God, we can have the tolerance to live and let live. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may have true tolerance and understanding. I pray that I may keep striving for these difficult things. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It The Fine Art Of Alibis, p.279 The majority of A.A. members have suffered severely from self-justification during their drinking days. For most of us, self-justification was the maker of excuses for drinking and for all kinds of crazy and damaging conduct. We had made the invention of alibis a fine art. We had to drink because times were hard or times were good, We had to drink because at home we were smothered with love or not none at all. We had to drink at work because we were great successes or dismal failures. We had to drink because our nation had won a war or lost a peace. And so it went, ad infinitum. ******************************** To see how our own erratic emotions victimized us often took a long time. Where other people were concerned, we had to drop the word "blame" from our speech and thought. 12 & 12 1. pp. 46-47 2. p. 47 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Changing other people Relating to others. "How can I get this person to accept the program?" We hear this often, for example, when a patient at a treatment center complains about another who is so negative toward the program "That he's dragging all of us down." We discovered long ago that we have no power to change or manipulate others. At the very beginning of AA, its pioneers learned how to maintain their own sobriety and serenity even as others rebelled and turned against the program. They learned that negative people can't drag us down unless we let them. We might need to review our personal inventory if we're too concerned about the behavior of others. Ours is a program of attraction, not coercion, and we "change" people only by demonstrating how well it works for us. Any concern about another's behavior takes time and energy away from our own commitment to self-improvement. I have a personal need and responsibility to carry the mess, but I have neither the right nor the responsibility to modify anybody's behavior. I'll keep this in mind today. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Just Say No.--- Nancy Reagan We addicts were great at saying no. Our spouse asked us to help around the house and we said no and went drinking. Friends tried to care, but we said, “No, mind your own business!” Our parents or our kids begged us to stop drinking, but we said no. We were also ask to say yes. We always said yes when asked if we wanted to have a drink or get high. Addiction really mixed us up. When we said no, we should have said yes. And when we said yes we should have said no. In recovery, we do things better. We say yes when others ask for help. We say yes when somebody wants to give us love. We say no to alcohol and other drugs. We finally answer yes and no the right way---the right way and at the right time for us. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to always say yes to You, even when I’m tired or angry. Action for the Day: In today’s inventory, I’ll ask myself if there are any ways I’m still saying no to my program and Higher Power. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning The great creative power is everything. If you leave out one whole chunk of it, by making God only masculine, you have to redress the balance. --Martha Boesing What a blessing, to be part of God! For many of us, invoking God with a male pronoun put an obstacle in the path of our spiritual growth. We felt left out. Worship of something called "He" or "Him" didn't jibe with our spirituality. When we pray, we pray to a spiritual source that includes everything, that leaves nothing out: sexes, all races, all ages and conditions. Some of us had no trouble understanding that God is everything, no matter how God is invoked. But whatever our path to spirituality, the Twelve Step program has enriched our understanding. Before we practiced the Twelve Steps, we had allowed ourselves to forget the strength and nurture that are always at hand, and now we are grateful to be reminded that God is with us, within us, and all is well. One woman says, "When I feel far from God, I ask myself: Who moved?" God is always there. Today I will pray for the wisdom to stay close to my spiritual source, the Creator Spirit. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. With the appearance of the new book a great deal began to happen. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, the noted clergyman, reviewed it with approval. In the fall of 1939 Fulton Oursler, then editor of Liberty, printed a piece in his magazine, called "Alcoholics and God." This brought a rush of 800 frantic inquiries into the little New York office which meanwhile had been established. Each inquiry was painstakingly answered; pamphlets and books were sent out. Businessmen, traveling out of existing groups, were referred to these prospective newcomers. New groups started up and it was found, to the astonishment of everyone, that A.A.'s message could be transmitted in the mail as well as by word of mouth. By the end of 1939 it was estimated that 800 alcoholics were on their way to recovery. pp. xvii-xviii ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. My family and employers were concerned about my drinking, but I had become rather arrogant. I bought a 1931 Ford with an inheritance from my grandmother, and my wife and I made a trip to Cape Cod. On the way back, we stopped at my uncle's place in New Hampshire. This uncle had taken me under his wing at the time of my mother's death, and he worried about me. Now he said to me, "Dave, if you stop drinking for a full year, I will give you the Ford roadster I just bought." I loved that car, so I immediately promised I wouldn't drink for a whole year. And I meant it. Yet I was drinking again before we reached the Canadian border. I was powerless over alcohol. I was learning that I could do nothing to fight it off, even while I was denying the fact. p. 195 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." We will want the good that is in us all, even in the worst of us, to flower and to grow. Most certainly we shall need bracing air and an abundance of food. But first of all we shall want sunlight; nothing much can grow in the dark. Meditation is our step out into the sun. How, then, shall we meditate? p. 98 ************************************************** ********* I will exercise patience, as God would, with all others. --Shelley "Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits." --Samuel Butler AA is my anchor in a sea of confusion. AA brought me home when I had lost my way. Newcomer or long-timer, we are all the same in our need for each other. Think it over, not drink over it. "The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes." --Marcel Proust *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation UNDERSTANDING "Intelligence is proved not by ease of learning but by understanding what we learn." -- Joseph Whitney For years I learned things without understanding what the words, or the meaning behind the words, really meant. An example was alcoholism. Then a man said, "My name is Bill, and I am an alcoholic and a recovering human being!" Then it struck me; recovery from a drug --- alcohol --- was not simply about putting down the glass but about changing and developing a positive lifestyle as a human being. The same is true with spirituality. It is not about being religious, going to church or accepting dogma. It is about finding God in my life, discovering God in the decisions and actions I take and seeing Him in the world around me. Today I understand spirituality to be the link that unites all peoples and is centered on what is true and real. May I continue to search for the meaning within the word and the harmony of communication. ************************************************** ********* Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. Psalm 107:13 "By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life." Psalm 42:8 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Waste no time on situations that aren't worth your precious time. Lord, may I recognize pettiness for what it is and move on so that my imagination doesn't take over and give pettiness more value than it deserves. Ultimate security does not come from relying on things or people, but from relying on God. Lord, I place my trust in You. Bless me and keep me in Your loving care. |
October 9
Daily Reflections A SPIRITUAL AXIOM It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us. 12 & 12, p. 90 I never truly understood the Tenth Step's spiritual axiom until I had the following experience. I was sitting in my bedroom, reading into the wee hours, when suddenly I heard my dogs barking in the back yard. My neighbors frown on this kind of disturbance so, with mixed feelings of anger and shame, as well as fear of my neighbor's disapproval, I immediately called in my dogs. Several weeks later the exact situation repeated itself but this time, because I was feeling more at peace with myself, I was able to accept the situation--dogs will bark--and I calmly called in the dogs. Both incidents taught me that when a person experiences nearly identical events and reacts two different ways, then it is not the event that is of prime importance, but the person's spiritual condition. Feelings come from inside, not from outward circumstances. When my spiritual condition is positive, I react positively. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Am I willing to be bored sometimes at meetings? Am I willing to listen to much repetition of A.A. principles? Am I willing to hear the same thing over and over again? Am I willing to listen to a long blow by blow personal story, because it might help some new member? Am I willing to sit quietly and listen to long-winded members go into every detail of their past? Am I willing to take it, because it is doing them good to get it off their chest? My feelings are not too important. The good of A.A. comes first, even if it is not always comfortable for me. Have I learned to take it? Meditation For The Day God would draw us all closer to Him in the bonds of the spirit. He would have all people drawn closer to each other in the bonds of the spirit. God, the great Spirit of the universe, of which each of our own spirits is a small part, must want unity between Himself and all His children. "Unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace." Each experience of our life, of joy, of sorrow, of danger, of safety, of difficulty, of success, of hardship, of ease, each should be accepted as part of our common lot, in the bonds of the spirit. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may welcome the bonds of true fellowship. I pray that I may be brought closer to unity with God and other people. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Spiritually Fit, p.280 Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do. People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we must not have it in our homes; we must shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide their bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn't think or be reminded about alcohol at all. Our experience shows that this is not necessarily so. We meet these conditions every day. An alcoholic who cannot meet them still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with his spiritual status. His only chance for sobriety would be some place like the Greenland icecap, and even there an Eskimo might turn up with a bottle of Scotch and ruin everything! Alcoholics Anonymous, p.100-101 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Can we tell others they are wrong? Sharing As we become more sensitive to others, we soon learn that it's very difficult to tell another person he or she is wrong. Even when we struggle to be kind and diplomatic, we can provoke an angry reaction. We should not be surprised, because showing people they're wrong is one of the most difficult things in human experience. Few people like to be told that they're wrong, as we can see when our wrongs are advertised to others. There is almost no way to directly tell people they're wrong without hurting or offending the. Furthermore, if they are hurt or offended, they might feel less inclined to work to correct their behavior. If we've taken the 12 Step principles to heart, however, we learn first that we are usually not required to tell anybody that he or she is wrong. But we can help people simply by relating accounts of situations when we were wrong and what we did to change. If done properly, this gives the other person the opportunity to change without feeling resentment or humiliation. I'll try to be as sensitive as possible to the feelings of others. I'll be especially careful about trying to show them that they're wrong. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple A man should never be ashamed to own he was in the wrong.---Jonathan Swift In the past, we felt a mistake was a crisis. We thought we had a to be perfect. Our old ways was to try to hide our mistakes. We were ashamed. We thought making mistakes meant we were bad. Mistakes are normal. We can learn from our mistakes. They can teach us. They can guide us. The Tenth Step directs us to promptly admit when we’re wrong. Then, over time, we start to see mistakes as normal life events. As we face and correct our mistakes, shame is washed away. We feel lighter. We know it is normal to make mistakes. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me see that mistakes are normal life events. Help me promptly admit when I’m wrong. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll talk to my sponsor about mistakes I’ve made the past week. I’ll not act ashamed of my mistakes. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning When all of the remedies and all of the rhetorical armor have been dropped, the absence of love in our lives is what makes them seem raw and unfinished. --Ingrid Bengis Love soothes, encourages, inspires. It enhances our wholeness, both when we give it and when we receive it. Without the expression of love we are severed from our family and friends. It's the bond that strengthens each of us, giving us the courage to tackle what's lying ahead. We need not wait for someone else's expression of love before giving it. Loving must be unconditional. And when it is, it will be returned tenfold. Loving attracts itself, and it will heal us, soften the hard edges of our lives, and open us up to receive the blessings that others' gratitude will foster. It's such a simple thing asked of us--to love one another. Unconditional love of our sisters, our lovers, and our children breaks down the barriers to our achievements and theirs. Loving frees us to enjoy life. It energizes us and makes all goals attainable. We carry God's message through our love of one another. I am charged with only one responsibility today: to love someone, dearly and wholly. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. In the spring of 1940, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. gave a dinner for many of his friends to which he invited A.A. members to tell their stories. News of this got on the world wires; inquiries poured in again and many people went to the bookstores to get the book "Alcoholics Anonymous." By March 1941 the membership had shot up to 2,000. Then Jack Alexander wrote a feature article in the Saturday Evening Post and placed such a compelling picture of A.A. before the general public that alcoholics in need of help really deluged us. By the close of 1941, A.A. numbered 8,000 members. The mushrooming process was in full swing. A.A. had become a national institution. p. xviii ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. On Easter weekend 1944, I found myself in a jail cell in Montreal. By now, I was drinking to escape the horrible thoughts I had whenever I was sober enough to become aware of my situation. I was drinking to avoid seeing what I had become. The job I'd had for twenty years and the new car were long gone. I had undergone three stays in the hospital. God knows I didn't want to drink, yet to my great despair, I always returned to the infernal merry-go-round. p. 195 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." The actual experience of meditation and prayer across the centuries is, of course, immense. The world's libraries and places of worship are a treasure trove for all seekers. It is to be hoped that every A.A. who has a religious connection which emphasizes meditation will return to the practice of that devotion as never before. But what about the rest of us who, less fortunate, don't even know how to begin? Well, we might start like this. First let's look at a really good prayer. We won't have far to seek; the great men and women of all religions have left us a wonderful supply. Here let us consider one that is a classic. Its author was a man who for several hundred years now has been rated as a saint. We won't be biased or scared off by that fact, because although he was not an alcoholic he did, like us, go through the emotional wringer. And as he came out the other side of that painful experience, this prayer was his expression of what he could then see, feel, and wish to become: "Lord, make me a channel of thy peace--that where there is hatred, I may bring love--that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness--that where there is discord, I may bring harmony--that where there is error, I may bring truth--that where there is doubt, I may bring faith--that where there is despair, I may bring hope--that where there are shadows, I may bring light--that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted--to understand, than to be understood--to love, than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen." As beginners in meditation, we might now reread this prayer several times very slowly, savoring every word and trying to take in the deep meaning of each phrase and idea. It will help if we can drop all resistance to what our friend says. For in meditation, debate has no place. We rest quietly with the thoughts of someone who knows, so that we may experience and learn. As though lying upon a sunlit beach, let us relax and breathe deeply of the spiritual atmosphere with which the grace of this prayer surrounds us. Let us become willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words are the carriers. Let us look now upon the sea and ponder what its mystery is; and let us lift our eyes to the far horizon, beyond which we shall seek all those wonders still unseen. pp. 98-100 ************************************************** ********* "If you could choose one characteristic that would get you through life, choose a sense of humor." --Jennifer Jones It's not the load that breaks you down; it's the way you carry it. --Lena Horne "If God brings you to it, He'll bring you through it!" --From As We See It "Criticizing anothers garden does not keep the weeds out of yours." --Unknown "Do you live in tomorrow when you must face today? At times, I forget to live in the moment, but what do I miss? The setting sun, the sound of birds' singing and, most importantly, I miss meeting myself. I am constantly changing, and if I don't spend time with myself in the here and now, I will never get to appreciate who I truly am because I am too busy focusing on who I want to be." --Gary Barnes *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation HUMILITY "I believe the first test of a really great man is humility." -- John Ruskin An understanding of humility that makes sense to me is that of the man who is aware of his limitations but still reaches for the stars. For years I thought that humility was groveling in the dirt. Keeping quiet and acting obsequious. Being a religious doormat for others to walk upon. Nothing could be further from the truth! Humility is about speaking your mind, fighting for your ideas and opinions, creating through effort, sweat and debate. The humble man's ego is based on reality --- not fed on illusion. When he is wrong, he can admit it and is open to the ideas of others. Humility is based upon a realistic self-love. O God, let me humbly rejoice in Your gift of creativity. ************************************************** ********* He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom, and broke away their chains. Psalm 107:14 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. Psalm 78:7 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration When something bothers or upsets you, you can either complain about it or make peace with it. Lord, help me promptly deal with the distractions of my day and move on to the things that truly make my day a pleasure. In your pursuit of happiness, pause to relax and be happy. Lord, slow me down just enough to enjoy all that You have given to me. |
October 10
Daily Reflections FIXING ME, NOT YOU If somebody hurts us and we are sore, we are in the wrong also. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 90 What a freedom I felt when this passage was pointed out to me! Suddenly I saw that I could do something about my anger, I could fix me, instead of trying to fix them. I believe that there are no exceptions to the axiom. When I am angry, my anger is always self-centered. I must keep reminding myself that I am human, that I am doing the best I can, even when that best is sometimes poor. So I ask God to remove my anger and truly set me free. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day When new members come into my A.A. group, do I make a special effort to make them feel at home? Do I put myself out to listen to them, even if their ideas of A.A. are vague? Do I make it a habit to talk to all new members myself, or do I often leave that to someone else? I may not be able to help them, but, then, again it may be something that I might say that would put them on the right track. When I see any members sitting alone, do I put myself out to be nice to them, or do I stay among my own special group of friends and leave them out in the cold? Are all new A.A.s my responsibility? Meditation For The Day You are God's servant. Serve Him cheerfully and readily. Nobody likes a servant who avoids extra work, who complains about being called from one task to do any less enjoyable. A master would feel that he was being ill served by such a servant. But is that not how you so often serve God? View your day's work in this light. Try to do your day's work in this light. Try to do your day's work the way you believe God wants you to do it, never shirking any responsibility and often going out of your way to be of service. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be a good servant. I pray that I may be willing to go out of my way to be of service. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It Ourselves as Individuals, p.281 There is only one sure test of all spiritual experiences: "By their fruits, ye shall know them." This is why I think we should question no one's transformation--whether it be sudden or gradual. Nor should we demand anyone's special type for ourselves, because experience suggests that we are apt to receive whatever may be the most useful for our own needs. ********************************** Human beings are never quite alike, so each of us, when making an inventory, will need to determine what his individual character defects are. Having found the shoes that fit, he ought to step into them and walk with new confidence that he is at last on the right track. 1. Grapevine, July 1963 2. Twelve and Twelve, p.48 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Putting our trust in people. Trust How much should we trust other people? This is an important question, because many of us have erred in both directions: we've trusted people too much or not enough. We can find our answer in the spiritual side of the program. We do have a Higher Power in whom we can have absolute trust. We can have little doubt that the spiritual presence behind everything is infallible and supreme. As human beings, we know that we can only be trusted in certain ways. We can work to develop our trustworthiness, but it is never high enough, even with the strongest souls. All of us have weaknesses that can keep us from being what we know to be our best. In our 12 Step living, we should work to develop trust in both ourselves and others, but no be hurt or disappointed when things go wrong. Above all, our real trust should be in our Higher Power. I'll work today to be trusting and trustworthy, but I'll not expect too much of anybody, including myself. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple The foolish and the dead never change their opinions.---James Russell Lowell We need to stay fresh in our program. We need to be open to new ideas. We need change. The ways we work the Steps should change for us as the years go by. And as we grow, more of the fog of our denial clears away. Then we see the world and our program in different ways. We need to allow this to happen. At times, it’s scary to give up old ways and old opinions, but this is what allows new growth. Every day, we wake up to a new world. Being alive means change. Opinions and ideas are like a strong tree: the base is strong, but leaves change with the seasons. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me stay fresh and alive. Help me stay open to new ideas and attitudes. Help me to not become rigid. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll ask two friends to tell me how I may be rigid. I will listen to what they say. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose. --Billie Holiday Our struggles with other people always take their toll on us. They often push us to behavior we're not proud of. They may result in irreparable rifts. They frequently trigger an emotional relapse. No battle is worth the damage to the psyche that nearly any battle can cause. Nonresistance is the safer way to chart our daily course. Bowing with the wind, flowing with the tide, eases the steps we need to take, the steps that will carry us to our personal fulfillment. Part of the process of our growth is learning to slide past the negative situations that confront us, coming to understand that we are in this life to fulfill a unique purpose. The many barriers that get in our way can strengthen our reliance on God if we'll let them. People or situations need never thwart us. We will profit from taking all experiences in our stride. The course we travel is the one we chart. The progress we make toward our life goals is proportionate to the smoothness of our steps. I will flow with the tide. It will assuredly move me closer to my destination. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. Our Society then entered a fearsome and exciting adolescent period. The test that it faced was this: Could these large numbers of erstwhile erratic alcoholics successfully meet and work together? Would there be quarrels over membership, leadership and money? Would there be strivings for power and prestige? Would there be schisms which would split A.A. apart? Soon A.A. was beset by these very problems on every side and in every group. But out of this frightening and at first disrupting experience the conviction grew that A.A.'s had to hang together or die separately. We had to unify our Fellowship or pass off the scene. pp. xviii-xix ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. I wondered how this misery would end. I was full of fear. I was afraid to tell others what I felt lest they think I was insane. I was terribly lonely, full of self-pity, and terrified. Most of all, I was in a deep depression. Then I recalled a book given to me by my sister Jean about drunks as desperate as I was who had found a way to stop drinking. According to this book, these drunks had found a way to live like other human beings; to get up in the morning, go to work, and return home in the evening. This book was about Alcoholics Anonymous. pp. 195-196 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." When, by such simple devices, we have placed ourselves in a mood in which we can focus undisturbed on constructive imagination, we might proceed like this: Once more we read our prayer, and again try to see what its inner essence is. We'll think now about the man who first uttered the prayer. First of all, he wanted to become a "channel." Then he asked for the grace to bring love, forgiveness, harmony, truth, faith, hope, light, and joy to every human being he could. pp. 100-101 ************************************************** ********* Do not be wise in words - be wise in deeds. --Jewish Proverb Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it. --Ralph Waldo Emerson "Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing." --Jim Rohn "If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children one of the greatest of all blessings." --Brian Tracy "Wanting what I don't have keeps me from having what I do have." *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation TOLERANCE "Art, if it is to be reckoned with as one of the great values of life, must teach men . . . tolerance." -- Somerset Maugham There is something about art that is accepting, tolerant and reconcilable with "difference". I have observed that artists --- those who paint, write, dance, sculpture, design --- are also people who are accepting and tolerant because they need the "different" in order to create and progress. Things cannot stay the same and art is the recorder of man's journey towards the truth; but mankind needs friction, argument, confrontation, rejection --- yes, "difference" in order to grow and develop. People say that artists are crazy, and I suppose this is true. But we need crazy people to take the world where it needs to go. In the crazy, the seed of genius is often buried. Lord, before I reject the artist or the "crazy", let me seriously consider the message. ************************************************** ********* Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 136 : 1 "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 2 Corinthians 3:17 " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phillipians 4:13 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Most often a gentle approach is the best resolution to a conflict. Lord, I have been given today to improve myself and make life better for others. Help me walk in the way that You lead me. Live your life as though today was your last and learn as though you'll live forever. Lord, You ask so little of the talents You have given to me. May I not neglect them. |
October 11
Daily Reflections SELF--RESTRAINT Our first objective will be the development of self-restraint. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 91 My drive to work provides me with an opportunity for self-examination. One day while making this trip, I began to review my progress in sobriety, and was not happy with what I saw. I hoped that, as the work day progressed, I would forget these troublesome thoughts, but as one disappointment after another kept coming, my discontent only increased, and the pressures within me kept mounting. I retreated to an isolated table in the lounge, and asked myself how I could make the most of the rest of the day. In the past, when things went wrong, I instinctively wanted to fight back. But during the short time I had been trying to live the A.A. program I had learned to step back and take a look at myself. I recognized that, although I was not the person I wanted to be, I had learned to not react in my old ways. Those old patterns of behavior only brought sorrow and hurt, to me and to others. I returned to my work station, determined to make the day a productive one, thanking God for the chance to make progress that day. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day How good a sponsor am I? When I bring new members to a meeting, do I feel that my responsibility has ended? Or do I make it my job to stay with them until they have either become good members of A.A. or have found another sponsor? If they don't show up for a meeting, do I say to myself: "Well they've had it put up to them, so if they don't want it, there's nothing more I can do? " Or do I look them up and find out whether there is a reason for their absences or that they don't want A.A.? Do I go out of my way to find out if there is anything more I can do to help? Am I a good sponsor? Meditation For The Day "First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift to God." First I must get right with other people and then I can get right with God. If I hold a resentment against someone, which I find it very difficult to overcome, I should try to put something else constructive into my mind. I should pray for the one against whom I hold the resentment. I should put that person in God's hands and let God show him or her the way to live. "If a man say: 'I love God' and hateth his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" Prayer For The Day I pray that I may see something good in every person, even one I dislike, and that I may let God develop the good in that person. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It INSTINCTS RUN WILD, p. 282 Every time a person imposes his instincts unreasonably upon others, unhappiness follows. If the pursuit of wealth tramples upon people who happen to be in the way, then anger, jealousy, and revenge are likely to be aroused. If sex runs riot, there is similar uproar. Demands made upon other people for too much attention, protection, and love can invite only domination or revulsion in the protectors themselves-two emotions quite as unhealthy as the demands which evoked them. When an individual's desire for prestige becomes uncontrollable, whether in the sewing circle or at the international conference table, other people suffer and often revolt. This collision of instincts can produce anything from a cold snub to a blazing revolution. TWELVE AND TWELVE, p. 44 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Keeping anger in safe limits Dealing with anger "The most heated bit of letter-writing can be a wonderful safety valve," AA co-founder, Bill W. said, "providing the wastebasket is somewhere nearby." This is a delightful bit of advice about the right way to handle anger. Writing an angry letter is at least a way of bringing our feelings out so that we can see them. This is far healthier than the peculiar method of "Stuffing" one's feelings and pretending that there was no hurt or offense. But an angry letter, once mailed, can be more destructive than a bullet. We may live to regret ever having mailed it. It could have unintended consequences of the worst kind. That's why the wastebasket becomes the second hand way to deal with our anger. We throw the letter away and let time and wisdom heal the matter. What usually happen under the guidance of our Higher Power is that we find a much more satisfactory way of settling whatever has happened. If I become angry today, I'll admit it to myself. Perhaps I'll even put my feelings on paper. But I'll have the good sense not to go further with such outbursts. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple May you live all the days of your life. ---Jonathan Swift The truth is, life hard. Accepting this fact will make it easier. Remember how well it worked in Step One? Once we admitted and that we were powerless over alcohol and other drugs, we were given the power to recover. It works the same with life’s problems. We can spend a lot of energy trying to avoid life’s hardships. But our program teaches us to use the same energy to solve our problems. Problems are chances to better ourselves and become more spiritual. We have a choice: we can either use our energy to avoid problems, or we can face them. When we stop wasting energy, we start to feel more sure of ourselves. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, life is to be lived, both the easy and the hard parts. Help me face and learn from it all. Action for the Day: I’ll work at not complaining about how hard life is. I’ll take the same energy and us it to solve problems I may face. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Be still and listen to the stillness within. --Darlene Larson Jenks No answer eludes us if we turn to the source of all answers--the stillness within. Prayer accompanied by meditation will always provide the answers we need for the situations facing us. The answers we want are not guaranteed, however. We must trust that we will be directed to take the right steps. Our well being is assured if we let go of the control and turn our wills over to the care of God, our messenger within. How comforting to know that all answers are as close as our quiet moments. God never chooses to keep them from us. We simply fail to quiet our thoughts long enough to heed them. Our minds race, obsessively, all too often. We jump from one scenario to another, one fear to another, and one emotion to another. And each time our thoughts capture a new focus; we push the answer we seek further into the background. The process is simple, if I want to follow it. The answers await me if I truly want them. I need only sit quietly and ask God to offer the guidance I need. And then I will sit quietly some more. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. As we discovered the principles by which the individual alcoholic could live, so we had to evolve principles by which the A.A. groups and A.A. as a whole could survive and function effectively. It was thought that no alcoholic man or woman could be excluded from our Society; that our leaders might serve but never govern; that each group was to be autonomous and there was to be no professional class of therapy. There were to be no fees or dues; our expenses were to be met by our own voluntary contributions. There was to be the least possible organization, even in our service centers. Our public relations were to be based upon attraction rather than promotion. It was decided that all members ought to be anonymous at the level of press, radio, TV and films. And in no circumstances should we give endorsements, make alliances or enter public controversies. p. xix ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. I decided to get in touch with them. I had much difficulty in reaching A.A. in New York, as A.A. wasn't as well-known then. I finally spoke to a woman, Bobbie, who said words I hope I never forget: "I am an alcoholic. We have recovered. If you want, we'll help you." She told me about herself and added that many other drunks had used this method to stop drinking. What impressed me most in this conversation was the fact that these people, five hundred miles away, cared enough to try to help me. Here I was, feeling so sorry for myself, convinced that no one cared whether I was dead or alive. p. 196 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." Next came the expression of an aspiration and a hope for himself. He hoped, God willing, that he might be able to find some of these treasures, too. This he would try to do by what he called self-forgetting. What did he mean by "self forgetting," and how did he propose to accomplish that? He thought it better to give comfort than to receive it; better to understand than to be understood; better to forgive than to be forgiven. p. 101 ************************************************** ********* A clear conscience is a good pillow. --American Proverb "It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up." --Vince Lombardi There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. --John F. Kennedy The first service one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love of God begins in listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. It is God's love for us that He not only gives us His Word but lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to listen to him. --Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together "Often we seek to grow or change ourselves by adjusting the external aspects of our lives. ... We all too often forget that permanent or real change only comes when the center of our being, our inner drives and motivations, undergoes transformation." --Errol Strider *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation ART "Art is not a thing; it is a way." -- Elbert Hubbard In the spiritual twelve-step program it talks about "...a God as you understand Him." This is a liberating concept that teaches us to risk and think "big". God is not only found in churches, temples and rituals --- God can be found in the myriad of art forms. God is always to be found in the creative. Because art is always concerned with life and truth, God is always involved. Today I am able to look for God in His or Her World. In my recovery from the disease of addiction I need to discover the wonder and splendor of life that got damaged in my drinking days. Art can help me to feel again. It helps me to think and be concerned again. Art teaches me to be involved in life. Thank You for the artist --- another aspect of priesthood. ************************************************** ********* I will praise you O lord with all my heart. Psalm 138 : 1 "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him." Proverbs 30:5 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Weeds grow easily, but flowers need care and nurturing to bloom. Lord, may I turn away from evil and tenderly encourage the goodness that comes my way so that I, too, may blossom. Never doubt the power, the wisdom and the love that God has for you. Lord, thank You for Your constant care and the certainty of Your love for me. |
October 12
Daily Reflections CURBING RASHNESS When we speak or act hastily or rashly, the ability to be fair-minded and tolerant evaporates on the spot. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 91 Being fair-minded and tolerant is a goal toward which I must work daily. I ask God, as I understand Him, to help me to be loving and tolerant to my loved ones, and to those with whom I am in close contact. I ask for guidance to curb my speech when I am agitated, and I take a moment to reflect on the emotional upheaval my words may cause, not only to someone else, but also to myself. Prayer, meditation and inventories are the key to sound thinking and positive action for me. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Am I still on a "free ride" in A.A.? Am I all get and no give? Do I go to meetings and always sit in the back row and let others do all the work? Do I think it's enough just because I'm sober and can rest on my laurels? If so, I haven't gone very far in the program, nor am I getting nearly enough of what it has to offer. I will be a weak member until I get in there and help carry the load. I must eventually get off the bench and get into the game. I'm not just a spectator; I'm supposed to be one of the team. Do I go in there and carry the ball? Meditation For The Day Try to be thankful for whatever vision you have. Try to perform, in the little things, faithful service to God and others. Do your small part every day in a spirit of service to God. Be a doer of God's word, not a hearer only. In your daily life try to keep faith with God. Every day brings a new opportunity to be of some use. Even when you are tempted to rest or let things go or to evade the issue, make it a habit to meet the issue squarely as a challenge and not to hold back. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may perform each task faithfully. I pray that I may meet each issue of life squarely and not hold back. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It "POWERLESS OVER ALCOHOL", p.283 I had gone steadily downhill, and on that day in 1934 I lay upstairs in the hospital, knowing for the first time that I was utterly hopeless. Lois was downstairs, and Dr. Silkworth was trying in his gentle way to tell her what was wrong with me and that I was hopeless. "But Bill has a tremendous amount of will power," she said. "He has tried desperately to get well. We have tried everything. Doctor, why can't he stop?" He explained that my drinking, once a habit, had become an obsession, a true insanity that condemned me to drink against my will. ******************************** "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." 1. A.A. COMES OF AGE, p. 52 2. LETTER, 1966 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places A fatal Feature of alcoholism Admitting defeat Part of alcoholism's deadliness lies in its peculiar tendency to blind the victim to the hopelessness of the situation. Time and again, AA members meet people who are in the final stages of their disease, yet are still clinging to the fallacy that things are not as bad as they seem. Indeed, many alcoholics who have engineered their own ruin still believe they are either victims of bad luck or of malevolent action by others. Let's remember, however, that others might not be so fortunate. We must not criticize them for not being able to accept the hopelessness of their condition. We should also look for our own blind spots about others problems in our lives. I'll remember today that only the 12 Step program arrested my fatal disease and keeps it at bay. I'll feel kndly toward others who are having trouble admitting defeat; maybe this is the day it will happen for them. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not words.---Alfred Adler Being sober is an event. Being sober also means movement. We go to meetings. We find and meet with a sponsor. We talk with friends. If we don’t act in these ways were not sober. Our actions also tell us if we’re leading a spiritual life. What do you do when you see someone in need? Spirituality means helping. It’s not just kind words. In Step Four and Ten, we check out our action, not our words. Our actions will tell us if we’re on the recovery path. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me to not hide in words. I pray for the strength to take the right action. Help me walk a sober path. Action for the Day: Today as I work Step Ten, I’ll focus only on my actions How have I acted sober today? ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning ...there are two entirely opposite attitudes possible in facing the problems of one's life. One, to try and change the external world, the other, to try and change oneself. --Joanna Field God grant us the courage to change what we can--ourselves. How difficult it is to let go of our struggles to control and change someone else. How frequently we assume that everything would be fine if only someone else would change. All that needs to change is an attitude, our own. Taking responsibility for improving one's own life is an important step toward emotional health. Blaming another for our circumstances keeps us stuck and offers no hope for improved conditions. Personal power is as available as our decision to use it. And it is bolstered by all the strength we'll ever need. The decision to take our lives in hand will exhilarate us. The decision each day to be thoughtful, prayerful, and wholly responsible for all that we do will nourish our developing selves. Each responsible choice moves us toward our wholeness, strengthening our sense of self, our well-being. I will change only who I can today: myself. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. This was the substance of A.A.'s Twelve Traditions, which are stated in full on page 564 of this book. Though none of these principles had the force of rules or laws, they had become so widely accepted by 1950 that they were confirmed by our first International Conference held at Cleveland. Today the remarkable unity of A.A. is one of the greatest assets that our Society has. p. xix ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. I was very surprised when I got a copy of the Big Book in the mail the following day. And each day after that, for nearly a year, I got a letter or a note, something from Bobbie or from Bill or one of the other members of the central office in New York. In October 1944, Bobbie wrote: "You sound very sincere and from now on we will be counting on you to perpetuate the Fellowship of A.A. where you are. You will find enclosed some queries from alcoholics. We think you are now ready to take on this responsibility." She had enclosed some four hundred letters that I answered in the course of the following weeks. Soon, I began to get answers back. p. 196 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." This much could be a fragment of what is called meditation, perhaps our very first attempt at a mood, a flier into the realm of spirit, if you like. It ought to be followed by a good look at where we stand now, and a further look at what might happen in our lives were we able to move closer to the ideal we have been trying to glimpse. Meditation is something which can always be further developed. It has no boundaries, either of width or height. Aided by such instruction and example as we can find, it is essentially an individual adventure, something which each one of us works out in his own way. But its object is always the same: to improve our conscious contact with God, with His grace, wisdom, and love. And let's always remember that meditation is in reality intensely practical. One of its first fruits is emotional balance. With it we can broaden and deepen the channel between ourselves and God as we understand Him. pp. 101-102 ************************************************** ********* Be still and listen to the stillness within. You must look into people, as well as at them. --Lord Chesterfield There is one thing worse than waiting on God... it's wishing you had. --unknown God is never in a hurry. --unknown "Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." --Mother Teresa "When you see the value of continued growth, the circumstances around you become stepping stones." --Clyde M. Narrimore The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor. The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to anything. --unknown *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation DISCOVERY "I invent nothing. I rediscover." -- Auguste Rodin I believe that spirituality is given to every human being and we need only discover it in our lives to experience its power. The history of my life has been more of a "cycle" than a straight line leading into the distance. I am constantly returning to past events, reminiscences and experiences that were part of my yesterdays but converge into my present. I am rediscovering my yesterdays in my todays; the fruits of my tomorrows are planted within today. So it seems that my journey is not simply forward. It also involves a rediscovery of yesterday in today. My life is a mystery that exists within God. O Lord, with You eternity is ever present and occasionally I get a glimpse of it. ************************************************** ********* "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge." Psalm 91:4 "Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God." 1 John 3:1 Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 2 Peter 1:5-7 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Think good and wise thoughts over and over again until you make them your own. Lord, You have given me a strong foundation and the strength to stand firm for what I believe. Never make the mistake of taking more credit than is due or less credit than you are worth. Lord, You have created me in Your image. Therefore, I am goodness and with You can accomplish great things. |
October 13
Daily Reflections UNREMITTING INVENTORIES Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84 The immediate admission of wrong thoughts or actions is a tough task for most human beings, but for recovering alcoholics like me it is difficult because of my propensity toward ego, fear and pride. The freedom the A.A. program offers me becomes more abundant when, through unremitting inventories of myself, I admit, acknowledge and accept responsibility for my wrong-doing. It is possible then for me to grow into a deeper and better understanding of humility. My willingness to admit when the fault is mine facilitates the progression of my growth and helps me to become more understanding and helpful to others. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day A.A. work is one hundred percent voluntary. It depends on each and every one of our members to volunteer to do his or her share. Newcomers can sit on the sidelines until they have got over their nervousness and confusion. They have a right to be helped by all, until they can stand on their own feet. But the time inevitably comes when they have to speak up and volunteer to do their share in meetings and in twelfth step work. Until that time comes, they are not a vital part of A.A. They are only in the process of being assimilated. Has my time come to volunteer? Meditation For The Day God's kingdom on earth is growing slowly, like a seed in the ground. In the growth of his kingdom there is always progress among the few who are out ahead of the crowd. Keep striving for something better and there can be no stagnation in your life. Eternal life, abundant life is yours for the seeking. Do not mis-spend time over past failures. Count the lessons earned from failures as rungs upon the ladder of progress. Press onward toward the goal. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may be willing to grow. I pray that I may keep stepping up on the rungs of the ladder of life. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It FAITH-A BLUEPRINT-AND WORK, p. 284 "The idea of 'twenty-four-hour living' applies primarily to the emotional life of the individual. Emotionally speaking, we must not live in yesterday, nor in tomorrow. "But I have never been able to see that this means the individual, the group, or A.A. as a whole should give no thought whatever to how to function tomorrow or even in the more distant future. Faith alone never constructed the house you live in. There had to be a blueprint and a lot of work to bring it into reality. "Nothing is truer for us of A.A. than the Biblical saying 'Faith without works is dead.' A.A.'s services, all designed to make more and better Twelfth Step work possible, are the 'works' that insure our life and growth by preventing anarchy or stagnation." LETTER, 1954 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places When are we receiving guidance? Guidance We have to face the fact that what we see as divine guidance may simply be an expression of self-will.. We are all too familiar with examples of people who did terrible things, claiming to be obeying orders from God. We cannot judge whether another is really receiving guidance from a Higher Power. In our own lives, however, we can learn to distinguish between God’s guidance and our self-will. The outstanding characteristic of a divinely guided action is the strong sense of peace it brings. Even if we have to deny oureslves for a time, we sense that the final outcome of any decision will be beneficial for all concerned. We do not have to argue for or defend our decision. When self-will is in the saddle, we may find ourselves being called on to justify our actions. We may also have to quell or rationalize feelings of guilt or doubt. The right answers come when self-will is working in harmony with the Higher Will. Our lves will have a quality that everybody senses, including ourselves. Knowing that self-will can easily lead me astray, I'll listen today for the divine voice of my Higher Power. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Self-pity is one of the most dangerous forms of self-centeredness. It fogs our vision. ---Kathy S. Sometimes we get stuck in our own way of seeing things. We may feel as if everything that happens, happens to us or for us. If it rains, we may think about our ruined picnic and not about the dry fields that need the rain. We need to focus on the big picture. This keeps us from becoming self-centered. If it rains, we’ll gather indoors and be glad for the farmers. When we do our part, things go well. When we don’t we feel it. Every else feels it too. Self pity keeps us from doing our part. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me see myself as a big part of the picture. My job is just is to do my part. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll think about how I fit in with my Higher Power, my family, the place I work, my community. Do I do my part? ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Never turn down a job because you think it's too small; you don't know where it can lead. --Julia Morgan How short is our vision of where an invitation might take us! Any invitation. Of one thing we can be certain, it offers an opportunity for making a choice, which means taking responsibility for who we're becoming. Choice making is growth enhancing because it strengthens our awareness of personal power. Our lives unfold in small measures, just as small as they need to be for our personal comfort. It's doubtful that we could handle everything the future has in store, today; however, we will be prepared for it, measure by measure, choice by choice, day by day. We need not fear; what is meted out to us in the invitations offered is for our benefit. We are on a pathway to goodness. The thrill of making choices is new to many of us when we enter this program. We'd opted for the passive life, all too often, and we became increasingly aware of, and often depressed by, our self-imposed powerlessness. Free at last! We are free at last to fully participate in our lives. I will be grateful for the many options to act tugging at me today. Every choice I make strengthens my womanhood. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. While the internal difficulties of our adolescent period were being ironed out, public acceptance of A.A. grew by leaps and bounds. For this there were two principal reasons: the large numbers of recoveries and reunited homes. These made their impressions everywhere. Of alcoholics who came to A.A. and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way; 25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A.A. showed improvement. Other thousands came to a few A.A. meetings and at first decided they didn't want the program. But great numbers of these—about two out of three—began to return as time passed. pp. xix-xx ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. In my new enthusiasm, and having found an answer to my problem, I told Dorie, my wife, "You can quit your job now; I will take care of you. From now on, you will take the place you deserve in this family." However, she knew better. She said, "No, Dave, I will keep my job for a year while you go save the drunks." That is exactly what I set out to do." pp. 196-197 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." Now, what of prayer? Prayer is the raising of the heart and mind to God--and in this sense it includes meditation. How may we go about it? And how does it fit in with meditation? Prayer, as commonly understood, is a petition to God. Having opened our channel as best we can, we try to ask for those right things of which we and others are in the greatest need. And we think that the whole range of our needs is well defined by that part of Step Eleven which says: "...knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." A request for this fits in any part of our day. p. 102 ************************************************** ********* "Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer." --Denis Waitley I pray to see the path God lights for me as I am at times blinded by my own lack of consciousness or lack of faith. --Shelley Spend 2 minutes a day reassuring yourself that you are made of loving thoughts. Spend the rest of the day acting on those thoughts. --unknown "Those who walk with God always get to their destination." --Unknown "No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else." --Charles Dickens *********************************************** Father Leo's Daily Meditation PREJUDICE "I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot." -- Horace Greeley Now I can see my feelings of inferiority in the assumed arrogance of my past behavior. Now I see that behind the pride was the need to prove myself. The manipulation was a cover for my insecurity. At some point years ago I accepted the idea that I was not good enough and needed to pretend to be something different. The use of alcohol was part of this disease process. Money, friends, fast cars and debts were all drawn into the delusion. Today I am learning to accept me. I am not a millionaire, I will probably never be a millionaire and so I do not need to adopt the lifestyle of a millionaire! I work in an office. I drive a Ford. But today I am happy. Today I can pay my bills. Today I have friends who are involved in my life. Today I do not have to put people down to feel important. Today I have discovered that the people I treated with disdain are just like me. I pray that I may receive healing and forgiveness from those I considered inferior. ************************************************** ********* Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Mark 9:23 "The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forever more." Psalm 121:8 "Come near to God and he will come near to you." James 4:8a ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Good is always coming to you. No matter what is happening in your life, you can bless it with prayer and be peaceful. Lord, You give me the courage to face any situation confidently and victoriously. Choose to be worthy to yourself and never confuse self worth with behavior. Lord, help me to be less critical of my past and see that this moment right now is all that I can do anything about. |
October 14
Daily Reflections A PROGRAM FOR LIVING When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. . . . On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. . . Before we begin, 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 I lacked serenity. With more to do than seemed possible, I fell further behind, no matter how hard I tried. Worries about things not done yesterday and fear of tomorrow's deadlines denied me the calm I needed to be effective each day. Before taking Steps Ten and Eleven, I tried to focus on God's will, not my problems, and to trust that He would manage my day. It worked! Slowly, but it worked! ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day How big a part of my life is A.A.? Is it just one of my activities and a small one at that? Do I only go to A.A. meetings now and then and sometimes never go at all? Do I think of A.A. only occasionally? Am I reticent about mentioning A.A. to people who might need help? Or does A.A. fill a large part of my life? Is it the foundation of my whole life? Where would I be without A.A.? Does everything I have and I do depend on my A.A. foundation? Is A.A. the foundation on which I build my life? Meditation For The Day Lay upon God your failures and mistakes and shortcomings. Do not dwell upon your failures, upon the fact that in the past you have been nearer a beast than an angel. You have a mediator between you and God--your growing faith--which can lift you up from the mire and point you toward the heavens. You can still be reconciled with the spirit of God. You can still regain your harmony with the Divine Principle of the universe. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may not let the beast in me hold me back from my spiritual destiny. I pray that I may rise and walk upright. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It FALSE PRIDE, p. 285 The alarming thing about pride-blindness is the ease with which it is justified. But we need not look far to see that self-justification is a universal destroyer of harmony and of love. It sets man against man, nation against nation. By it, every form of folly and violence can be made to look right, and even respectable. ******************************* It would be a product of false pride to claim that A.A. is a cure-all, even for alcoholism. 1. GRAPEVINE, JUNE 1961 2. A.A. COMES OF AGE, p. 232 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places What is true sharing? Sharing Though it comes without a price, the sharing we undertake in the AA program has value without limits. When we share our experience, strength, and hope with others, we become both teachers and friends. Sometimes we are led to believe that we should share our material goods with others, but all we learn is that this often fails to help anyone. Such sharing is not wrong, but it can be misused and misdirected. In the form of sharing we practice, there can be only gain for all involved in the exchange. Our sharing of personal experience may be just what another person needs at the time. What also matters is that we need it and can benefit from it. True sharing of this kid is one of the great secrets of AA's success. If our program isn't working well, perhaps we should do more of this sharing. I'll seek to share my true feelings with others today, in the hope that this will help all of us. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on. ---Carl Sandburg Recovery, is also God’s opinion that the world should go on. But when we used alcohol and other drugs, there were days when even the sight of a newborn baby couldn’t bring hope into our hearts. We were spiritually dead. We didn’t care if the world went on. We didn’t care about anything but getting high. Through recovery, our souls come alive. The beauty of a fall day can reach our hearts. We can see the miracle found in a baby’s eyes. We can see the beauty of the world. We can feel how much we’re loved by our Higher Power and by others. This is how we know we’re alive. Hope fills our minds and love fill our hearts. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, now that I again believe the world should go on, have me work to improve it. Have me be a person who makes the world more beautiful. Action for the Day: Today, I’ll notice the children and babies around me. I’ll notice how alive they are. I’ll try to be as alive as they are. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning The balance between mind and spirit comes hard for me. The eternal split. Two entities, perfectly aware and yet perfectly unwilling to cooperate. --Mary Casey The program directs our spiritual growth, a human aspect that had atrophied, if ever it had existed, for most of us before abstinence. And the process of developing our spiritual nature is painstaking. Living by our wits, or the fervent application of "situational analysis" had been our survival tools for months or years. To return repeatedly to the old tools for quick solutions to serious situations is second nature. Learning to rely on spiritual guidance for solutions and to use it to sharpen our analytical focus takes patience and continual effort. Within our spiritual realm we find our connection to God. We have been given the wisdom; all the knowledge we need is at our fingertips. The confidence to move ahead and offer our special talent to others comes from our Spirit. We are all that we need to be. Our mind and our Spirits, in concert, can tackle any challenge and succeed. My mind and my Spirit can become compatible entities with the development of my trust in each. Knowledge plus courage can move mountains. I have been given both. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. Another reason for the wide acceptance of A.A. was the ministration of friends—friends in medicine, religion, and the press, together with innumerable others who became our able and persistent advocates. Without such support, A.A. could have made only the slowest progress. Some of the recommendations of A.A.'s early medical and religious friends will be found further on in this book. p. xx ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. As I look back on it now, I did everything wrong, but at least I was thinking of somebody else instead of myself. I had begun to get a little bit of something I am very full of now, and that is gratitude. I was becoming increasingly grateful to the people in New York and to the God they referred to but whom I found difficult to reach. (Yet I realized I had to seek the Higher Power I was told about.) p. 197 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." In the morning we think of the hours to come. Perhaps we think of our day's work and the chances it may afford us to be useful and helpful, or of some special problem that it may bring. Possibly today will see a continuation of a serious and as yet unresolved problem left over from yesterday. Our immediate temptation will be to ask for specific solutions to specific problems, and for the ability to help other people as we have already thought they should be helped. In that case, we are asking God to do it our way. Therefore, we ought to consider each request carefully to see what its real merit is. Even so, when making specific requests, it will be well to add to each one of them this qualification: "...if it be Thy will." We ask simply that throughout the day God place in us the best understanding of His will that we can have for that day, and that we be given the grace by which we may carry it out. p. 102 ************************************************** ********* I shall leap! No matter what is ahead, God is there to catch me. --Shelley One of the most valuable things we can do to heal one another is listen to each other's stories. --Rebecca Falls Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding is the third. --Marge Piercy You get more than you give when you give more than you get. --Cited in More of...The Best of BITS & PIECES Much wisdom can be crowded into but four words: In God we trust. This too shall pass. Live and let live. Still waters run deep. Bad news travels fast. Love laughs at locksmiths. Nothing succeeds like success. Charity begins at home. Politics make strange bedfellows. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Man proposes, God disposes. Let sleeping dogs lie. --Cited in The Best of BITS & PIECES ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation INDIVIDUALITY "I am one individual on a small planet in a little solar system in one of the galaxies." -- Roberto Assagioli Spirituality develops a humility that is realistic. Realism teaches me that I am one among many. That does not mean that I am less than anybody else, but it certainly doesn't mean that I am above others. Arrogance, fantasy and selfishness are characteristics of addiction that stop the development of true individuality. To pretend to be something we are not, or have a grandiose illusion about our own importance, misses the truth, misses our truth and misses our individuality. Humility is treating people with the respect we would want, giving people the freedom we require in our life. Humility is perceiving our God-given talent and individuality. I pray that I will remember that I am a "part of", rather than the sum total of this universe. ************************************************** ********* "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. John 10:27-28 "The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish, But He casts away the desire of the wicked." Proverbs 10:3 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration Spend a little time each day taking care of your own physical and emotional needs and the rest of your day will be more effective. Lord, help me to enrich and care for myself so that I am not depleted of energy and health and have something within that I can use to enrich others. Welcome God into every part of your life. He is always with you, ready to help, waiting to bless you with miracles and able to enrich your every moment. Lord, I call out your name often in praise, in thanksgiving and in every need. |
October 15
Daily Reflections MY CHECKLIST, NOT YOURS Gossip barbed with our anger, a polite form of murder by character assassination, has its satisfactions for us, too. Here we are not trying to help those we criticize; we are trying to proclaim our own righteousness. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 67 Sometimes I don't realize that I gossiped about someone until the end of the day, when I take an inventory of the day's activities, and then, my gossiping appears like a blemish in my beautiful day. How could I have said something like that? Gossip shows its ugly head during a coffee break or lunch with business associates, or I may gossip during the evening, when I'm tired from the day's activities, and feel justified in bolstering my ego at the expense of someone else. Character defects like gossip sneak into my life when I am not making a constant effort to work the Twelve Steps of recovery. I need to remind myself that my uniqueness is the blessing of my being, and that applies equally to everyone who crosses my path in life's journey. Today the only inventory I need to take is my own. I'll leave judgment of others to the Final Judge--Divine Providence. ************************************************** ********* Twenty-Four Hours A Day A.A. Thought For The Day Am I deeply grateful to A.A. for what it has done for me in regaining my sobriety and opening up an entirely new life for me? A.A. has made it possible for me to take on other interests, in business and in various other associations with people. It has made a full life possible for me. It would perhaps be wrong if all my activities were limited to A.A. work. It has made a well rounded life possible for me in work, in play and in hobbies of various kinds. But will I desert A.A. because of this? Will I accept a diploma and become a graduate of A.A.? Do I realize I could have nothing worth while without A.A.? Meditation For The Day There is only one way to get full satisfaction from life and that is to live the way you believe God wants you to live. Live with God in that secret place of the spirit and you will have a feeling of being on the right road. You will have a deep sense of satisfaction. The world will have meaning and you will have a place in the world, work to do that counts in the eternal order of things. Many things will work for you and with you, as long as you feel you are on God's side. Prayer For The Day I pray that I may have a sense of the eternal value of the work I do. I pray that I may not only work for now, but also for eternity. ************************************************** ********* As Bill Sees It MASTERING RESENTMENTS, p. 286 We began to see that the world and its people had really dominated us. Under that unhappy condition, the wrongdoing of others, fancied or real, had power to actually kill us, because we could be driven back to drink through resentment. We saw that these resentments must be mastered, but how? We could not wish them away. This was our course: We realized that the people who wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick. So we asked God to help us show them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. Today, we avoid retaliation or argument. We cannot treat sick people that way. If we do, we destroy our chance of being helpful. We cannot be helpful to all people, but at least God will show us how to take a kindly and tolerant view of each and every one. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pp. 66-67 ************************************************** ********* Walk In Dry Places Reading about ourselves. Gratitude It's not only the experiences of our fellow AA members that can help us in recovery. We should also be able to see ourselves in stories about troubled people in the grip of alcoholism and anger. Quite often, if we're truly honest, we can even see ourselves in tragic accounts of alcoholics who harmed others during drunken rages or blackouts. We might have stopped short of such behavior, but could this have happened to us? We might read of a drunken driving accident, for example, and realize that we narrowly escaped one or might have caused one had we not found sobriety. Reading such accounts gives us deep pity and sympathy for al the people involved. These stories make us realize that alcoholism has many victims in addition to those who are afflicted with the same disease. And we should be grateful that sobriety enabled some of us to stay out of such news stores and not add to the world's problems. Whatever happens today, I'll at least be grateful that sobriety can keep me from causing the out-of-control situations I read about in the daily newspapers. ************************************************** ********* Keep It Simple Not to decide is to decide. ---Harvey Cox We are winners, because everyday we decide to stay sober. Every day we decide to listen to our Higher Power. We win by making active choices. We’ve stopped acting as if we have no choice. Our old way was to us by accident. Not true. We pretend we had no power. Also not true. We lost our power over alcohol and other drugs, but we still had the power to ask for help. Each time we used chemicals was a decision, just as to stay sober each day is a decision. Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thanks for giving me choices. I will not run from them. Help me make good choices. Help me decide every day to listen to you. Action for the Day: Not for one minute will I pretend I am a victim. I’ll face my choices squarely and decide. ************************************************** ********* Each Day a New Beginning Flattery is so necessary to all of us that we flatter one another just to be flattered in return. We are all deserving of unconditional love an d acceptance. And all the people in our lives, past and present, deserve our unconditional love and acceptance, too. However, it's doubtful that we either feel it all of the time from others or give it away. It's human of us to find fault..... to have expectations that are too high. But for this we pay a price. Instead of experiencing our lives serenely, contentedly, flowing with what is, we often criticize, judge and feel generally disgruntled throughout the day. What a waste! We do have another choice, fortunately. We can let go and let God, and live and let live. Also we can recall, today and every day, that we are all special individuals in this world who are loved, fully, by our Creator. The greatest contribution we can make to the lives of others is to be affirming. We can let our spouse, children, and friends know we care about them. That we love and accept them. The love that we also long for will come back to us. We thrill at being affirmed. And we will thrill at affirming. It feels good to help another feel appreciated. Love and acceptance are my lifeline, from God around us all. ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition Foreword To Second Edition Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955. Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religious organization. Neither does A.A. take any particular medical point of view, though we cooperate widely with the men of medicine as well as with the men of religion. Alcohol being no respecter of persons, we are an accurate cross section of America, and in distant lands, the same democratic evening-up process is now going on. By personal religious affiliation, we include Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus, and a sprinkling of Moslems and Buddhists. More than 15% of us are women. p. xx ************************************************** ********* Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition - Stories Gratitude In Action The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944. As I look back on it now, I did everything wrong, but at least I was thinking of somebody else instead of myself. I had begun to get a little bit of something I am very full of now, and that is gratitude. I was becoming increasingly grateful to the people in New York and to the God they referred to but whom I found difficult to reach. (Yet I realized I had to seek the Higher Power I was told about.) p. 197 ************************************************** ********* Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Step Eleven - "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." As the day goes on, we can pause where situations must be met and decisions made, and renew the simple request: "Thy will, not mine, be done." If at these points our emotional disturbance happens to be great, we will more surely keep our balance, provided we remember, and repeat to ourselves, a particular prayer or phrase that has appealed to us in our reading or meditation. Just saying it over and over will often enable us to clear a channel choked up with anger, fear, frustration, or misunderstanding, and permit us to return to the surest help of all--our search for God's will, not our own, in the moment of stress. At these critical moments, if we remind ourselves that "it is better to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood, to love than to be loved," we will be following the intent of Step Eleven. pp. 102-103 ************************************************** ********* Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. --Carl Jung "Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing." --Jim Rohn I may not be where I want to be, but Thank God I am not where I used to be. --unknown I am at peace today knowing that God is doing for me what I cannot do for myself. --Ruth Fishel God, let my hard times be healing times. --Melody Beattie Hatred toward any human being cannot exist in the same heart as love to God. --Dean William Inge Prayer is the one thing that can make a change in your life. If you will go direct to God in simple, affirmative prayer, you can heal your body, bring peace and harmony into your life, and make well-being a reality. --Emmet Fox Don't quit before the miracle happens. --unknown ************************************************** ********* Father Leo's Daily Meditation MAJORITY "One man with courage is a majority." -- Thomas Jefferson Alcoholism made me afraid of my shadow. I became so petrified with fear that I could not enjoy my life. And I felt that I could do nothing. My disease told me I was helpless. I existed in an atmosphere of doom and gloom. Then I experienced a "moment" of sanity when I saw that I was the problem in my life. My pain was being caused by my actions and attitudes. I took courage, confronted the disease in my life and decided to take small steps towards recovery. I have built my confidence on that "moment" of courage I took years ago. I am not an island unto myself. I am not alone. God is with me in my life. Teach me to have the courage to be what You have created. May I accept my miracle. ************************************************** ********* God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1 Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6 ************************************************** ********* Daily Inspiration It is very humbling to realize that often what burdens us the most would be very missed if it were taken away. Lord, I will take the time to appreciate my life. Mistakes give us experience. Without them going forward is almost impossible. Lord, may I always look for the good and use it to make tomorrow better. |
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