January 8
Daily Reflections
DO I HAVE A CHOICE?
The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet
obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our
so-called willpower becomes practically nonexistent.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p.24
My powerlessness over alcohol does not cease when I
quit drinking. In sobriety I still have no choice - I
can't drink. The choice I do have is to pick up and
use the "kit of spiritual tools" (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 25).
When I do that, my Higher Power relieves me of my lack
of choice - and keeps me sober one more day. If I could
choose not to pick up a drink today, where then would
be my need for A.A. or a Higher Power?
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As Bill Sees It
A New Life, p. 8
Is sobriety all that we are to expect of a spiritual awakening? No,
sobriety is only a bare beginning; it is only the first gift of the first
awakening. If more gifts are to be received, our awakening has to go
on. As it does go on, we find that bit by bit we can discard the old
life--the one that did not work--for a new life that can and does work
under any conditions whatever.
Regardless of worldly success or failure, regardless of pain or joy,
regardless of sickness or health or even of death itself, a new life of
endless possibilities can be lived if we are willing to continue our
awakening, through the practice of A.A.'s Twelve Steps.
Grapevine, December 1957
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
Chapter 7 - WORKING WITH OTHERS
If you are satisfied that he is a real alcoholic, begin to dwell on the hopeless feature of the malady. Show him, from your own experience, how the queer mental condition surrounding that first drink prevents normal functioning of the will power. Don’t, at this stage, refer to this book, unless he has seen it and wishes to discuss it. And be careful not to brand him as an alcoholic. Let him draw his own conclusion. If he sticks to the idea that he can still control his drinking, tell him that possibly he can—if he is not too alcoholic. But insist that if he is severely afflicted, there may be little chance he can recover by himself.
p. 92
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Tradition Six - "An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose."
It occurred to us that we could take what we had into the factories and cause laborers and capitalists to love each other. Our uncompromising honesty might soon clean up politics. With one arm around the shoulder of medicine, we'd resolve their differences. Having learned to live so happily, we'd show everybody else how. Why, we thought, our Society of Alcoholics Anonymous might prove to be the spearhead of a new spiritual advance! We might transform the world.
p. 156
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Dig within.
There lies the wellspring of good:
Ever dig and it will ever flow.
--Marcus Aurelius
What are you going through in your life right now?
Don't feel you're the only one.
Open your eyes.
Open your heart to your connections with your larger family.
Let them share their stories with you.
Let them share their strengths, hopes, fears, and joys.
Stop looking for what's different and what makes you separate and apart.
Go on an adventure of discovering your common bonds.
--Melody Beattie
"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile." --Mother Theresa
"Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don't miss it." --Leo Buscaglia
"Any fool can try to defend his mistakes--and most fools do--but it gives one a feeling of nobility to admit one's mistakes. By fighting, you never get enough, but by yielding, you get more than you expected." --Lawrence G. Lovasik
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Father Leo's Daily Meditation
MUSIC
"I haven't understood a bar of
music in my life, but I have felt
it."
-- Igor Stravinsky
It is okay not to "understand".
A miracle is not to be understood but experienced. So much in life we will never
understand and there is growth in confusion. We are not perfect. We will never be
perfect. The mystery of life is exactly that --- a mystery.
As an alcoholic I often sought to appear "as God". I had to have an answer for
everything, even if I made up the answer! Not to know was humiliating for me
because it took away control, my need to be in charge, my hopeless and exhausting
quest for perfection. With the failure to be perfect came the guilt, shame and anger.
Today I am able to live with life's daily confusions --- and it's okay!
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The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving to all that He has made. Psalm 145:17
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. Job 19:25
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Daily Inspiration
Smooth seas don't make skillful sailors. Lord, teach me as I am able to learn so that I may grow from my difficulties and become the person You intended.
Know that you can do even if things are not always easy. Lord, in You I have the support of an unlimited power source and can accomplish great things because You strengthen me.
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Each Day a New Beginning (Women)
Food for Thought
Language of Letting Go
Today's Gift
Touchstones (Men)
Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Walk In Dry Places